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The Hawaii basketball team got hammered by its worst margin of the season today, 84-56 at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center.
The 28-point margin of defeat was the second-worst loss in UH’s five seasons of Big West play, just off a 29-point defeat suffered at Cal Poly on Jan. 24, 2013.
Freshman guard Matt Owies scored a season-high 13 points off the bench on 5-for-7 shooting. He was the lone bright spot shooting the ball, as UH converted 36.2 percent to UCI’s 57.1 percent. Forward Gibson Johnson scored 11 points and guard Sheriff Drammeh added 10.
UH (6-9, 0-2 Big West) shot 25.8 percent in the first half (including 2-for-18 on 3s) and trailed by 19 at intermission. It fell behind by as many as 29 points in the second half.
Guard Jaron Martin and center Ioannis Dimakopoulos scored 12 points apiece to lead UCI (9-9, 2-0).
Johnson scored seven quick points to help UH get out to a 9-2 lead. The ’Bows still led 16-13 when Irvine uncorked a massive 26-4 run going into the half.
Over that span, UH missed 13 straight shots — it went a span of 9:40 without a field goal — until center Ido Flaisher made a post layup with 1:26 left in the half.
Brad Greene came back with a layup and Evan Leonard made two free throws in the closing seconds of the half to bring the deficit to 39-20 at the break.
UCI kept up the onslaught to start the second half, pushing the lead to 26 on a Luke Nelson breakaway jam.
Owies converted a rare four-point play with 4:13 remaining to reach his new season high, which cut Irvine’s lead to 73-49.
The Rainbow Warriors’ previous most lopsided defeat this season was by 26 points against Illinois State in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
Wing Noah Allen continued his offensive funk, going scoreless on 0-for-2 shooting in eight minutes played.
UH begins a five-game homestand at the Stan Sheriff Center next Saturday against Long Beach State.
Pitiful Hawaii !!
Ganot making records, only the wrong kind. He loses to Fullerton for the first time in 10 games, now, without any offense or defense, second worse loss to 160th RPI ranked UCI who has a losing record on National TV. Worst, Ganot was losing by 19 pts at halftime. Embarrassing numbers of airball by multiple players and shot clock violations. Sorry Coach but when you said two games ago that your team was jelling, you didn’t know what you were talking about. Ganot will blame the players again, wait for it.
What is your problem?
What a pathetic performance and on national tv at that….plez i don’t want to hear from the news media this nonsense that Ganot is underhanded and had to recruit a whole new team etc….the performance of his players reveal the type of coach he actually is….last year was an anomaly because it was not his players…there were Arnold’s and Benji’s quality players but this year reveals his true self as a coach….PATHETIC!! Please, news media and Bobby Curran, please don’t make excuses for Ganot…he knew exactly what he was getting into when he took this job…nothing more and nothing less.
It is a rarity to find a coach who can recruit top level players to Hawaii during NCAA sanctions. It is always the same individuals who post in the blog to be the first to be critical of the coach or any coach for that matter. I think there are many of us who believed this team would not do well. It is evident when previous bench warmers become starters that the pickings are slim. I don’t see the talent level on this team to keep up with the teams in the Big West. The guard play is pathetic. The inside game is nonexistent. We will be hard pressed to compete and win games. I give credit to the team for playing hard but that will get you only so far. I believe the coaches are doing their best to try to make this team competitive but to get over the hump to win games now that’s a challenge. I’m not much of a fan of the in and out type of offense unless we have the players who can consistently shoot from the outside. If the ball gets into the paint than go up and be offensive instead of throwing the ball back out. It is painful when the low post guy gets the ball and open but does not go to the basket. I understand how frustrating it is for the fans but be patient and understand the basketball program will recover once we get thru the NCAA unfair sanctions. Go Bows
Shoulda kept Benjy.
Ganot took last year’s team further than Gib or Benjy would have taken them, but … as we all know … they weren’t his players.
I like what he’s trying to instill in the program, for sure, there is more discipline and less drama. That being said, there is also a huge dropoff in talent, and that ultimately falls on Ganot. He and his staff need to show they can recruit not just “nice” guys, but guys who can also ball. I’m willing to give him a couple more years, but I can understand the frustration shown by others.
We all knew this was going to be a rough year – or at least should’ve. Ganot’s been trying to recruit with NCAA sanctions over his head the entire time. Hawaii’s always been a difficult place to recruit to, that only made things worse.
That said, the one thing Arnold was able to do was recruit much more athletic players than any other coach that’s been here. But Ganot did much better with his recruits than Arnold or Benjy ever did. But there’s no way Benjy would be doing better with this group of players than Ganot is – as someone implied earlier. Benjy preached pressure defense while letting the players largely run free. It worked before only because he had the talent and athleticism of Bobbitt, Valdes and Co.
It was Hammah Time ! Is correct. Totally embarrassing. Total overhaul. Ganot needs to retool his recruiting emphasis with this man love of foreign players We have an abundance of quality athletes in the states. The question is something is not appealing whether it’s your style of coaching or personality or not coming across to the potential players. Are you a good salesman of the program for that matter is your staff doing their job in vetting the recruits? Obviously not. A lot of changes need to be made The drop off in quality of recruits has been dramatic. You can listen to the spin doctors on Bobby curtain show but it is what it is …..Dismal and unacceptable.
Got to give Ganot a chance to recruit. He is stuck with starting players that are bench or scout players. And who would you replace Ganot with….”Fib” Arnold…Ben “Gay”…June Jones? Support Ganot and the Bows!