Execute, or face your executioner.
The Hawaii men’s basketball team tries to put to rest its recent struggles by virtue of a home date today against Idaho, with whom the Rainbow Warriors are jockeying for a third-place finish in the Western Athletic Conference.
A win ends recent frustrations and puts UH (15-13, 6-6 WAC) into a third-place tie with the Vandals (16-12, 7-5), with only Saturday’s home finale against Utah State remaining.
A loss extends a season-worst losing streak to four and might mean a fifth- or sixth-place finish for the ‘Bows, heading into next week’s WAC tournament in Las Vegas.
UH coach Gib Arnold figures this matchup will come down to halfcourt execution, as it did in UH’s 76-70 win in Moscow, Idaho, last month.
"They’re going to do a lot of different things and if you take away their first action, then they got good counters," Arnold said. "You’re going to have to make some team plays and some switches and things on the go. When they break something off, players gotta make plays. We were able to do that up there, make some pretty good plays down the end and squeak one out. I think we’ll have to do the same thing tonight."
For whatever reason, Idaho gives Hawaii fits at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Vandals have claimed three of the past four meetings in Honolulu going into their final WAC game here.
Idaho coach Don Verlin said he’ll miss the annual trips to the islands once UH leaves for the Big West next season, calling UH "one of the staples" of the league.
"I think Hawaii’s a very good team. They’re an upper-echelon team in our conference, no question about it," Verlin said. "And they beat us at our place. I know they will be ready to play to get as high up in the conference standings as they possibly can. (Arnold’s) done a really nice job of having his teams prepared to play against us."
The UH frontcourt of Vander Joaquim (14.8 ppg, 9.8 rpg) and Joston Thomas (13.8 ppg) played large in the Jan. 28 meeting, with the two bigs finding each other down low for key plays late in the game.
"That’s what was open and they didn’t see us, so we kept passing to each other," Thomas said. "But I mean, they may adapt to it, and we gotta pass out to 3-point shooters. That’s just what was open then."
The flip side of that was Idaho’s bouncy forward Djim Bandoumel enjoyed a career-best 24-point game, throwing down several dunks on the ‘Bows.
Between him and center Kyle Barone (team bests of 12.9 ppg and 8.2 rpg), Arnold said he considered the frontcourt matchup a push.
The Vandals have options on the perimeter, with guards Landon Tatum (.467), Deremy Geiger (.434) and Stephen Madison (.379) all able to shoot the 3-ball with lethality.
Idaho leads the WAC in 3-point percentage at .388, but is only fourth in the league in 3-pointers made.
The Vandals pick their spots, leading to an overall field-goal percentage of .476, right with New Mexico State as the best in the league.
The fortunes of Idaho and UH diverged since their meeting in Moscow, with the Vandals putting together a five-game winning streak (ended last week by Utah State) and UH coming off a nightmarish 0-3 road trip.
Verlin empathized with UH about its double-digit losses to Montana, New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech that raised questions about the ‘Bows’ postseason readiness.
"I don’t hold a lot of stock in that, because the trip was so tough on them," Verlin said. "That’s a tough, tough trip on anybody in our league."
UH shooting guard Zane Johnson (14.0 ppg) ended a streak of five single-digit scoring games at LaTech and needs three 3-pointers to tie Predrag Savovic for the UH career mark. He and point guard Miah Ostrowski (WAC-best 6.7 apg) are playing their final home games this week.
Thomas and his teammates appeared rejuvenated by three straight practices in their home arena.
"Each and every one of us, we don’t think nothing changed about us," he said. "It was just a drought for us, and it was on the road. … So we’re back home, hopefully the drought is over and we come out here and play like we know how to play."
