As the Hawaii basketball team’s leading cinephile, Drew Buggs is devoted to videos with poor reviews.
“I watch a lot of film every night,” said Buggs, whose preparation involves studying past UH games. “I like to watch the turnovers and the mistakes I made, and try to fix them. Sometimes I’ll cringe. Or sometimes I’ll be like, ‘what was I doing?’ At the end of the day, you have to watch mistakes to get better. You can’t only watch the positives. You’ve got to watch the negatives. That’s what I do.”
In particular, Buggs has dissected video of the Rainbow Warriors’ Feb. 2 loss to UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos hit 65.4 percent of their second-half shots en route to a 75-54 rout.
“We just learned from that,” said Buggs, whose ’Bows play the Gauchos today in UCSB’s Thunderdome. “They came (into the Stan Sheriff Center) and kicked our ass in that game. They beat us in every aspect of that game. That’s something we don’t take lightly. We’re upset about that. That’s fuel to the fire. We’re going to go out there and try to compete and try to get them back.”
In the previous meeting, the Gauchos picked apart the ’Bows’ man-to-man defense with an inside-outside attack. Max Heidegger drew out the coverage with three second-half 3s. Amadou Sow, a 6-foot-9 freshman, made use of the thinned paint to score on layups and baby hooks. Sow finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
“Hopefully, we’ll be better this time around,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “We’ve had some time to clean up some things.”
In the four ensuing games, the ’Bows have tightened their point-of-attack defense, slowing opponents’ drives into the lane. They also have had better help rotations.
“We worked on different coverages to throw at them so it’s not just one-on-one,” said Dawson Carper, a 7-foot freshman.
In recent games, the ’Bows have used a succession of centers — starter Zigmars Raimo, Carper and 7-foot freshman Mate Colina — to clutter the low post. Raimo said Carper and Colina have improved since the start of the season.
“I’m happy to see Dawson and Mate working harder,” Raimo said. “They know how to play against those kinds of bigs. It’s fun to watch. That’s helping me, too. In practices, it’s hard for me to score (against Carper and Colina).”
Against the Gauchos’ multiple schemes, Raimo said, “defense is one of the keys we’ve really worked on in practices. We’re watching film every day and making sure we’re getting better.”
For the ’Bows, it begins in video reviews, or what Ganot termed, “the truth period.” The ’Bows will review positioning, decision-making, and techniques.
“The processing (of information) is very important, and our guys really buy into that,” Ganot said. “They do a good job of watching film — sometimes on their own, a lot of time with (the coaches). There are so many subtleties and nuances to the game that you’d better have everyone on the same page. The one thing we’re consistent on is the truth period. You do well, we do well, you’ll hear it. We need to do some things better, you’ll hear it. The truth is the mainstay. There are a lot of things we have to get better at, a lot of good things we’re doing. That’s part of the journey.”
BIG WEST BASKETBALL
>> Who: Hawaii (16-9, 7-4 BWC) at UC Santa Barbara (17-8, 6-5 BWC)
>> When: Today, 6 p.m.
>> Where: The Thunderdome, Santa Barbara, Calif.
>> TV: ESPNU
>> Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM
