The return of the Outrigger Rainbow Classic will have different meanings for the basketball teams in Friday’s main event in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
After winning exhibitions against Hawaii Hilo and Chaminade on Hawaii island and Maui, respectively, the Hawaii men’s basketball team opens its regular season in the resurrected Rainbow Classic. After last year’s hiatus, the tournament is back for its 58th edition. San Jose State and Pacific meet at 4:30 p.m. on Friday followed by the scheduled 7 p.m. game between UH and Life Pacific. The tournament continues on Sunday and Monday.
With six seniors completing their eligibility at the end of last season, the Rainbow Warriors will unveil a new lineup. Tom Beattie, who played in 33 games as a freshman last season, including three starts, moves from the wing to point guard. Akira Jacobs, who was on Japan’s national team that competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics, will open as a 6-foot-10 wing. As a freshman last season, Jacobs was used mostly as a power forward.
“A lot of new faces,” UH coach Eran Ganot said of the ’Bows and the other tournament teams. “We’ll be learning about each other on the fly and how quickly we can make those adjustments in real time.”
While the outcome will count toward the ’Bows’ record, Life Pacific, an NAIA school from San Dimas, Calif., is treating this as an exhibition game.
“We play (NCAA Division I) schools as exhibitions so they don’t count on our record,” LPU coach Tim Cook said. “We have a good chance at our level to be good, and we want to protect the record a little bit. It’s daunting for us to play three games in four days.”
As an NAIA program, LPU, also nicknamed the Warriors, is restricted to the financial equivalent of eight scholarships that may be spread across the roster. “We don’t have even close to that,” Cook said.
Cook said the Warriors rely on appearance fees against NCAA Division I teams as supplemental revenue. “Accumulate those paychecks and use them in our budget for the program,” Cook said. “It’s one of the reasons we have to. In small schools, it’s a really tedious and arduous task to get our budget to where we can really help our program. These games are essential for us.”
LPU will receive a cash payment of $12,000 for competing in the Rainbow Classic. The deal also includes a certain amount of lodging, plane tickets and use of three mini vans, according to UH athletic director Craig Angelos. LPU turned down opportunities to play San Diego State and UNLV as the Rainbow Classic offer materialized.
LPU runs a five-out offense featuring three 6-foot-5 guards, led by point guard Austin Cook (Tim Cook’s son). Cook, who began his career at Idaho State, is an NAIA All-America candidate who already has received post-college offers to play professionally overseas.
The Warriors use Princeton concepts of constant motion with multi-positional duties. Defensively, the Warriors mostly are in a man-to-man although they also can attack with a 1-2-2 full-court press.
“We’re definitely not vanilla, that’s for sure,” Cook said. “We’ve been doing it this way for a long time. We’re still trying to play disciplined basketball. And we play a lot of good teams who are above us. We have to be very conscious of what we’re trying to do on both ends. It’s not easy because we don’t have a lot of size (in the front court).”
58th Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic
At SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center
Schedule
>> Friday: Pacific vs. San Jose State, 4:30 p.m.; Hawaii vs. Life Pacific, 7 p.m.
>> Sunday: Life Pacific vs. Pacific, 2:30 p.m.; UH vs. SJSU, 5 p.m.
>> Monday: SJSU vs. Life Pacific, 4:30 p.m.; UH vs. Pacific, 7 p.m.
>> TV: UH games only on Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: 1420-AM
