Getting to the top of the Big West Conference standings was a tall task for the University of Hawai‘i men's basketball team, which did so by defeating perennial contender UC Irvine on Jan. 10. The next task for the Rainbow Warriors is staying on top.
The 'Bows have a pair of home contests in the week ahead, starting with Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday and Cal State Northridge on Saturday. Both games tip off at 7 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.
At 13-4 overall and 5-2 in Big West play, the Rainbow Warriors are currently tied with UC Irvine in first place, but their victory gives them the early tiebreaker. UH will face UC Irvine again on the road on Jan. 29 in a game that will be nationally televised game on ESPNU. Head coach Eran Ganot refuses to look ahead, understanding how valuable protecting home court is in conference play.
"The consistency in every conference game, the execution is at a premium. People know each other, it's a fight, it's physical. There's more on the line," he said. "Every game has got so much at stake, period."
In its final year of Big West play, Hawai‘i is looking for a conference championship, a feat it hasn't accomplished since Ganot's debut season at the helm in 2016. The Rainbow Warriors didn't qualify for the eight-team conference tournament in 2025.
In the 2026 Big West Tournament, which runs from March 11-14 in Henderson, Nev., the top four seeds earn a first-round bye, while the top two seeds get a double bye into the semifinals. Ganot's Rainbow Warriors are focused on stacking their wins in order to be in the the best position possible come March.
"The way we do seedings, with the top two byes and top four byes and the top eight make it, you see the parity in our league," Ganot said. "The scars and the wounds make you who you are if you use it right, and that's where we're attacking."
A byproduct of the team's recent success has been ticket sales, in which a season-high 6,127 tickets were sold with a turnstile crowd of 4,895 on hand to watch the 'Bows defeat UC Irvine.
"Continue to push, get the fans involved. That's really what's about, just getting the energy and the fans involved," senior guard Dre Bullock said. "That gives us, some players on the court more of an edge to keep playing, keep going. So, yeah, just trying to give everybody a show at the same time and have fun playing hard."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
