MĀNOA — Once the University of Hawai‘i men's basketball program gathers its full squad together after an offseason of transfers and acquisitions, a video is played during one of the first team meetings.
In the video, members of the team are shown what to expect from an identity and culture perspective, as well as what some of the program's tenets are. Particularly for a 2026-2027 Rainbow Warrior squad that features 13 newcomers among their 15 players, the video serves as an essential part of the onboarding process.
A key section of the video: the Rainbow Warriors believe they thrive in clutch situations. Cut ups show a montage of game-winning shots in the closing seconds of games in the Eran Ganot era, which began in 2015.
In their first regular season game of the 2026-2027 season, the new crop of 'Bows have already shown they've received that message loud and clear. On Monday night, a Jaden Matingou mid-range jumper with 1.2 seconds remaining snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, securing a 74-73 victory over Seattle University.
"These guys are studying the history of their program as best as they can. They're playing catch-up. There's a lot of new faces in the locker room [saying], 'Update that video, coach,'" Ganot said after the game. "And they deserve it."
On Monday, the Rainbow Warriors jumped out to a 16-point lead in the first half, only to see it evaporate as the game progressed. A late 8-0 Seattle run gave the Redhawks a 67-64 lead with 2:56 left. After Hawai‘i appeared to force a turnover in the paint with 1:15 remaining, a loose ball fell right into the arms of Seatttle forward Will Heimbrodt for a layup, pushing the Redhawk lead to 73-70 with 1:15 left.
Heimbrodt, who had 20 points, missed a pair of free throws with 10.4 seconds left, paving the way for Matingou's game-winning jumper. A turnstile crowd of 2,778 went wild after Heimbrodt's second miss, which activated a buy one, get one free Raising Cane's promotion on combo boxes.
Following a timeout, UH coaches schemed for Matingou to have the ball in his hands and drive to the basket.
"They had a couple options for us," Matingou recalled. "They had [UH guard] Chance [Trujillo] on the weak side, but started with the ball screen with me. So, I just got to give credit to my coaches, putting us in the right positions to succeed. ... It kind of broke down to a short [isolation play], and so I kind of just leaned back and shot it."
"I knew it was going in," Trujillo said, who added 19 points in a game-high 38 minutes. He was one of four players in double figures for UH, along with Matingou [20 points], Marcus Adams Jr. [12] and Zack Davidson [11].
Hawai‘i's coaching staff traversed the globe in filling the spots on its new team, with six countries represented on the 2026-2027 roster. UH also evaluated players from different levels of college basketball, convinced they found a gem in Matingou, who played at Division II Point Loma for the first three years of his college career.
Matingou didn't have much of a reaction at all to his final bucket. He simply turned around and walked to the UH bench. What was going through his mind after his first college game-winner?
"Absolutely nothing, honestly," he said. "It's kind of a crazy moment, but this is Year 4 for me. Seeing a lot of those types of shots, I just got to give a lot of credit to the fans, too. We're not in that position if they don't miss two free throws before. This place was absolutely rocking when [Heimbrodt] was shooting those free throws, and I think that gave us all the confidence.
"Our coach said, 'We're clutch as hell.' I looked at the guys to my right, and they were ready to go."
Following Monday's dramatics, Hawai‘i will gear up for the 60th annual Rainbow Classic, which features Bethesda, UT Arlington, Portland and UH, starting with Bethesda on Friday at 7 p.m.
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
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