UH men’s basketball garners poll votes for first time in over a decade
KRYSTLE MARCELLUS / KMARCELLUS@STARADVERTISER.COM
The Rainbow Warriors huddle up before the start of the first half of an NCAA men’s basketball game between the Hawaii Warriors and Cal Poly Mustangs at the Stan Sheriff Center in Manoa on Wednesday, January 6, 2016.
For the first time in several years, the Hawaii men’s basketball team is receiving votes in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Top 25 polls.
The polls released today showed UH (13-2, 2-0 Big West) receiving four votes in the AP poll and a single vote in the Coaches poll. That unofficially projects UH 35th and 39th, respectively, in national standing.
The last time UH was officially ranked in either poll was near the end of the 2001-02 season, the last time the Rainbow Warriors made the NCAA Tournament. After Riley Wallace’s group won the WAC tournament on March 9, 2002, the Rainbows were subsequently ranked 25th in the AP poll and 24th in the Coaches poll.
That was UH’s winningest overall season at 27-6.
First-year coach Eran Ganot and the Rainbows are still awaiting word on the severity of leading scorer Aaron Valdes’ toe injury suffered in a 65-57 win against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
UH travels to the mainland this week for games at UC Riverside on Thursday and Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.
17 responses to “UH men’s basketball garners poll votes for first time in over a decade”
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Great news. Go Rainbow Warriors!
Agreed! Somehow this team seems special.
Nice going men.
This is great news!!! Do a lot of people still wish Taylor was named HC??
You got me, aaaaa. I thought Benjy was doing a decent job but, in every sense, Ganot is a major upgrade. Go Bows!
Artie Wilson still does.
How about Maitlin goes on his knees in front of the NCAA appeal committee for the sanctions as a result of Fib Arnold, maybe shed a few tears and beg the NCAA committee to reduce the penalties, or at least delay them a while given UH needs to improve their athletic program since the football program is so bad, the entire athletic department is in dire financial straits. Maybe Maitlin needs to rescind the promotion of the compliance director that the NCAA mentioned, because that in itself is a slap to the face of the NCAA investigation committee that found both Fib arnold and the compliance director at fault and then UH goes and promotes her, would be a reason for the NCAA NOT to reduce or delay the penalty.
Compliance director should be fired instead of promotion. Ridiculous.
Why? Because she had something against Gib that most of State has now? Maybe she knew how rotten he was long before the rest of us. Maybe she also knew something smelled in Taylor’s closet and told Matlin so.
Do you intentionally misspell Matlin every time?
Apparently so. Some of these miscreants are of the half-empty ilk. Go Bows!
Win on the road now. Good teams win on the road. Cannot just be hommies.
Agreed, UH needs to win on the road
Here we again, the natives are going all gaga over a meaningless fantasy number that has no basis in reality. The team plays exciting brand of basketball with grit and determination, but outside of Oklahoma have played a schedule lighter than a feather. Wait until we get couple of road conference games out of the way (hopefully with wins which will be tough without Valdes) and sit atop the conference halfway thru. Then, and only then, is this team worthy of some national recognition. Come on people, stop smoking that stuff so much.
Agree; let’s see how they do on the road this week.
This year’s team is exciting, but as others have stated, this poll elation is premature. The Road will test the true mettle of this team. As far as Valdes’ absence, I don’t think it’s a big deal. There are troops to cover, and he seems to fade when faced with tough opposition. He disappeared in the Diamond Head tournament, pretty much, and seems very tentative, unless he is faced with lesser opponents. The Bows have to keep up their tough defense, sink free throws, and not get ahead of themselves. Go Bows!
True about Valdes – he’s a pretty boy who mostly fades against big challenges. Like Thomas, he’s weak inside, do not like contact, and puts up rushed shots when confronted inside. I don’t know about all the angst about the present juniors leaving after this season. No one is even close to being good enough for NBA nor to be a starter in a Power Conference team. Most of them can’t even shoot a free-throw with much skill much less a field goal (anyone heard from Webster Chan recently?). Big fishes in a small pond are what they are now – they’ll be eaten up anywhere else.