Act 2

Winning 19 games and making a postseason tournament your first time around as a Division I college basketball head coach can cut both ways.

Gib Arnold’s first year at Hawaii was a success. Take a bow. Now, how about that encore?

Arnold, ever the performer, welcomes the opportunity to elevate the bar again at the outset of his second season at UH.

“I would hope as a coach that every year we have raised expectations,” he said. “That’s the progression of your program. No one’s ever going to put more expectations on this team than this team. Whether it’s the boosters or the papers or the basketball community in general, that’s good. We’re fine with that. I want these guys to feel the pressure. I thought last year nobody thought we’d be anything.”

It’s true, the Rainbow Warriors were picked last in the Western Athletic Conference in 2010-11. Behind newcomers Zane Johnson, Vander Joaquim and Miah Ostrowski, and a last hurrah from senior leader Bill Amis, they proved better — much better — in finishing fifth with an 8-8 record (19-13 overall). UH even made the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, ending a seven-year drought.

Coaches and media around the WAC respected that progress heading into UH’s final season in the league. Preseason polls tabbed the ’Bows fourth among eight teams this year, with the senior guard Johnson and junior center Joaquim getting All-WAC preseason nods.

UH hosts Hawaii Pacific in an exhibition tonight at 7 for its first live action of the season. The regular season opens Monday vs. Cal State Northridge at 11 p.m.

The internal expectations are threefold: be relentless, be all in and be champions. The team discusses those goals in every post-practice huddle.

With Amis gone, Johnson has assumed the mantle of the vocal leader. Though Johnson has never before been with a head coach longer than a single season, he rebuked any notions of a sophomore slump under Arnold.

“I don’t see it, just because of his intensity all the time,” Johnson said. “He’s a winner and he doesn’t want to lose. He hates losing as much as anybody I know. And he’s not going to let that happen. He’ll figure out a way. Last year we had a couple losing games, but we turned it around and finished fifth.”

Last year’s constant was defense, and Arnold wants it to be the calling card of his team again while the pro-style offense comes around. Last season, UH finished eighth in the nation in field-goal percentage defense at .389.

“Defense is always going to be the name of the game for us,” associate head coach Benjy Taylor said. “I think we’ll be able to score the basketball better this year than last year. We had scoring droughts last year. We got a lot of different guys we can go to this year to get buckets, and we just gotta get those guys coming in and work on some defensive chemistry. Once we do that we’ll be good.”

In Arnold’s offensive system, the Rainbow Warriors aren’t interested in equal sharing. The best players and co-captains, Johnson and Joaquim, will get the most shots. Johnson will be counted on to bury 3-pointers with regularity and Joaquim is of special importance as the head of a frontcourt with questionable depth.

“That’s something earned, not given, and they earned it,” Arnold said. “Those are guys I expect to lead this team. … I thought we lost two great leaders in last year’s team in Bill and Hiram (Thompson). That’s going to be the hardest thing to replace this year, I feel, is their leadership qualities.”

The high point of the offseason was undoubtedly the “Warriors to Asia” international tour to China and Japan in August, in which 10 of the ’Bows got to bond and play for their coaches for two weeks during a time of year not normally possible.

That’s a big reason the coaches believe the players are further along at this time of the year than last season, when the entire team had to buy into Arnold’s concepts.

“It’s already a win,” Arnold said of the trip. “You chalk that up as a win in the books. And these kids are better off because of it. … We’ve moved on from that. It was great, it was a wonderful time. But now’s a different season and we’re coming to the end of what I call the first season, and entering into the second season.”

Arnold’s detractors would point to an up-and-down offseason that included an internal investigation (although no wrongdoing was found) based on claims of unfair treatment from a dissatisfied former player, the departure of top assistant Walter Roese, and four of six signees for this season failing to qualify academically. That last part got the most attention.

“I think when your life and how you pay the rent are based upon decisions of 17- to 18-year-old boys, for the most part, you don’t have many sleepful nights,” Arnold said. “I think that summer could easily be described as that. Obviously, we lost some kids in the recruiting down to the wire who didn’t make it. And a lot of people jumped on all that. I think that’s just part of the game.”

UH recovered quickly with the offseason additions of shooting guards Brandon Jawato and Garrett Jefferson, the latter of whom will be asked to make a defensive impact, and talented Nebraska transfer Christian Standhardinger.

And the ’Bows still have perhaps the jewel of the recruiting class, freshman Shaquille Stokes. The 2011 New York City player of the year emerged as UH’s probable starting point guard and was tabbed the preseason WAC Newcomer of the Year.

The Harlem native came to Hawaii because Arnold had ties with his coach at Lincoln High and because of the islands’ family atmosphere.

“I didn’t even see (UH play last year),” Stokes said. “I had to look them up. I just realized that when I came here … I just felt comfortable. I want to start my own tradition here and build a legacy of my own, for Coach Gib and the rest of the staff.”

Another offseason matter was Arnold’s multiyear contract renegotiations with UH. The back and forth dragged on for months longer than both parties wished, but a new three-year deal worth $344,000 annually was finalized this week.

The departure and replacement of Roese, at least, was handled quickly. When the Brazilian moved on, Arnold promoted internally. Taylor was bumped up to Roese’s post and Scott Fisher was moved up from director of operations to full assistant. UH even managed to haul in former Louisiana Tech coach Kerry Rupp last week as its new ops chief.

Everything now appears in order for Arnold’s second season at UH. The schedule features several opponents who could be ranked — Gonzaga, UNLV and Xavier or Long Beach State in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic field among them.

By the time UH’s final WAC season rolls around in January, the Rainbow Warriors could have the offensive weapons and defensive discipline to be a last-shot contender.

For any remaining doubters, Johnson rebuked the second-year slump notion again.

“I just don’t see that happening. We want to win too bad,” he said.