Warriors aren’t taking Mississippi Valley State for granted

With just two more games remaining before the start of Big West Conference play, the Hawaii basketball team might be forgiven by outsiders for looking past today’s opponent, winless Mississippi Valley State.

Internally, the Rainbow Warriors realize that would be a no-no.

“We know we gotta take ’em serious, and play hard,” co-captain Mike Thomas said. “This team’s a solid team on the (fast) break. I know they’ve played a lot of road games against some tough teams.”

The Delta Devils (0-13) of the SWAC are one of three winless Division I teams in the country. However, they have yet to play a home game and have come close in losses at Air Force (65-64) and BYU (75-68).

Though significantly undersized, the Devils are dangerous when they speed the game up — “I would call it a little more pick-up ball,” coach Andre Payne said — and encourage foes not accustomed to such tactics to do the same.

Unfortunately for them, UH (9-2) can play helter-skelter. In fact, sometimes the Rainbows prefer it.

“There’s a lot of things these guys can do that could hurt us,” UH coach Eran Ganot contended. “Obviously they’re not going to come in here intimidated; they have not played one home game. (And) then we’re coming off a very emotional (Diamond Head Classic) event. So there’s a lot of things at play at the same time.”

UH responded to the news that it’d been slapped with significant NCAA sanctions by going 2-1 for third place in last week’s DHC, including a narrow loss to No. 3 Oklahoma and a come-from-behind win over Auburn on Christmas Day.

On Monday, point guard Roderick Bobbitt was named Big West Player of the Week after becoming just the third player in UH history to score 30 or more points in consecutive games. It was the second weekly award for the senior this season.

“Happy for him and I’m sure as he and all our guys will say when they get that kind of recognition, we all know (it) comes from winning games,” Ganot said.

MVSU, which must play a boatload of “guarantee” games, has yet to experience that joy. Its second-year coach Payne chalked up the thousands of miles of nonconference travel as valuable experience for when SWAC play starts.

“No, it’s not easy at all,” he acknowledged with a sigh. “It definitely is tough on your bodies. Of course, academically it’s tough. But we’ve weathered the storm.”

This is MVSU’s last game before SWAC play begins back in its gym in Greenwood, Miss. For both teams it is the last game of the 2015 calendar year.

“We’re coming with the attitude that we want to come in and win. We want to get the upset,” Payne said.

Guard Marcus Romain leads the Delta Devils with 17.3 ppg, but MVSU shoots just 35.8 percent from the field as a team. There’s been little roster consistency, as all 15 active players have started at least one game.

The Devils basically top out at 6 feet 7, which could augur a big game for UH big man Stefan Jankovic, who’s averaged 18.8 points over his last four games.

Wing Aaron Valdes has struggled shooting the last three (7-for-29, 24.1 percent), dropping him into a tie with Jankovic for team scoring honors at 15.4 ppg.

“I have confidence that he’ll get going,” Ganot said. “At the end of the day, you’re at your best when it comes from within.”

UH, off to its best start through 11 games since 2004, concludes its pre-conference schedule Saturday against Howard (7-7).