The Hawaii basketball team departed on Tuesday afternoon with 13 players, XL-sized bags, and the sport’s age-old approach of “winners stay.”
“You have to have the mind-set we’re going to be gone for while,” UH coach Eran Ganot said.
For this Golden State trip, the Rainbow Warriors play UC Davis on Thursday and Cal State Northridge in Saturday’s regular-season finale, then remain on the mainland ahead of the March 12 opening round of the single-elimination Big West tournament in Anaheim, Calif. The tournament’s winner is awarded the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Similar to the rules of pick-up basketball, beginning next week, the ’Bows will need to keep winning to keep playing.
“We plan to stay more than two weeks,” post player Zigmars Raimo said.
Despite growing up in Long Beach, a 30-mile drive from Anaheim, “I’m packing heavy,” point guard Drew Buggs said. “We’re winning. That’s the mind-set. We don’t want to come back. We want to stay there as long as we can. Everybody is packing heavy and ready to get rolling.”
At 7-7 in league play, the ’Bows are in fifth place, a game behind UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis and CSUN. With eight of the nine teams qualifying for the tournament and UH’s opening-round opponent still unknown, Ganot and his assistants brought information on the other eight members.
“You bring all your scouting reports because you don’t know who you’re going to play,” Ganot said. “We’ll also bring a lot of clothes. We’ll do a lot of laundry. And we’ll go from there. We’re focused on these first two games, and then we’ll reconvene.”
The ’Bows are 2-6 in road games this season, including 2-4 in Big West away games. They lost in overtime at Cal Poly and by four points at Long Beach State.
“It’s all a mentality,” said Ganot, whose UH teams were 18-14on the Big West road in his first four seasons as head coach. “It’s a mind-set. We attacked since we got here that ‘Hawaii’s really struggled on the road.’ From everybody, you hear that all the time. We try to turn it around, to say, ‘No, we’re blessed to be on the road. What an opportunity to maybe change conventional wisdom.’ It’s worked for us.”
Ganot said the ’Bows also welcome ending the regular season on the road. Unlike most trips, when they return to Hawaii on a Sunday, this time the ’Bows will be able to rest a day before preparing for the tournament.
“We’ve been in every (league road) game,” Ganot said. “I know you don’t have a chance if you’re going to sit around and complain about quick turnarounds and travel. We’re going to flip it around and say how blessed we are for the opportunity.”
Senior guard Eddie Stansberry added: “We love being on the road. It’s moments like these that build our team. We’re excited and ready to get into it.”
BIG WEST BASKETBALL
>> Who: Hawaii (16-12, 7-7 BWC) at UC Davis (14-16, 8-6)
>> When: Thursday, 5 p.m.
>> Where: The Pavillion in Davis, Calif.
>> TV: None
>> Radio: KKEA 1420-AM / 92.7 FM
>> Streaming: BigWest.tv
