The nation’s best junior college basketball player is joining the University of Hawaii basketball team this summer.
Isaac “Ike” Finlinson, a 6-foot-8, 185-pound wing/forward from Snow College (Richfield, Utah) has accepted a scholarship from the Rainbow Warriors.
Finlinson averaged 18.7 points on 51.6% shooting, including 38.5% on 3s, and 6.6 rebounds this season. He joins the ’Bows in June.
Finlinson was named the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division I Player of the Year for the 2024-25 season. On Friday, the National Association of Basketball Coaches selected Finlinson as the top player for two-year colleges.
“It wasn’t the plan,” Finlinson told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a telephone interview. “The plan was winning with my team and being successful as a team and (the awards) just came with it. That was a bonus. It was really awesome. It definitely was an honor. That’s something that came along with winning a lot of games, working really hard and having a good team putting me in position to win the award.”
Finlinson received several offers but felt most comfortable with the ’Bows. UH assistant coach Gibson Johnson was at Utah Tech when Finlinson redshirted there during the 2022-23 season. Through his freshman year at Dixie High in Utah, Finlinson was coached by Ryan Cuff. Cuff’s son, Tanner, is a 6-foot-7 wing/guard who is transferring to UH from Evansville.
“Just seeing the type of team they’re putting in, and the guys they’re bringing in, and the winning culture they’ve built, I wanted to be on a team that’s able to compete for a championship,” Finlinson said of choosing UH. “That’s where I think I have a great chance to do that.”
He added: “I did have a lot of options and definitely thought long and hard about it. I wanted to make sure where I was going I was completely 100% confident that was the right place. And that happened to come out and be Hawaii. I’m really excited.”
Finlinson, who grew up in St. George, Utah, began playing basketball when he was 3. He played guard through his sophomore year at Dixie High, then had a growth spurt that expanded his game to also playing forward. He averaged 21.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals in leading Dixie High to the 2020 4A Utah state championship as a senior in 2020.
He then served a two-year church mission in Minneapolis.
“It was a good experience,” he said. “I definitely learned a lot.”
After that, Finlinson attended Utah Tech for a year. When Utah Tech assistant coach Andrew May accepted the coaching job at Snow, Finlinson decided to follow. “I thought that would be the best next step for me in developing as a basketball player,” Finlinson said.
In his two years at Snow, the Badgers went 53-9, including 32-2 this season.
Finlinson joins a UH recruiting class that includes Cuff; 6-6 wing-guard Quandre “Dre” Bullock (South Dakota); 7-foot Isaac “Big Fish” Johnson (Utah State); 6-3 combo guard Hunter Erickson (Utah), and 6-5 guard Hunter Carter (Rosemary Anderson Prep).
