The Unknowns

The pollsters, familiar with Hawaii’s players and system, had it right last year.

Gib Arnold and his new-look basketball team are out to send a message: This time, you don’t know us.

The Rainbow Warriors were picked to finish last in the nine-team Western Athletic Conference for the second straight year in the league’s preseason polls released yesterday.

Last is where the Rainbows placed in 2009-10, consequently missing out on the WAC tournament in Bob Nash’s tumultuous final season. That isn’t the fate Arnold, his 10 newcomers and four returnees envision come March.

"You know, we’re OK with that, we kind of expected that," Arnold said on his 42nd birthday. "We probably should be (projected) there, with what we lost from last year and the lack of points and experience we have coming back. Believe me, all those polls are up on the locker room wall, and we’re determined to do what we can to prove ’em all wrong."

It isn’t only the newcomers who have transformed the roster; count senior center Douglas Kurtz among that group. A leaner Kurtz shed about 15 points in the offseason, but the 7-foot, 265-pound Brazilian still could embody the term "impact player" as he sends foes flying in the paint.

"We’re going for the WAC, man. I am, and I’m sure every single teammate is," Kurtz said. "We’re going to surprise teams this year. Being picked ninth is just an extra push to make sure we’re working hard. But we are, man. We’re going to represent Hawaii and do good."

The WAC’s coaches and media went with a perennial power, projecting Utah State to win it all. The defending regular-season champion Aggies got eight of nine first-place votes among the coaches and 19 of 30 among the media. Other teams with first-place votes were last year’s WAC tournament champ, New Mexico State; always-talented Nevada; and San Jose State, which boasts gifted scorer Adrian Oliver.

Systematic USU forward Tai Wesley was the coaches’ preseason player of the year, while the media picked Oliver for that honor.

No UH players were picked to the preseason first or second teams. Besides Wesley and Oliver, the first-teamers in both polls were NMSU forwards Troy Gillenwater and Wendell McKines and Fresno State center Greg Smith.

Arnold and his players are betting that unfamiliarity with a transformed team bred uninformed voters.

"You use it as a positive," Arnold said. "And again, if the polls were what mattered, we would just not even have a season."

Senior forward Bill Amis, who redshirted last year with a foot injury, figured he had enough motivation, simply from the missed time and being unable to deliver a winning season in his sophomore and junior seasons under Nash.

Amis, a potential All-WAC player if the Rainbows make some noise, likes the tone the new coaches have set after four full practices.

"All these guys are real competitive. And that comes from Coach, he doesn’t let us take a day off. From top to bottom, everyone’s working hard every day," Amis said.

"I only have one more opportunity to get to the NCAA Tournament, only one more season to bring a winning season to Hawaii."