Manoa is known for its daily mist and Eddie Stansberry’s raining 3-point shots.
Stansberry, a senior guard, was named the Big West’s men’s basketball Player of the Week following Sunday’s 94-73 rout of Samford. Stansberry drained five 3s and finished with 23 points as the Rainbow Warriors improved to 7-3, tops among the nine Big West teams.
Stansberry is fourth nationally in successful treys (3.8 per game).
“The crazy thing is people go into games knowing they need to take away the 3 with him,” UH acting head coach Chris Gerlufsen said, “and he still finds a way to score the way he’s scoring.”
Stansberry, who has connected on 42.7% of his 3-point attempts, has expanded his offensive menu. Last season, after transferring from City College of San Francisco, Stansberry was a pure jump-shooter. This season, he is finding points off screen-and-rolls and cuts while also looping free for 3-pointers. He is second among Big West players with 19.7 points per game.
“He’s playing the right way,” Gerlufsen said. “You’re seeing as the season is going on a little bit, guys are falling more into what their roles are going to be. His role for us is scorer and defender. The thing I love about him is he’s starting to be more vocal. And he’s one of the more — if not the most — competitive guys on the team. You know what you’re going to get day in and day out from a competitive standpoint from him. That has a tendency to trickle down to everyone else.”
There have been recent discussions on whether to elevate Stansberry to co-captain. Even without a title, Stansberry is viewed as a team leader, Gerlufsen noted.
“Eddie has a way about him,” Gerlufsen said. “He has a way of relating to every guy in the locker room in a different way. That’s a hard thing to do in this day and age. He has a really good way about him with people.”
This is the second time Stansberry has been chosen for the Big West’s weekly honor. Stansberry has scored at least 20 points in seven of the Warriors’ 10 games.
“He’s starting to get in the groove, which is great to see,” Gerlufsen said. “We’re coming to expect it on a nightly basis. I say this all the time, we want to continue to push him. I think he still has more in the tank. As crazy as that sounds, I think he can continue to get better and build on these early-season accolades that he’s getting. By no means is a season defined by individual accomplishments. It’s a testament to the group and the way we’re sharing the ball and finding him. It’s a team award more than a personal award. But Eddie is very deserving of it.”
The ’Bows play UTEP in Sunday’s opening round of the 11th Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.