Hawaii coach Benjy Taylor noted Southern University’s 10-point loss at No. 12 Iowa State and recent four-point defeat at No. 22 Baylor.

"They’ve played a lot of tough teams," he said of Monday night’s opponent at the Stan Sheriff Center. "We’ll have to play well tomorrow. We’re going to need all hands on deck."

That could include senior guard Garrett Nevels, who is still slated Wednesday to have surgery on his right (shooting) hand to repair a "gamekeeper’s thumb" ligament tear he suffered in UH’s last game, a Christmas Day win over Colorado in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.

Nevels was a full practice participant on Sunday while wearing a hard glove-like brace around his right hand, allowing him to dribble and pass close to normal while emphasizing his south paw. But he will need a larger cast-like wrap around the right hand for any game action — something the team plans to try.

"You gotta love him. You gotta love him," Taylor said. "What else can I say? He talked me into it. He can be pretty convincing. … I told him he could do it as long as it’s not hurting the team. It didn’t hurt us the last two days of practice, so we’ll roll with it."

This week’s two nonconference games (on consecutive nights) offer a chance to watch UH’s second-leading scorer (12.0 ppg, 38.6 percent field-goal shooting) operate in unorthodox fashion, which is notable because UH might not have Nevels available for conference play in the immediate aftermath of his surgery.

After practice, Nevels spent 15 minutes shooting left-handed free throws at the Sheriff. He converted about 80 percent in the empty arena.

It wasn’t a totally foreign experience. Nevels said he once hurt his shooting hand as a freshman at Mount San Antonio College, which gave him time to work on his off hand.

"I’m going to go out and play and help the team win," Nevels said. "I’m obviously going to look to pass more. But you know, I can still do the same things, just defense and rebounding. My legs still work, so, I can get out there and play."

UH (10-4) is expecting a physical battle against a Southwestern Athletic Conference team with respectable (up to 6-foot-10) size. The Jaguars run plenty of screens and off-ball cuts.

For APR reasons, Southern, of Baton Rouge, La., was ineligible to compete in the postseason last year despite a 19-13 record. Southern is off to a 3-10 start this year through a gauntlet of "guarantee" games and has yet to defeat a Division I opponent, though, as Taylor observed, the Jaguars have come close — most recently in a 70-66 defeat to the Baylor Bears on Dec. 22.

The guard trio of Tre Lynch, Adrian Rodgers and Trelun Banks averages a combined 36.8 points per game.

"Stay focused, stay as a team, stick to the game plans," freshman guard Isaac Fleming said. "Don’t get sidetracked. Know that we’re still on a mission."

Fleming is coming off his best stretch as a UH player, averaging 15 points in the Diamond Head Classic while distributing the ball effectively as backup point guard to Roderick Bobbitt.

A game against another SWAC team, Prairie View A&M (2-10), follows Tuesday in an unusual sequence of stand-alone games on back-to-back nights.

Taylor said the Prairie View game came together late in the offseason when Southeastern Louisiana failed to finalize a contract for a UH home game on Jan. 2. Prairie View was one of the only Division I teams left with a game opening and the schools worked out the meeting on Dec. 30.

"We actually had to give them a two-year deal," Taylor said. "They helped us out with this game, and then they’ll play in the Rainbow (Classic) next year."

Taylor said he’d spread out playing time as much as possible Monday to keep his rotation fresh for Tuesday.

Starters Bobbitt and swingman Negus Webster-Chan were both out Sunday with an illness, Taylor said, but are expected to play Monday.

UH’s top scorer and rebounder, Aaron Valdes (15.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg), will look for a bounce-back performance. He struggled with fouls against Colorado and finished with season lows of two points and one rebound.