After six straight days of practices, Hawaii men’s basketball coach Gib Arnold wanted to test his team’s retention rate.
Division I officials were summoned for the first time this preseason to oversee a 20-minute scrimmage at Wednesday’s practice. Arnold called the session "sloppy and unpredictable."
But he also said that was to be expected from a group which includes eight freshmen, and nine total first-year players.
"I thought the guys were trying very hard, but a lot of times we found ourselves out of position on both ends of the floor, defensively and offensively," Arnold said. "Sometimes our shot selection was not very good. I think especially from the freshmen."
Arnold’s full practices have been more or less closed to the media since their start last Friday, meaning no direct observations were possible. He plans to open them up after this weekend.
Players were reportedly swapped liberally between the two teams to provide different lineup combinations, so it was a departure from the scrimmage at the Ohana Hoopfest between the team’s freshmen and upperclassmen, as well as another 20-minute scrimmage on Sunday. For the most part, senior Jace Tavita and junior Garrett Jefferson handled point guard duties for the two squads at any given time. Freshman Manroop Clair subbed in for both players periodically.
Arnold said freshman wing Ozren Pavlovic had a 25-footer to tie things up with four seconds left, but his shot was off the mark.
Hauns Brereton, one of four returnees to see active time last season, thought it was a good scrimmage, all things considered.
"I mean, we’re still early. We’re still tightening up every kind of screw," the senior wing said. "But I love what we’re seeing. We’re always working on defense every day, and we’re always touching up our offense. But mainly, it’s all about defense. Making sure we’re there on the catch. Making sure we’re there on offside helps, and we’re there for our teammates mainly."
Traveling and lane violations were among the infractions whistled on the players that they’d previously been able to overlook.
"It felt good being in real situations. And everything was being called today, so I got a feel for how it is to play over here," said freshman forward Isaac Fotu, of New Zealand. "At the start, it took me 10 minutes to get used to the new style. After that, I’m fine with it."
The emphasis was still on defense, but players were expected to run the team’s five early (in the shot clock) offenses, which then flow into two or three different variations of a motion offense. Getting to the latter point was apparently a difficulty.
"I think this team is probably going to turn the ball over early more than we’d like," Arnold said. "I think this team has the propensity to maybe not be as patient early as I would like. And I expect that with all the new faces and new people playing together. But I expect this team to pick that up and hopefully by the end of the year have that stuff fixed."
The team takes a break from practice today, then gets back to work on Friday. Arnold said there would be "two or three" more officiated scrimmages next week.
The Rainbow Warriors play an exhibition against Hawaii Pacific on Nov. 2, a week before their regular-season opener vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore on Nov. 9.
