It wasn’t where they started, but where they finished that mattered most.

Hawaii seniors Christian Standhardinger, Brandon Spearman and Davis Rozitis will suit up at the Stan Sheriff Center one final time on Saturday night against Cal State Fullerton.

Each began his college career at another Division I school but ended it as a key rotation player at the most far-flung D-I team in the country. Standhardinger arrived from Nebraska, Spearman started at Dayton then matriculated into Manoa as a junior college player, and Rozitis came over with UH coach Gib Arnold from USC.

Each was named a captain this season for the fourth-place Rainbow Warriors (19-10, 8-7 Big West), who look to rebound from consecutive road losses before next week’s Big West tournament in Anaheim, Calif.

Regardless of the outcome of "White-out" Saturday, UH is locked into the No. 4 seed. The ‘Bows will play the No. 5 team in the first round, which will be either Cal State Northridge or Cal Poly.

But the ‘Bows will feel better if they can send their upperclassmen off with a victory following losses on senior nights the past two seasons.

"For me personally, it’s really important on senior night," Rozitis said. "Ever since I’m here, we always lost on senior night. I’m about to break this tradition right here, and I think Christian and Brandon are going to stand with me on that one."

If UH can successfully brush off Thursday’s 86-77 loss at UC Santa Barbara and overpower the smallest team in the league in the Titans (11-18, 6-9) for the second time this season, the Rainbow Warriors will attain their first 20-win season under Arnold.

"The program right now is really healthy. It’s a really good team, we’re fighting for a (tournament) championship," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "We’ll continue to do that. It’s going to continue to even get better. And these guys did a lot of that heavy lifting. They’re the guys who when you look back and say OK, when did that really turn?’ I think these guys’ names are going to have to come up. Guys like Christian, Davis and Brandon. They’ve been a huge part of what we’re doing and what we’re going to continue to do."

Das Boom’ went the dynamite

Lincoln, Neb., was wasted on Standhardinger.

Underutilized and underappreciated as a Cornhusker, the 6-foot-8 forward from Munich, Germany, desperately needed a fresh start. After some uncertainty about his next school, he found a soft landing at UH thanks in large part to former ‘Bows associate coach Walter Roese.

The rest is now history. Standhardinger unquestionably left the biggest statistical mark of the three outgoing seniors. He recently became one of just four players in UH history to score 1,000 points in a two-year career. He broke John Penebacker’s single-season record for free throws attempted and is just a few shy of Chris Gaines’ season record for free-throw makes.

But it’s his irrepressible, energetic persona that might persist the most. He’s looked back on his experiences in three seasons (including a redshirt year) in Manoa fondly. That even includes his occasional some might say inevitable shouting matches with Arnold.

His cries of "Boom!" on big plays energized UH fans and riled up opponents. Especially the latter, as few players enjoyed playing on the road more than he.

"What’s special to me, obviously all the experiences I had with my teammates and coaches," Standhardinger said. "It was a great time. But I had some nice experiences here, too, with the places and with the people who I surrounded myself with."

The business major plans to try his hand at a pro basketball career. Once that’s over, Standhardinger said he will consider moving back to Hawaii permanently.

The Latvian lover

Rozitis could have called it a career after the 2012-13 season.

The 7-foot Latvian center had his undergraduate degree in political science in hand. He could have gone back to Europe to either latch on with a pro team in need of a big body or enter the workforce.

Then he reflected: He had a role all to his own with UH as the head of the "point zone" defense. He could be the longest-tenured player (including a redshirt year) in Arnold’s four years as UH coach. And who else was going to keep everything lighthearted with a combination of goofiness and self-deprecating humor?

So, he came back and was vital as UH’s first big man off the bench in 2013-14.

"The fans, the atmosphere in the Stan Sheriff I will miss the most," Rozitis said. "It’s one of the reasons I came back in the first place. I will miss this too much, when these fans come every night and support us regardless of the outcome. They’re always there to cheer us on. For all of our sports, the people of Hawaii have been great supporting UH sports and I think they deserve a winning team, a winning program."

His favorite moment was last season’s team bonding trip to Molokai, which included some wild-pig hunting.

Rozitis is unsure if he will complete his masters program in conflict management or pursue basketball following this season.

Spearheading the movement

Spearman, perhaps more than any other current ‘Bow, was made for captaincy.

The emotional leader of the Rainbow Warriors found his niche as an all-around contributor on the perimeter for two seasons coming out of Indian Hills Community College in Iowa.

Over the summer, though, the 6-foot-3 Chicago native found his true calling as the heartbeat of the team, something that in his eyes was needed on the heels of some questionable senior leadership in the spring of 2013.

"Just being around the guys on the court and off the court," Spearman said of his most treasured time at UH. "I’m going to miss these guys. We do everything together, play games, everything. Just the time, going to miss the time with them."

Though he doesn’t excel at any one particular aspect of the game, Spearman can be counted on to do a little bit of everything. That includes the dirty work as a reliable perimeter defender.

That’s the mind-set the communication major intends to carry beyond projected graduation from UH this summer. He will try his hand as a pro, either domestically in the NBA’s D-League or overseas.

"I have friends in the NBA, friends in the D-League, friends overseas. They always tell me the same, it’s just hard work," Spearman said. "You do the hard work, it’s going to pay off. I’ve been doing hard work all my life and I’m not looking to stop right now."