They have celebrated birthdays, offered best wishes at a wedding reception, and shared notes from the same lectures.

“As crazy as it sounds, they’re off to a good start in terms of their chemistry without being around each other,” University of Hawaii basketball coach Eran Ganot said.

Because of the pandemic, the Rainbow Warriors’ interactions have been nothing but ‘net. With players scattered from the mainland to Australia, the ’Bows have relied on the internet for summer classes, meetings and team bonding.

Ganot said the ’Bows are in the “virtual” stage of summer training. All 15 players, seven of whom are international students, are expected to be in Honolulu in early August. After following state and school protocol — quarantines or COVID testing, for example — the ’Bows then will enter the “in-person” stage of training.

In past summers, the ’Bows would participate in supervised workouts and team meetings for eight hours each week beginning in July. They are adjusting to this year’s restrictions, relying on video chats and Zoom meetings.

“It’s an interesting challenge,” Ganot said. “That’s how our staff looks at it. It’s an opportunity. I feel we’re pretty thorough and organized. We’re going through something unique for every program in the country right now. You hear different programs do different things. There are some ideas you like, some you don’t.”

With seven first-year ’Bows, Ganot said, “there’s a lot of just getting to know each other. First, we wanted to get them to understand our foundation stuff. We’ve done some stuff, almost like a power point, and then flowed into video clips and edits to get them an overall understanding. Then we break down certain things. We’ve done that overall as a whole and we’ve done that by position. It’s early on, so we have an opportunity to expand from there.”

Ganot said the players have kept sharp with regular workouts.

“It’s a pretty committed group,” Ganot said. “Each of them is in a good place. They’ve been healthy. They’ve also found routines where they can do their weights or their conditioning or basketball skill where they’re at. They’re not going to mess around with putting themselves in harm’s way. Each of them has found a routine to accomplish what they need to accomplish, and then we have our Zoom sessions and followups.”

Ganot said the ’Bows have found a way to bond from a distance.

“Would it be better to be on the floor together?” Ganot said. “Absolutely. We shifted gears quickly toward how we’re going to continue to get better and move in a good direction with what we’re allowed. We’re fortunate to be allowed to do what we have right now, and we’re going to take advantage of it.

“I credit our staff and the guys. I know they’re looking out for each other. … (The players are) doing stuff with us. They’re doing stuff without us. They’re taking ownership of really looking out for each other. The new guys are really easy to get along with. They’ve done a good job acclimating and listening.”