Drammeh draws opponents in

Sheriff Drammeh has a special power, and he’s just fine with you knowing about it.

Hawaii’s wispy junior guard has the uncanny ability to drive you mad. That Saturday’s home game against UC Davis is “Superhero Night” is just icing on the abrasive cake.

“I guess I’ve always been somebody who has an easy ability to get into people’s heads,” Drammeh said this week. “Just by the way I am, some people might not just like that I’m celebrating after I take a charge on them. Of course. But that’s something I’ve been doing my whole life.”

Over his three-year Rainbow Warriors career, he’s gone from garden-variety pest to venomous serpent whose bite can’t be ignored.

The Swede, generously listed at 160 pounds, has shouldered an increased offensive load while still being tasked with defending opponents’ best perimeter player. Early in his career, that typically meant waiting to ambush an out-of-control individual with his knack for getting in the right position and taking contact in his spot minutes. Now he stays upright more often than not and employs his wiry 6-foot-3 frame to pester people on the wing in UH’s three-guard lineups.

Those with that job tend to get burned by a hot hand every so often.

“Some guys take some hits and go away,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “Sheriff will never go away.”

UH’s minutes leader (31.1 per game) has scored in double figures in eight of the last 10 games, raising his scoring average to 11.8, behind only forward Mike Thomas’ 12.7 on a Big West second-place team.

He’s the quintessential guy you love playing with, hate playing against. The impish smile that so frequently plays across his features mid-game? That’s him letting you know that he knows it.

“The energy you see on the court, it’s the same, maybe even more off the court,” said freshman Samuta Avea, who was Drammeh’s roommate on the team’s last road trip. “You can hear him from the locker room when he’s in the Stan and in the Stan if he’s in the locker room. He’s the best.

“It’s really his whole game that gets under their skin, I feel like. Not as much him talking to them and his antics.”

Avea took the opportunity to practice a Drammeh special, the first-down point after taking a charge.

In a 77-76 win over UC Santa Barbara last Saturday, Drammeh took one on his primary matchup, Max Heidegger, knocking the Big West’s leading scorer out for the rest of the first half with his second foul. First down, Drammeh.

While Heidegger wound up scoring his average of 22, Drammeh was right there with him, finding myriad ways to be obnoxious pretty much the entire time. In the previous game against Cal Poly, he gleefully licked his fingers after a late 3-pointer that helped seal a 12-point win.

He swears the shenanigans are unplanned.

“It’s all in the moment. I’m just out there and do what I feel like doing,” he said with a shake of the head. “If I feel like celebrating a charge, I’ll celebrate a charge and get the crowd going.”

And if he gets his opponent caged into a verbal sparring session in his second language, all the better.

While most opponents will eventually tire of bantering, UH’s human emoji will not. If you make the mistake of playing his verbal game, he gets in the last word through sheer persistence.

Ganot praised Drammeh for bringing an edge without going too far.

“Our jobs are always to help guys get better and help them become better versions of who they are, not to change who they are,” Ganot said. “Sheriff is real. He needs to be who he is. So he plays with a chip, he plays with emotion. He enjoys the game. And he doesn’t cross the line.”

Only once this year, at Long Beach State, has he been hit with a technical foul for chirping.

“You want to be able to talk and just try to get in somebody’s head, but you gotta do it with some sense as well,” Drammeh said. “You can’t just be out there screaming everything you want to scream. That’s something I do try to work on … (to) control my feelings.”

It all serves a purpose he never loses sight of, and that might be what endears him to his teammates most.

“Win. All I really want to do when I go to the game is focus on winning,” Drammeh said. “That’s all it is. It doesn’t matter how you play or how somebody else plays. You just go in there, try to get a win and walk home.”

No secrets required.