’Bows plan to impede nation’s top scorer

All that stands between Hawaii and Big West play is a firecracker — one that packs a heck of a wallop. Howard University’s James Daniel III stands just 5 feet 11 but routinely lights up opponents for some explosive stat lines.

UH might not be able to completely stop the country’s leading scorer (29.0 points per game) in tonight’s 5:30 contest at the Stan Sheriff Center, but the Rainbow Warriors will attempt to make the junior’s myriad attempts as difficult as possible. It is both the first game of 2016 and the last game of nonconference play for Eran Ganot’s squad.

“It’s exciting from a point guard standpoint that we get to go against somebody like this,” Quincy Smith said. “It’s a challenge and we’re accepting the challenge, so it should be fun.”

Daniel leads the nation in field-goal attempts per game ( 20.1) and free-throw attempts per game (11.4). He makes only 39.8 percent of his shots from the field, but converts an elite 89.2 percent of his opportunities at the line.

UH expects to be met by a bevy of ball screens from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference team from Washington, D.C., to free up Daniel, who is also dangerous creating his own shot. For the Rainbows’ part, they plan to alternate fresh legs on him among Roderick Bobbitt, Smith and Isaac Fleming, as they’ve done successfully against other teams’ primary perimeter scorers this year.

Daniel is coming off a 36-point outing in a 72-59 loss at Columbia in which he shot 9-for-29 from the floor, but 16-for-17 from the line. His career high of 39 was set on Nov. 28 in a two-point win over William & Mary. He took 36 shots in a one-point loss to Radford.

“I don’t think I’d ever be able to (take 30 shots), but I’d love to,” UH forward Stefan Jankovic said. “For any player, that’s ultimate confidence. Thirty shots is a lot of shots. But I look at his field-goal percentage out of those shots he takes. I don’t think he knocks them all down. It’s more so, you’re going to hit some tough shots. If you’re taking that many, some of them are going to go in.”

UH (10-2) is coming off a 29-point rout of winless Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday. Howard (7-7) is 1-1 in MEAC play and looking to build on last year’s 16-16 season, its best mark since 2001-02.

Daniel, a junior known as “J-Byrd,” averaged 21 points as a freshman.

“He’s just a talented scorer. I mean, he reminds you of an Allen Iverson,” Howard coach Kevin Nickelberry said. “He can get his shot anytime he wants. … His first step is probably one of the fastest first steps I’ve seen in college basketball, which allows him to get to the free-throw line a lot.”

Daniel isn’t only about offense, either. He’s third in the country in steals per game at 3.0 — Bobbitt territory. Bobbitt, who led the nation in total steals last year, is still a top-notch ball thief at 2.3 per game, 22nd nationally.

“He’s a complete player who we expect to come out and compete against Bobbitt, who we know is one of the more talented defensive players in the country,” Nickelberry said.

Nickelberry was on the cusp of becoming an assistant coach at UH back in 2010 when Gib Arnold went about assembling his first staff. He said he was going through Manoa’s human resources hiring process and was preparing to move his family out to the islands. He had a hand in getting ex-’Bow Joston Thomas to UH.

“I was excited about coming to Hawaii,” Nickelberry said.

Before officially starting work at UH, he got lured away to Oliver Purnell’s staff at DePaul, and the Howard head job opened up a couple of weeks after that. He’s been at the prestigious MEAC school since.

“It’s nice to be back with a team coming here and trying to hopefully pull off the upset,” he said.

The Bison have had to lean on Daniel even more than normal with shooting guard James Miller (15.0 ppg) out with a broken hand and starting center Marcel Boyd (8.5 ppg, 9.4 rpg) absent due to a broken finger. Even backup center Oliver Ellison is sidelined with a torn meniscus. They expect to start 6-foot-8 freshman Cameron Lewis in the middle.

“We expect (Daniel) to have a good game, but we need other guys to step up and help him out,” Nickelberry said.

UH opens Big West play at home against Cal Poly on Wednesday.