In the aftermath of a five-point win over UC Davis at the Stan Sheriff Center in January, the running joke around the Hawaii basketball team was that the Rainbow Warriors’ best player wore not white and green, but blue and gold.

Aggies forward Chima Moneke, at the time a Big West player of the year candidate, committed a career-worst nine turnovers in the 77-72 outcome on Jan. 20. That moved the ’Bows to 4-1, just before a five-game slide knocked them to their present middle-of-the-pack standing.

Lately, the hubbub about Moneke concerns whether he will actually play in today’s rematch. The 6-foot-6 senior has missed six straight games going back to Feb. 3, when the team put out a statement: “Chima Moneke has been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules that govern conduct at the team’s hotel. … A review of this situation by University officials is in process, we will provide updates when available.”

UH (16-11, 7-7 Big West) embarked on its final road trip of the season Tuesday and got in a practice on the Davis campus Wednesday, still having to prepare for two versions of the Aggies: an inside-out team with Moneke (18.4 ppg, 9.6 rpg), and a spread-you-out team with point guard T.J. Shorts II (14.8 ppg, 4.3 apg) as the primary option.

Coach Jim Les said Wednesday he had no update to Moneke’s status.

“You can’t assume anything,” UH coach Eran Ganot said prior to his team’s departure. “You don’t really know what’s going on over there. And he’s obviously a player of the year type guy when he’s in. They’ve done a nice job after they’ve had some time to adjust when he’s out.”

The latter version has been just as good, to the surprise of the rest of the league. Davis is 4-2 without Moneke and has won three straight, keeping the Aggies (19-9, 10-4) in the running for a share of the Big West regular-season crown.

“Either way we’re going to be ready for him,” big man Gibson Johnson said. “If he’s playing, we’ll be ready, if he’s not, we’ll be ready. Just excited to match up. They’re a tough team, they bring a lot of energy and toughness. So it’s a fun game.”

Shorts, a 5-9 junior college transfer, has emerged as a BWC newcomer of the year award favorite and a realistic player of the year candidate. He’s the Big West steals leader at 1.9 a game and is fifth in shooting at 55 percent, just behind Rainbows forward Mike Thomas (57.0).

“I think he’s one of the better competitors in our league, maybe the best, and he’s probably the fastest player in the league,” Ganot said.

Said Shorts’ UH counterpart Drew Buggs, “He comes out and he gives everything he’s got every game. So we’ve got to make sure we do a good job of containing him. He’s really quick. Likes to use the ball screens.”

In Moneke’s absence, Shorts has authored game-winners at Long Beach State (a running 3-pointer in double overtime, 105-104) and most recently at Davis Pavilion over UC Riverside (a coast-to-coast buzzer-beating layup, 64-63). UCD also won at Cal Poly in triple overtime on Feb. 15.

“I think this group of young guys took it as a challenge that they were going to show people that they were a good basketball team in their own right, and one person wasn’t going to define us,” Les said. “It was really the attitude of our players that really gave us this opportunity to have this success.”

Les’ euphoric victory dance with his players at LBSU made the rounds. Earlier that day, news broke of Moneke’s suspension.

“Well, it’s safe to say nobody’s calling to inquire about my dancing abilities. Other than my daughters to mock me,” Les quipped.

Guard Siler Schneider contributes 14.2 points for UCD, which shoots 36.6 percent on 3s.

Davis had a 19-game home winning streak interrupted by UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 8. This is the Aggies’ second straight senior night hosting the ’Bows.

For UH, Thomas and Johnson seek a bounce-back game after they were held to 13 points between them in a nine-point loss to UC Irvine on their senior night Saturday.