Hawaii basketball readies for battle in improved Big West Conference

HONOLULU — The Big West has seen NET gain in men’s basketball. Will Hawaii keep pace?

As the Rainbow Warriors prepare to host UC Santa Barbara at the Stan Sheriff Center on Thursday night, they do so with the knowledge that the BWC scrapped for its best nonconference showing in years.

The Big West’s NET — the NCAA’s official metric for determining the strength of all Division I teams and conferences in the country — rose as high as 10^th in the country in mid-December before settling back to its present 12^th of 31 D-I conferences. The Big West noted on Dec. 20 that prior to Dan Butterly’s start as commissioner in 2020, its NET was 20th of 32 conferences. Its RPI was 25th the season prior, before NET was introduced.

Whether it was UC Irvine setting the pace with a 9-2 mark against a respectable slate of nonconference competition, or UC San Diego going to Logan, Utah, to beat previously unbeaten Utah State two weeks ago, or even Cal Poly running and gunning its way to a win at Stanford, the Big West earned some hard-earned nods of respect.

Seven of 11 BWC teams have winning records as the calendar year flipped, a rarity for a California-based league whose members are used to taking guarantee games for a paycheck and, more often than not, a loss.

“I think it’s been coming on for our league,” 10^th-year UH coach Eran Ganot said. “I think we have good continuity among staffs and I think this has been an underrated league for some time. … We’ve seen some good nonconference wins across the board from many teams this year. So many teams are off to good starts.”

UH, a team with many question marks entering the year, came out of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic with an 8-4 mark, including 2-1 in the nationally televised tournament capped with an overtime win over Oakland on Christmas. The ‘Bows took a couple days off to recover then readied themselves for the grueling 20-game Big West slate.

Only the top eight of 11 teams will quality for the Big West championships at Lee’s Family Forum (formerly known as the Dollar Loan Center) in Henderson, Nev. Like last year, a heavy emphasis is placed on regular-season success; the top two finishers will receive a double bye into the semifinals while the third- and fourth-place finishers will get a bye into the second round.

The math is a little tougher this year. UCSD placed second in the regular season last year but was unable to participate in the postseason, allowing UH to slide up to the third seed. That restriction is gone and the Tritons (12-2) appear to have spent that time sharpening the proverbial trident.

“These games in conference are going to be blue collar, it’s going to be a lot of grit,” said UH forward Harry Rouhliadeff, who had the game-winning tip-in and a career-high 15 points against Oakland. “I feel like that’s right up my alley. This team has no real superstars, but everyone provides something different to the team.”

Xavier transfer Gytis Nemeiksa (14.7 points per game) appears to have settled in to a go-to role and had 25- and 24-point performances in the Diamond Head Classic. Houston Christian transfer Marcus Greene (11.8) has been UH’s most reliable perimeter scorer. Those two have taken on a greater scoring load as center Tanner Christensen (10.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg), a transfer from Utah Tech, has been largely negated by double teams after a hot start to the season.

Christensen and Nemeiksa have paced UH in one of its best qualities, its rebounding. The ‘Bows are plus-8.3 for the season, good for 23^rd nationally.

UH’s other top attributes are its prevention of long-range shots (just 28% of opponents field-goal attempts are 3s, second-lowest in the country) and its ability to minimize passes leading directly to a basket (only 37.8% of opponents’ field goals are assisted, seventh-lowest nationally).

Ganot said he will continue to ride different bench players as situations demand, like freshman point guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor for 28 minutes against Oakland. Guardplay continues to be UH’s biggest night-to-night question as UH has passed that test in some outings but lapsed in others.

“No team can be very good if you don’t take care of the ball,” Ganot said.

The BWC actually began conference play in early December in what was known as “Bold Week,” a means to avoid three-game weeks from January to March. UH lost 76-68 at LBSU on Dec. 7.

The early leaders are Long Beach State (2-0), UC Riverside (2-0), UC San Diego (2-0), UC Davis (2-0) and UC Irvine (1-0).

UH, which lost its top six scorers from last season, was picked to finish in seventh place in preseason voting by the league’s 11 head coaches.

UH has yet to finish with a losing record in Big West play since joining the conference prior to the 2012-13 season, but it has had some close calls. UH started 2-6 in BWC last year before winning nine of its last 12 to earn a top-four seed.

Neither have the Rainbow Warriors been able to factor into the title race since Ganot’s first year. UH fell to UC Davis in last year’s Big West semifinals; it hasn’t been back to the tournament championship game since 2016, also the first and last time UH won the Big West regular season.

“We want to improve where we were last year,” Rouhliadeff said. “Making it short in that semifinal in the Big West tournament and we really want to solidify ourselves as a top contender.”

UH, with a KenPom rating of 170 as of Wednesday, is right in the middle of the Big West in that respect, with five above and five below.

Joe Pasternack’s Gauchos, who have swept UH home and home the last two years, are not one of the favorites for the first time in what feels like a while. Guard Ajay Mitchell was taken at No. 38 in the NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

UCSB features an incredibly balanced attack with four players averaging between 12.9 and 11.2 points. Stephan Swenson, a transfer from Stetson and a Belgian like Mitchell, has been one of the most impactful additions for the Gauchos with his shooting (44.6% on 3s) and playmaking (3.9 assists, 1.4 steals per game).

Zion Sensley, the son of former UH great Julian Sensley, is a 6-foot-8 Gaucho freshman.

The biggest difference in the league may be at the bottom, where there appears to be no clear-cut team or teams for the rest of the league to score automatic wins against, like Cal Poly of the last few years.

UH hosts Cal Poly on Saturday night. The Mustangs (6-8) have lost 40 straight Big West regular-season games as they prepare to host UCI on Thursday night, then make the tight turnaround to the islands.

But the Mustangs are feisty under first-year coach Mike DeGeorge, a highly successful Division II coach, as their 97-90 win at Stanford on Nov. 30 attests. They play at the quickest pace in the country, according to KenPom, and they are most comfortable with scoring in the mid-80s.

It is UH’s second-to-last season as a BWC member; it is scheduled to leave for the Mountain West after the 2025-26 season.

Big West KenPom ratings as of Jan. 1:

UC Irvine 68

UC San Diego 81

UC Santa Barbara 142

CSUN 164

UC Riverside 170

Hawaii 173

UC Davis 218

Cal Poly 248

Cal State Bakersfield 255

Long Beach State 277

Cal State Fullerton 289