UH basketball takes top Big West honors
KRYSTLE MARCELLUS / JAN. 2016
Rainbow Warriors huddles 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.
ANAHEIM, CALIF. >> The Hawaii basketball team received high marks in the Big West Conference’s postseason awards announced today.
Forward Stefan Jankovic was named the Big West Player of the Year, becoming just the second player in program history to receive a conference’s top individual honor. The Serbian-born junior averaged 15.7 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 55.9 percent from the field.
Coach Eran Ganot was named Big West Coach of the Year after taking over the program last April and guiding UH to a 24-5 overall record and 13-3 in conference play, sharing the Big West regular-season title with UC Irvine.
Jankovic and point guard Roderick Bobbitt were named to the Big West first team, marking the second time in three years UH placed two players there (Isaac Fotu and Christian Standhardinger, 2013-14). Wing Aaron Valdes was named to the second team.
Hawaii’s only previous conference player of the year was Anthony Carter, the WAC Pacific Division Player of the Year in 1996-97.
Ganot became UH’s first conference coach of the year not named Riley Wallace. Wallace won it three times in the WAC: 1988-89, 1996-97, and 2001-02.
“This is a tough profession and a tough conference,” Ganot said on a Big West conference call. “We’re very appreciative of being in the position we’re in.”
Of Jankovic, Ganot said: “Here’s a guy who’s really in his first full year of college basketball. Limited time at Missouri, played half the year last year. We thought he could make a jump; he made a significant jump. From not being all-conference (last season) to being player of the year, that’s a credit to the work he’s put in, the improvement he’s made, the versatility he has to pretty much be a consistent force night in and night out, and it’s been huge for us.”
Top-seeded UH opens the Big West tournament on Thursday against eighth-seeded Cal State Fullerton at Anaheim’s Honda Center. To make the NCAA Tournament, the Rainbow Warriors must win three times in three days.
24 responses to “UH basketball takes top Big West honors”
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woulda been nice to see janks and bobbit awarded co-players of the year. now we gotta regroup and bring home that ticket to da dance! Go Bows!
Congrats for the Awards
Mahalo for the exciting regular season,
Good Luck in the Post Season
Go Bows!
should have been bobbit
Maybe the run-in with the opposing coach cost him.
Congratulations!
forget the awards, just get to the dance.
In comparison to The Fabulous Five (Jerome Freeman, Al Davis, John Penebacker, Dwight Holiday and Bob Nash), this year’s team would go far. Remember Hawaii getting blown out at Weber State in the first round of the NCAA tournament in the early 1970s?? This year’s Hawaii team is well tested and has won on the road, compared to the completely “home bodies” that The Fabulous Five were at the HIC (aka The Neal Blaisdell Center). The next task for AD David Matlin is to retain and reward Eran Ganot, no matter what it takes, within reason, because we know a Power Five conference will soon call on Ganot.
possibly, but Ganot kept saying that the Hawaii head coaching job
was his dream job.
but we all know that $$$ talks.
doubt it. Ganot still has not proven that he can win with his own players. he needs to show that he can recruit some really good players for the big conferences to come calling.
agree he has a ways to go why would he rush it unless the money was astronomical
Congratulations to all! Well deserved honors. Heh Hossana, what do you say now that coach Ganot was Coach of the year? Every week you’ve been criticizing him as 2nd rate and a terrible coach.
LOL…you took the words right out of my mouth RSY!
Hossana?? Where are you? You probably will post that Ganot doesnt deserve it and you can do a better job coaching the team. Have you ever caoched in your life? By posting that Gonat is a lousy coach only shows how little you know about coaching
no doubt Ganot deserves the award but lets not forget that he was helped by the schedule and a cast of old Arnold players.
If UH is the first seed, why aren’t they hosting???
You think it’s logistically and economically feasible to wait until the #1 seed is decided to figure out where to have the tournament hosted? This is a mid-major conference tourney. This is not the well-to-do NIT.
Tournament is played at a neutral site.
There are some other good guards in the conference but Janks is the best big man for his versatility.
Hoping Janks don’t get into foul trouble 1st five minutes of this and any future games. Can’t help the team sitting too many minutes.
Borrowing from the Rainbow Wahine Volleyball team: Let’s go ‘bows !!! Let’s go ‘bows !!! Let’s go ‘bows !!!
The Long Beach State 49ers defeated the Rainbow Warriors twice this season and perhaps those were upsets. However upsets happen and the biggest one in sports this year happened yesterday at The Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA as The Lakers defeated The Golden State Warriors 112-95. The Warriors now have an NBA best 55-6 record while the lowly Lakers improved to 13-51. So The Rainbow Warriors must keep their spirits up and try to win three games and The Big West title, to get the NCAA bid to the big dance.
Congratulations to our Men’s and Wahine Basketball team for having a successful regular season. May all the positive energy go with you into the Big West Tournament and do your best. Happy for all our players who were recognized and our new young coach. No matter what league you’re in to win 24 games is an accomplishment because it is never easy when you also have to be a student and dealing with all the responsibilies of going to college. Ganot inherited some good players but it takes a good coach to keep them together heading in the right direction. I’m sorry we lost Issac Fleming but it was meant to be and we all move on.
Congrats to all!
Congrats to the Janks, Bobbitt, Valdes, and Coach Ganot for leading the Bows through a successful regular season campaign. But now is time to shelve these honors and get down to business. So far, in the mid-Major conference tournaments completed, all of the No.1 seeds are pau (0-7)! The Bows dropped out of the mid-Major Top 15 with their loss to LBS. So the only way to recoup, and to let the country know that the Bows are special is to win the BW Tournament. BTW, both Oklahoma and Northern Iowa (Missouri Valley Champs over Wichita State) are already in the NCAA Tournament. Crunch Time. Go Bows!