Rainbow Warriors getting by without practice

They’re not talking about practice. Or, more accurately, they’re talking about not practicing.

Going without practice between closely packed games has so far worked out well for Hawaii — a team that has a halfcourt set named "Iverson," after Allen Iverson, the former NBA great who, among other things, was famous for ranting about his disdain for practices.

UH coach Benjy Taylor decided not to practice the night before playing Pittsburgh, and the Rainbow Warriors came out with a surprising 74-70 victory on Friday. On Saturday night, the ‘Bows had to make a cross-country trek to Fort Myers, Fla., in quick preparation for the eight-team Gulf Coast Showcase tournament at 7,000-seat Germain Arena in nearby Estero.

Upon arrival on Sunday afternoon, UH once again decided not to hit the floor, electing for rest in preparation for Monday’s first-round contest vs. San Francisco (2-0). Games follow on Tuesday and Wednesday, capping a stretch of eight games in 13 days for UH (4-1).

The ‘Bows flew to Dallas from Maui, had a three-hour layover, then pressed on to the Sunshine State. It is the program’s furthest trip east since playing at North Carolina on Dec. 1, 1993, and first Eastern Time Zone appearance since playing at Kent State (Ohio) on Feb. 22, 2003, in a BracketBusters game.

"Travel was rough. It was rough," Taylor said in a phone interview. "(But) everybody’s good. Good spirits. Focused on the task at hand."

UH has already put five games in the books. No other Gulf Coast Showcase team has played more than three heading into this second-year tourney.

"I was talking to the other coaches … some guys are 2-0 and some guys are 3-0, and we’re sitting here having played five games in (eight) days, with travel," Taylor said. "But it is what it is … it’s an opportunity. We’ll have a chance to take a break in a couple weeks. Right now we have a lot coming at us and we have to be mature and professional about it."

UH was a late-comer to the event, having to find games late in the offseason when the Cougar Hardwood Classic with Washington State fell apart. That contributed to the early spree of games across just a handful of days.

The Gulf Coast Showcase debuted in 2013 with respectable mid-majors in mind. Including UH, five of the teams in the sophomore field reached 20 wins last season. Florida Gulf Coast, otherwise known as "Dunk City," is the hometown team for the tournament and is off to a 3-0 start. UH will play the Eagles or Marist on the second day of the tournament.

But first, UH will try to get past the San Francisco Dons, who won their first two games by an average of 39.5 points. It will be the last of four games Monday, projected to start at 8:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. Hawaii time).

USF was picked fourth among 10 teams in the West Coast Conference preseason poll. The WCC is perennially a multiple-bid league to the NCAA Tournament.

"They’re very good. They’re very tough to defend, very well-coached," Taylor said. "They play in a great league. We’re excited about the challenge. … We’ll have to play well to win. (Twenty-one-win) NIT team last year, borderline NCAA team."

Dons senior forward Kruize Pinkins has put up 21.0 points and 9.5 rebounds so far to lead USF, shooting 72.7 percent from the field.

USF coach Rex Walters said he is concerned about UH’s perimeter speed and defensive approach (UH has increasingly gone to a 1-2-2 zone) and ability of multiple players to put the ball on the floor.

But most of all, he said UH’s collective mentality is impressive.

"No. 1, they probably have a big chip on their shoulder, and they should," Walters said. "Obviously, all of us in coaching, we don’t know all the specifics about what’s going on there, but I think we all like Gib (former coach Arnold). But Benjy’s done an unbelievable job of just rallying the troops and getting those guys to play extremely hard, play to represent the University of Hawaii and play for each other. And that’s a testament to Benjy and that can be a very scary proposition, when you got guys who are playing as if their backs are against the wall. This team is going to be very dangerous."

Third-year sophomore Aaron Valdes leads UH so far with 15.2 points per game, most notably with explosions of 28 and 31 points. The 6-foot-5 forward averaged just 3.2 as a reserve last season.

Point guard Roderick Bobbitt has made a difference out of junior college, averaging 10.4 points, 6.0 assists and 3.6 steals per game. Against Hawaii Hilo, he became just the second player in program history to record a triple-double.

Defensively, UH has been sound thanks to aggressiveness on the perimeter; opponents are shooting just 39.5 percent.

USF has taken five of the last seven meetings in the series, including a 77-74 comeback win in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com tournament in Honolulu, bringing UH’s 2010-11 season to a close under then-first-year coach Arnold.