Weifang, China » Hawaii submitted a badge-worthy performance in Eagle scouting.
The Rainbow Warriors players and coaches attributed much of their success in Sunday’s rematch against the Qingdao Eagles to a successful film breakdown of mistakes in the teams’ first meeting on Friday.
UH took the scout and ran with it for an 86-71. Especially UH center Davis Rozitis, who sprinted the length of the floor hard enough to get past his man for easy baskets and 18 points.
"I just did what I was told to do, run the floor, be aggressive on offense," said Rozitis, who also credited a tip from director of operations Scott Fisher about facing up his man. "The scout from the coaches was real good. We knew which ones we had to close on, which ones were the drivers. The scout made it happen; the whole game was on the coaches and scouting."
The coaches noticed Qingdao’s two lumbering centers, each in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, couldn’t match the lean Rozitis’ speed. In the first game, an 81-80 loss, Rozitis wasn’t focusing on beating them down the court.
This time, he did.
"It created things, because once I run and get in there (the court) shrinks and makes more opportunities for the other guys," Rozitis said.
All game, UH made the taller Eagles pay by combining size with speed. Joston Thomas was relentless in the open court with three dunks among his 20 points.
The opportunity to pore over game film also put the UH coaches in a comfort zone closer to the NCAA regular season.
"A scout is a huge part of what we do in game prep. How we guard, we guard completely different according to personnel," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "So we were able to lock in to their players, play off their non-players. … I think it showed on the defensive end."
UH held guard Li Geng to 15 points, down from 33 on Friday.
"We didn’t know he was a knock-down shooter," UH point guard Bobby Miles said. "But today we put him on face guard, we locked him up. It was pretty much knowing personnel and what they do."
UH was back to no-scout preparation for its next game, against the Liaoning Panpan tonight. Including the 80-70 loss to Team Australia in a scrimmage at the start of the trip, UH is 0-2 against unscouted opponents despite controlling much of those games.
"Confidence-wise, we’ll be OK. Just worry about defense," Miles said. "We play defense, we’ll be in the game."
A little warmup
Before UH could even play the game with Qingdao, it was asked to indulge a sponsor with a 10-minute scrimmage against a local amateur team.
The ‘Bows played in their warmup gear. Arnold spread minutes around to his entire 10-man roster.
"(The scrimmage) was unexpected, but the guys who hadn’t played a lot played all those 10 minutes, and maybe it got us into a nice little flow," Arnold said.
Perhaps UH should do pregame scrimmages more often; it came out on fire in the actual game with a 19-7 lead after the first quarter.
"I mean, that was fun for us," Thomas said. "I don’t know what grade they were in, but if I was here and a good team came from the United States, I’d want to play against the team. … We just wanted to get out there and have fun with the kids or young teenagers, whatever they are."
Tahitian dance a hit
The UH travel party offered up its own halftime entertainment for the crowd of about 1,000.
Joselyn Akana, wife of UH assistant Brandyn Akana, and her sister Jessica Robins performed a Tahitian dance at center court after being introduced by their father, Roy Robins, who greeted the locals with booming tidings of "Alooooooooha!" The Chinese caught on after a few repetitions and shouted it in return.
"(The game organizers) asked the girls at the last minute, and in the last 24 hours they put together that routine," Roy Robins said. "They did pretty good and the fans seemed to enjoy it."
