Once again, it’s next man up for the University of Hawaii basketball team before the season even starts. At least this time it’s man, singular, and not men, plural.

For the second year in a row, the Warriors will be without transfer point guard Juan Munoz, who was expected to be a very special player — maybe good enough to lead UH over the top and to a Big West championship.

Munoz, whose college career likely ended with a torn Achilles in last week’s exhibition victory over UH Hilo, is apparently a very special person, too. The word “beloved” comes to mind the way his teammates and coach speak of him.

Now, they will try to use his absence from the court as inspiration for the season that starts at home Friday against Mississippi Valley State.

“We know and saw how hard he worked (to come back from a third ACL knee injury),” senior forward Kamaka Hepa said. “But I think moving forward Juan was a very big leadership person for us and I think it’s important that we continue to put our goals at the front of our minds for him because I know that’s what he wants deep down too.”

Coach Eran Ganot said Munoz will continue to be a presence from the bench like he was last season, encouraging teammates and providing insight.

Munoz was one of two projected starters who sat out last season recovering from injury.

Fan favorite Samuta Avea, a star at Kahuku from Hauula, opted out of the COVID-19 afflicted 2020-21 season, and then missed last year with a back injury.

In his last game, March 7, 2000 — right before everything was halted before the pandemic — Avea scored a career-high 20 points, and matched his best for rebounds with nine.

He scored just six points with three rebounds in last week’s exhibition, but those numbers don’t really matter. The one that does is 20 — the minutes he played with no ill effects, he said.

“I feel good,” Avea said Tuesday. “Hard practice, hard game. Doesn’t matter.”

Every now and then, UH proves you don’t have to be in a basketball state to be a basketball school — like in 2016, when the ’Bows advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Ganot’s first season as head coach.

None of the key contributors on that team was from Hawaii. For whatever reason, not a lot of great college hoopsters are produced in the islands.

Maybe it’s because our average height is the lowest in the nation: 5 feet, 9 inches for men and 5-foot-3 for women. Maybe it’s because many of the athletes who would be superb at basketball gravitate to volleyball.

There are exceptions, of course, including Avea, and many woman players. But Hawaii doesn’t produce Division I men’s basketball talent like it does in other sports, including football, baseball and volleyball.

So, when there is a local player who starts, or at least gets serious minutes, for the UH men — like David Hallums, Jarinn Akana, Alika Smith, Bobby Nash or Julian Sensley, to name a few — it’s a good crowd draw.

Avea recognizes that he is a rarity, but wants to work to change that.

“Definitely,” the 6-foot-6 wing player said. “It’s a big responsibility, and I try to represent that through example. But also just keeping in touch with a lot of local talent.”

Avea mentioned JJ Mandaquit, the former ‘Iolani phenom who has transferred to Real Salt Lake Academy in Utah for his sophomore season. UH has already offered him a scholarship.

”That’s my goal,” Avea said. “I’m trying to stay in his ear to come home.”

If Mandaquit does choose Hawaii, he will return to the arena where his dad, Jason, led Hilo to the state championship in 2000. I remember sitting next to former Hilo Vulcans point guard and retired Hilo Tribune sports editor Bill O’Rear, who pointed out the subtle fundamental nuances that helped make Mandaquit’s flashy-on-the-surface game unstoppable.

If JJ’s skill set at 6 feet is anything like his dad’s at 5 feet 9, he’ll be in high demand.

For now, the ’Bows will make do without Munoz, who was going to be the straw that stirred the drink.

But as Ganot reminded us, UH’s style of play is not all about the point guard.

“We play through all our guys,” he said. “That’s why everybody’s a decision-maker on our team. One of our point guards is Kamaka at the 4, and sometimes we slide him to the 5. … It’s going to be a collective effort, everybody’s going to have to do a little more.”

And it’s all how you look at it: Instead of down two key players for the year like last season, the Warriors add Avea to a team that went 17-11 last year.

Avea said he’s ready for the real thing after sitting out two years, and everything that comes with it.

“The smell of the popcorn in the stands,” he said. “They didn’t make popcorn last week.”