UH basketball team holds opening practice off campus

The first day of full practice for the 2018-19 preseason doubled as a weekend getaway for the Hawaii basketball team.

A getaway for nearly three hours of competition.

Because of some congestion at the Manoa athletics complex, fourth-year coach Eran Ganot decided to take his team off campus and held a closed session at nearby ‘Iolani School on Saturday afternoon.

“I wanted to kind of get away if we could, and it worked out well,” Ganot said afterward. “We’re down a gym (due to renovations to the Gym II annex) and there’s a lot going on around our campus, with the great NBA game going tomorrow, with (Wahine) volleyball playing. We just kept it simple, went off site.”

He gave the practice high marks for intensity. All 15 players on the roster played, a contrast from the team’s lead-up to its foreign tour of Australia in August. Guard Leland Green and forwards Justin Hemsley and Zigmars Raimo were out with ailments, since healed.

“It was great to have basically all 15 guys out there,” Ganot said. “That’s where you feel the competition for spots, right now, right away.”

As UH has done in the past under Ganot, it wasted no time in getting local officials to oversee portions of the first practice, the idea being to get players used to rule tweaks and other changes with more than a month to go before the Nov. 9 opener vs. Portland.

“We’ll mix them in a couple times a week, like we’ve done every year,” Ganot said of the refs.

The Rainbows’ three seniors — guards Brocke Stepteau and Sheriff Drammeh and forward Jack Purchase — are in new positions of leadership following the graduation of last season’s co-captains, Mike Thomas and Gibson Johnson. Drammeh is the top returning scorer (10.7 ppg) from UH’s 17-13 (8-8 Big West) squad of 2017-18.

They are tasked with helping to bring along prominent newcomers Eddie Stansberry, Mate Colina, Owen Hulland and Dawson Carper. Hulland and Carper are 7-foot true freshmen.

“They’ve done a really nice job,” Ganot said, adding third-year sophomore point guard Drew Buggs to the list of on-court veterans. “To have some of those guys be in the backcourt and the point guard position is even more noticeable, since they’re sort of an extension of the staff.

“Definitely you could feel that with the returners helping those guys.”

UH will hold its Green and White scrimmage for the public on Oct. 19, Ganot said.