The gravy train has slowed at the University of Hawaii athletic department and the latest example of the new austerity is basketball coach Eran Ganot’s salary.

In less than a year the Rainbows Warriors have gone from paying the highest salary for a head men’s basketball coach in Big West Conference to seventh in the nine-member, low-major league.

According to figures released by Ganot through UH Friday, he is receiving $225,000 in his rookie year as a head coach. Under terms of his three-year contract, Ganot is to receive increases of $7,500 in each of the second and third years of his deal, taking him up to $240,000.

Ganot’s base salary is $119,000 less than that of Gib Arnold, whose $344,000 topped the conference before being fired Oct. 28, 2014.

A $41,000 raise that would have taken Arnold up to $385,000 was reportedly part of a contract extension on Tom Apple’s desk before he was replaced as Manoa Chancellor Sept. 1, 2014.

The salary scale for a men’s head basketball coach, as set by the UH Board of Regents, is $185,000-$400,000.

The trimming back of salaries in favor of younger, cheaper head coaches come as the financially challenged athletic department tries to reduce a long-running deficit.

The 33-year old Ganot was hired in April and executed his agreement in October. The subsequent contract of 36-year old rookie football head coach Nick Rolovich, who was hired last month, fits in much the same framework. Rolovich’s $400,008 annual salary is the lowest in the 12-member Mountain West Conference by $100,000.

The national average of head coaches in the 127- member Football Bowl subdivision is $2 million, according to a USA Today survey.

Rolovich’s immediate predecessors, Norm Chow (2012-’15) and Greg McMackin (2008-’11) had received $550,000 and $1.1 million annually respectively.

Athletic director David Matlin, who was hired in April, said the salaries, “Are predicated on our finances, our peer comparisons in the conferences, the national landscape and, basically, where (the coaches) are in their careers.”

Ganot’s salary is the highest among the conference’s coaches who have not been to an NCAA Tournament. Long Beach State’s Dan Monson is the leader with a base salary of $341,562.

The average salary of the head coaches in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this year was approximately $1.75 million, according to USA Today.

Monson, who also has been a head coach at Gonzaga and Minnesota, has taken three teams to the NCAA Tournament in his 19 years. He receives additional income derived from a portion of the 49ers’ net from so-called “guarantee” games.

Bob Williams of UC Santa Barbara, the winningest active coach in Big West conference games (170-108), has a $307,760 base and three NCAA Tournament appearances.

“We’re trying to be fiscally responsible and steward our resources as we hire the right people,” Matlin said.

Time will tell if that is a winning, budget-soothing combination.

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