After Montana blowout, ‘Bows set up camp on UTEP campus

A lopsided loss to Montana sent the Hawaii men’s basketball team back into training camp. Fortunately for the Rainbow Warriors, they figured out a pretty good place to have it.

After a lengthy layover in Denver, the ‘Bows arrived in El Paso, Texas, on Monday and were focused on themselves coming off the 94-79 blowout defeat on BracketBusters Saturday.

In that game, UH allowed a triple-double and opponent season highs in points, 3-pointers (11) and field-goal percentage (.579).

Mercifully, it’s back to the WAC. Fourth-place UH (15-11, 6-4 Western Athletic Conference) will stay in a hotel on the University of Texas-El Paso campus through the next game of its marathon road trip, at second-place New Mexico State (20-8, 7-3) on Thursday.

UH coach Gib Arnold called it "a mini training camp."

"We’re going to treat it as a time where we can get a lot done," he said.

Five days in the remote city at the Mexican border might seem like an eternity, but the ‘Bows were accorded some special hospitality to make the duration more palatable.

UTEP basketball coach Tim Floyd gave Arnold, his former USC understudy, access to the Miners’ facilities to prepare for the game at nearby NMSU.

"We’ve pretty much got free reign, from the weight room, to the film room, to the practice arena. Just the only times we don’t have it is when they’re in there," Arnold said. "The people here have been great to us. It’s not ideal; you’re thrown some lemons, and we made some lemonade out of it. But I like the lemonade."

Other activities were arranged, such as a visit to a homeless shelter near the border on Tuesday.

Heading into the last four regular-season WAC games, the UH coaching staff decided moving past the nonconference loss to the Grizzlies was the best course of action, rather than dissecting the game. UH cut UM’s lead to nine twice early in the second half, but it was all Montana (20-6) the rest of the way.

"There’s no shame in getting beat by a good team. So I wanted the guys to keep their heads up," Arnold said. "We didn’t want to keep dwelling on it. We want to build up confidence. Build up and prepare for these last four games of WAC and then obviously, the postseason."

Junior forward Joston Thomas was ejected from the Montana game with about 3 minutes left for an excessive clear-out move. Arnold said he spoke to the frustrated Thomas afterward, and there aren’t expected to be additional repercussions.