It’s possible that you haven’t seen them play this year, or in the last few years. That would be totally natural if you were a college basketball fan living on the mainland.
After making the switch from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to the Big West three years ago, it was impossible to get a sense of where the Hawaii basketball program was trending towards. On one side of the spectrum, the Warriors were coming off a 16-16 season. Not great, but things could be much worse when you’re a team that resides outside a power conference. In contrast, moving conferences to an even weaker one was sort of head scratcher to most.
Hawaii is in a very unique situation. From an athletics stand point, they should be excelling. Realistically, what top recruit wouldn’t want to journey over to Hawaii and play basketball, where the weather is always sensational and sight lines breathtaking?
Unfortunately, it’s not all that feasible nowadays, and rarely will prolific college basketball talents be eager to play thousands of miles away from home. It’s difficult for a team like Hawaii to thrive without an appreciable television contract. Despite the current one that Hawaii holds, and the one which the Big West partners with ESPN, it televises very few in-conference games throughout the season. Add this to the low proximity Hawaii is to the American audience and this makes it very challenging for Hawaii to recruit players along the east coast, as it’s about a 12 hour flight from Honolulu to New York.
So how has Hawaii built such a good team this year? There are several reasons actually and most of it revolves around patience. Every year that they’ve been in the Big West, Hawaii’s win total has increased. Last year, Hawaii lost in the Big West Tournament Final by winning 22 games, that of course changed this season by not only winning the Big West tournament, but achieving a 27-5 record all-together.
The Warriors have bonded through veteran leadership; a staple that’s implemented by three seniors and five juniors on its roster, which in this day in age of college basketball is almost unheard of.
The captain that commands the Rainbow Warriors’ ship is senior guard Roderick Bobbitt, who’s averaging 13 points and five assists per game this year. Another reason why the Warriors have gathered success has been the creation of the Diamond Head Classic, an annual tournament that’s held at their home gymnasium in December. It started in 2009 and recently has developed into the life-line of the Warriors’ recruiting.
Lastly, a key to Hawaii's success is having a Canadian on their roster. Senior 6’11” forward Stefan Jankovic, wouldn’t have pressed for a transfer rule as a sophomore at Missouri, if not for the Diamond Head Classic. Jankovic, who was buried on the Tigers’ bench for the first two years of college has now grown into an integral piece of Hawaii two years later. The Canadian averages a team-high 15 points and six rebounds per game.
This year, I have had a pleasure of watching about half of Hawaii's games this year cause of no stressful midterms to study in college. By element of violations, Hawaii is ineligible to participate in the post-season next year, so essentially they’ll be playing with eight seniors when they take on the #4 seed California Golden Bears this Friday.
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