Ganot tasked to fill Bows’ 2015-16 schedule holes

When Riley Wallace thought he had a good men’s basketball team coming back at the University of Hawaii you’d often see it reflected in the schedule.

Which was how Indiana, Kansas, Michigan State and North Carolina, among others, found their way onto the floor at the Stan Sheriff Center.

With the prospect of returning the foundation of this past season’s 22-13 team for 2015-16, the hovering hope has been that the Rainbow Warriors would schedule accordingly, and, to borrow a term from Hawaii’s former conference (the WAC), “play up,” especially at home.

No more playing a bottom feeder schedule like last year, when the NCAA ranked UH’s schedule No. 234 (out of 351) for toughness.

But that is apparently going to take some doing at this point, as UH has to hustle over the next few weeks just to fill in games.

While Benjy Taylor didn’t leave the cupboards devoid of talent, he did leave UH light on games. Especially at home.

When Eran Ganot took over April 9, officials have said, he had about eight games to fill. That amounted to about 25 percent of the Rainbow Warriors’ overall schedule and about half of the schedule that UH is actually tasked to fill in itself.

Sixteen of UH’s games are annually scheduled by the Big West Conference and another three are lined up on UH’s behalf by ESPN Events for the network-owned and operated Diamond Head Classic.

What the previous administration did do was put UH in the Las Vegas Classic, where two of its four opponents will be well-regarded San Diego State and California, on the road in San Diego and Berkeley. The other games in the tournament will come from among Bethune-Cookman, Liberty and Sam Houston State at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

Those games take place in late November, which has usually been an opportune time, Thanksgiving break, to get teams to come here.

Meanwhile the home schedule still has plenty of pukas, including one game in the early-season Rainbow Classic, meaning that UH has about four months to nail down the rest of its schedule.

Make no mistake, UH can still get a schedule done, but you have to wonder how much it will have to give up in quality, cash and potential Rating Percentage Index points by jumping into it at this late date.

Most of your marquee opponents have the bulk of their games already signed and sealed, so the pool of prospective foes is dwindling. Moreover the ones that might have entertained the idea are in a position to demand more moolah, taxing UH’s already meager budget.

Even the run-of-the-mill teams, such as perennial sparring partner Arkansas-Pine Bluff, have leverage now.

When he hired the new coach, athletic director David Matlin said one of the skills that he’d come to appreciate about Ganot from their previous association was an ability to schedule creatively.

At UH he figures to need it sooner rather than later.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.