UH hoops must put painful past behind

The University of Hawaii basketball team was in no mood for a pity party.

“No one is feeling sorry for us,” coach Eran Ganot said.

Three days after squandering a 14-point lead in an overtime loss to UC Irvine, the Rainbow Warriors return to the court as hosts to UC Davis tonight in the Stan Sheriff Center.

“That loss hurts, but you’ve got to put it behind you,” guard Brocke Stepteau said. “We just get ready for the next game. It’s a quick turnaround. You don’t have much time to think about it.”

Ganot said a quick recovery is part of “maturity and professionalism.” He said emotional outcomes, even victories, should not “change your approach to the next game.”

Ganot added: “There are some big wins. There can be some heartache losses. You can’t deny they hurt. It is what it is. You have to learn and grow. … Sometimes they don’t go your way. It shoudn’t change your approach moving forward. Let’s see what we did well. Let’s see what we need to work on. That’s kind of our routine. That’s college basketball. That’s conference season. Teams have to be able to move on.”

UC Davis enters 5-13 overall and 1-3 in the Big West. But the Aggies have three players who started their careers at other Division I schools — Stefan Gonzalez (Saint Mary’s), AJ John (Pepperdine) and Matt Neufeld (Saint Louis) — to complement left-handed guard TJ Shorts.

Shorts, who is 5 feet 9 and 160 pounds, received zero Division I offers as a Tustin (Calif.) High senior. He attended Saddleback Community College, where he caught the attention of UCD coach Jim Les.

“There’s no exact science,” Les said of his recruiting search, “especially when you talk about someone like TJ. What we liked about him was his competitiveness, his winning spirit. He played with an edge because he’s a smaller guy. We thought his skill set — with his speed, and his ability to handle the ball, and play off ball screens — was really good for our system.”

Shorts quickly proved he was deserving of the UCD scholarship. As a junior last season, Shorts was named both the Big West’s top player and newcomer.

“I’m self driven,” Shorts said. “I had a goal I wanted to play Division I basketball out of high school. It didn’t happen right away out of high school, but I kept pushing and eventually got the scholarship. From there, everything has been a blessing. I have to keep going.”

Shorts, whose parents are, um, short, first dunked in a practice before his junior year of high school. He taught himself to dribble as deftly with his right hand as his dominant hand. During a family vacation to Hawaii a few years ago, he learned how to surf. Skydiving is next on his to-do list. But on a basketball court, he said, “I’m confident in what I can do.”

This season, Shorts leads the Aggies in scoring (14.3 points per game), rebounding (5.2), assists (4.1) and steals (1.6).

“You can’t argue the respect for the way he goes about his business and the way he competes,” Ganot said of Shorts. “He’s one of the more competitive guys in this league (and) in the west, you could argue. I think it’s a testament to his will and desire.”

Stepteau said the ’Bows embrace the matchup against one of the league’s best players.

“It’s a team cover,” Stepteau said. “It’s not just me or anybody in particular guarding him. It’s going to take the whole team to guard him. The help-side defense will be a key in all that.”

The Aggies are beginning a stretch of four road games in a row.

“It’s always a challenge coming here,” Les said, noting the ’Bows “have great fans. There’s always good energy coming into the building. We’re looking forward to it.”