UH men’s basketball team will have to pick its poison tonight

When it comes to Big West scheduling, this has been a gap year for the Hawaii basketball team.

Forty-four nights after their initial meeting, UH and Cal State Northridge face off tonight in the Stan Sheriff Center.

“It’s unique,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “We’ve seen some teams in quick turnarounds, we’ve seen some teams in long turnarounds. (CSUN was) our second game (of league play) and now our 14th game.”

UH assistant coach John Montgomery, who coordinates scouting and defense, acknowledged “it’s been a while. It’s almost been a different scout. But they run the same offense.”

And the Matadors have the same 1-2 scoring combo. Lamine Diane, a 6-foot-7 forward, leads the Big West in scoring (24.2 points per game) and rebounding (10.9).

Terrell Gomez, a 5-8 guard, is second in the league with a 19.3-point average.

“They were the two leading scorers in our league going into that (first meeting), and they’ve remained the two leading scorers,” Ganot said. “They might have taken it up a notch.”

In Big West games, Diane and Gomez are averaging 24.0 and 20.3 points.

Against Big West defenses, Diane has connected on 49.1 percent of his field-goal attempts, and Gomez has buried 44.4 percent of his 3s.

“We’ve seen all these dynamic scorers in different positions,” Ganot said. “It’s really hard to contain them. It’s more to limit them and make them work for everything and, hopefully, they’ll shoot a tougher percentage. But that’s a tall task. It’s not easy. There are some teams over the years where it’s one guy. They have two 20-point scorers.”

For the ’Bows, the pick-your-poison strategy has multiple answers. Rodney “Rocket” Henderson is a 6-5 wing who creates shots off drives and jumpers — sometimes on his own, sometimes off ball screens. Darius Brown II is averaging 6.0 assists in league games. For energy, there is Ron Artest III, son of former NBA player Metta World Peace.

“They’ve got some threats around those guys (Diane and Gomez) that makes it tough and makes them so potent offensively,” Ganot said.

The Matadors lead the Big West in scoring (76.4 points per game).

The ’Bows have had to endure several ailments during a league schedule that involved 18 days on the road and six weeks between byes. The past week, guard Sheriff Drammeh has dealt with an ailment, and point guard Drew Buggs has received treatment for an ankle injury.

In Big West play, Buggs is the league leader in assists (6.2 per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.5). The ’Bows average 9.26 more points per 40 minutes when Buggs is on the court than when he is not.

Buggs said he suffered the ankle injury when he stepped on another player’s foot during the Cal Poly game last week. While undergoing treatment from athletic trainer Jayson Goo, Buggs went from using two crutches and a medical boot to not needing a crutch or boot.

“I’ve been working with Jay Goo two, three times a day,” said Buggs, declaring his availability as a “game-time decision.”

Ganot said: “Unfortunately, we’ve had something like this every year. And we’ve had to manage. It’s not fun to manage. But managing is smarter than being stubborn or silly about it and doing some more damage.

“I think the guys have been doing some things to get better. But how much better by game time? To be determined. I know they’re doing everything they can control and worrying about things they can and, hopefully, we’ll be whole again and peaking.”