Former Hawaii basketball greats will go for their just desserts on Saturday afternoon.

Prior to the modern Rainbow Warriors’ Big West contest against Cal State Fullerton, two squads of past players will engage in a high-stakes alumni game at 4:30 p.m.

"Only the winning team gets dessert at the table tomorrow," UH coach Benjy Taylor said Friday. "That’s what’s on the line. They’re playing for dessert tomorrow."

It will be the first UH men’s basketball alumni game in recent memory. Fortunately, the memory of "Fabulous Five" forward Al Davis goes back quite a way. Davis and three other starters of that iconic group from the early 1970s — Dwight Holiday, Jerome Freeman and John Penebacker — are expected to attend at the Stan Sheriff Center and cheer on the alums of more recent vintage. About 16 former Rainbows are expected to play in two 15-minute halves of running clock.

A member of the Fabulous Five teams, Artie Wilson, helped round up the group for the game. Only Bob Nash, the former UH coach who now coaches pro ball in Japan, was unavailable.

"The last (alumni) thing I remember was, 25 years ago maybe. Maybe 30 years ago, I’m not sure," said Davis, 64, who like his Fabulous cohorts still lives on Oahu. "We used to have an alumni game every year for a few years after, five years out of school for me. We would come in, the five of us along with a couple of other guys. We’d hold a game at the Blaisdell that Tom Moffatt would promote. There would be an all-star team of other guys that played at the university and some of the other schools in the state. … The last one that I played in, we had a full house over there."

Taylor was adamant about getting the game together in midseason. He was serious in discussing UH’s progress coming off Thursday’s 73-52 win over UC Riverside and preparing for the last-place Titans. But his face lit up talking about the past players.

"It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be good for their families to see them in that environment," Taylor said. "I’m excited about it. They deserve it."

The Fabulous Fivers aren’t expected to play — Davis laughed at the concept — but Taylor said he’d have them shoot free throws and award the alumni teams points.

"I would hope that it will be a positive atmosphere," Davis said. "I think the University of Hawaii right now needs all the positive stuff they can get.

"The team’s doing a decent job, I think, considering what has happened," he continued. "The coach (Gib Arnold) being let go at the beginning of the season … for Benjy to come in and do some of the things that he’s done, I think you got to pat him on the back for bringing that team together. They could have went the other direction with all that going on. Whatever we can do to help them with that, I’m all in with that."

Sophomore guard Dyrbe Enos, one of two local players on the UH roster, said he’s looking forward to seeing some of the players he grew up watching. Among them is his older brother Rykin, a former walk-on.

"I think it’ll be cool, just seeing all the alumni play against each other," Enos said. "And hopefully they bring a little crowd for us to get it started for our game."

Fifth-place UH seeks its first winning streak in conference play. It has alternated wins and losses so far.

Forward Aaron Valdes (team-high 14.2 ppg) is questionable after spraining his left ankle in the win over UCR. He wore a boot Friday that was said to be precautionary; Valdes said he’d play Saturday.

After Thursday’s win, Taylor voiced confidence in his original starting five from the start of the season. Swingman Negus Webster-Chan and forward Mike Thomas are back in the first group going forward, the coach said, shifting big men Stefan Jankovic and Stefan Jovanovic to the bench. UH is 11-3 with Roderick Bobbitt, Garrett Nevels, Valdes, Webster-Chan and Thomas as the starters, and 6-6 with other lineups.

"I don’t really believe in whoever starts, whatever, whatever," Webster-Chan said. "That’s like a superstition, I guess. I just think if I’m on the floor, you gotta produce. It’s not about starting or coming off the bench."

The Titans might be staring up at everyone else in the standings, but they’ve had their chances in several close games.

CSF’s top threat is guard Alex Harris (16.1 ppg), who had a 29-point showing in a loss to UH last year. Forward Steve McClellan is the Big West’s top qualifying rebounder, averaging 8.5 per game (UCSB’s Alan Williams averages more, but has missed too many games to qualify).