Twenty years ago, an eager Eran Ganot arrived in the Islands grateful and ready to work.
Prior to the 2006-2007 college basketball season, the New Jersey native was hired as director of basketball operations for the University of Hawai‘i men's basketball team. Ganot, who played collegiately for Division III Swarthmore College from 1999 to 2003, was a volunteer assistant at Saint Mary's from 2003 to 2006. The job offered no salary, and Ganot would rely on student dining meals to feed himself at times. The UH DOBO job was the first salaried gig of his coaching career.
Ganot quickly became the hānai son of Al and Ruth Ono, a local couple. At the time, necklaces and bracelets from Phiten were all the rage in American sports culture. The Onos gifted Ganot a Phiten bracelet and it quickly became a part of his daily wardrobe. Early on in his Mānoa tenure, the bracelet fell off during a game. By the time he realized he lost it, Al and Ruth took him back to the store to get a new one.
"It's sentimental, it's not something fancy or fluff or all that nonsense," Ganot told Aloha State Daily in a recent interview. "You can tell it's fading, but I haven't gone one day without it."
After one season as UH's director of basketball operations, Ganot was elevated to full-time assistant coach the following year. He then went back to Saint Mary's, this time as an assistant coach from 2010 to 2015. Then at the age of 33, he returned to Hawai‘i as the program's head coach, a position he's held since 2015.
In his 191 career wins as a head coach, in his two NCAA Tournament appearances with the Rainbow Warriors, in his marriage with his wife, Barbea, and their journey in raising their daughter, Zeza, the Phiten bracelet is visible in nearly every picture.
A simple wardrobe choice that spans 20 years informs the sentiments surrounding Ganot, now 45, as he enters his 12th season at the helm, which officially begins against Seattle University on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center. Whether they've been around Ganot for one year or 10, the two ubiquitous ideals that arise when describing him are loyalty and consistency.
"He's a man anchored in tradition, and it's part of what makes him a great coach," says UH associate head coach Gibson Johnson. "He has a high moral compass and the standard that he holds himself and everybody around him, it's part of the reason you love coaching for him. It's part of the reason you love playing for him."
Johnson's introduction to Ganot goes back to 2015, when he was a touted recruit out of Salt Lake Community College. He chose to play for the Rainbow Warriors amid an NCAA Tournament ban levied on the program under former head coach Gib Arnold, who was fired from the school in 2014.
Under Ganot, Johnson has served a bevy of roles. He was a graduate manager from 2019 to 2021 and the director of player development during the 2021-2022 season. After serving as an assistant coach at Utah Tech from 2022 to 2024, he returned to Mānoa prior to the 2024-2025 season. Silver Waves Media recently named Johnson one of the country's top mid-major assistant coaches.
"Having played for him 10 years ago, and now being able to be mentored by him in the coaching ranks, he's helped me all along the way and he's definitely someone who I look up to and has showed me the ropes in this business," Johnson said of Ganot. "So, a lot of gratitude there."
This season, every on-court assistant coach on Ganot's staff is either a former player of his or previously coached under him at UH before departing for another gig, then were eventually welcomed back to Mānoa by Ganot. That includes Adam Jacobsen and John Montgomery, who were both coaches on Ganot's initial staff in 2015 and returned to UH before the 2026-2027 season.
"He's a man of consistency. He has a standard. One thing he'll say is that he sticks to the hits," Johnson said. "When he finds something he likes at a restaurant, he's probably going to order that every time [thereafter]."
Added guard Isaiah Kerr, one of two returnees from the program's 2025-2026 NCAA Tournament team: "He is the most consistent coach I've ever had. I know what I'm gonna get from him, and I think he's a great coach. I really enjoy playing for him."
As new members of the Mountain West starting this year, the Rainbow Warriors will take on a new conference slate, with new road routines set to be established. One guarantee Ganot can count on in each new arena is the Phiten bracelet on his right wrist. By now, it easily could have been swapped out for gold, but to Ganot, it means far more to him than that.
"I've just worn it ever since, all the time," Ganot said. "I'm pretty sentimental, especially here in Hawai‘i, and to people in Hawai‘i and the people who've helped me. When I have it on, there's some memories to it."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
