University of Hawaii guard JoVon McClanahan happy to finally meet fans

Nearly 30 months after pledging to join the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team, guard JoVon McClanahan enjoyed the complete fan experience.

“Meeting the boosters and the fans, it was great,” McClanahan said of the Rainbow Warriors’ Tip-off Banquet last week, the first time the event was held in-person since 2019.

In May 2020, as COVID-19 ravaged as a pandemic, McClanahan made an oral commitment to UH from his junior college dorm room in Sheridan, Wyo.

His first UH workouts ahead of the 2020-21 season were conducted in isolation. Coaches wore gloves. The basketballs were repeatedly cleansed. The locker rooms were closed. Everybody wore masks during every basketball-related activity.

“All my classes were online.” McClanahan said. “I didn’t really know what the campus really looked like.”

The home games were played in an empty Stan Sheriff Center, with the media on the second-tier concourse and postgame interviews conducted on Zoom.

Restrictions eased last year, but COVID-19 exposures forced the ’Bows to withdraw from the Christmas Day game of last year’s Diamond Head Classic. “Things were still kind of closed off (this spring),” McClanahan said.

But there were no restrictions during the latest offseason training.

“As things started to open up, I started to venture the island and really start becoming an island boy,” said McClanahan, who grew up in the Bay Area. “I said that at the tip-off event. I had good experiences in the summer. I’m glad I came here. I was mostly hanging out with (wing Samuta Avea) on the North Shore. The North Shore is very different from town. It’s more of a Hawaii vibe. I can’t wait to play there.”

The ’Bows are scheduled to play three games at the Cannon Activities Center on the Brigham Young-Hawaii campus this fall. Avea is a Kahuku High graduate who grew up on the North Shore.

Two weeks after training camp opened, the ’Bows mingled freely with fans during last week’s banquet.

“Just meeting everyone, it was more like a family vibe,” McClanahan said.

UH coach Eran Ganot said the banquet was “about celebrating the start of the season, introducing new guys to our community, seeing the development of the returners.”

Ganot said the banquet sold out, with nearly 500 attendees. Proceeds from the $300-a-plate banquet and accompanying auction benefit the program’s training and education.

“The best commodity we have is our student-athletes,” Ganot said. “As I say, if you haven’t gotten to know them, go introduce yourself. They’re impressive. This is an impressive group. … This is the first year, from the start of the year, when we’ll have no restrictions in terms of fans coming to the games. Now we can come around and say ‘hello.’ … I’m really happy for our guys. I’m really happy for our community. Because they all get to know each other better. It’s a family program. It starts with members in our program — our student-athletes, our staff, their families, the families of the student-athletes. The way we run our program is consistent with the values of Hawaii.”