HONOLULU — Time to pull back the curtain.

At last, the Hawaii men’s basketball team will perform live in front of its primary audience as it opens the 2024-25 regular season against NAIA school Life Pacific in the Outrigger Rainbow Classic at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Friday night.

This year’s preseason was unusual in that it did not feature an exhibition in its home venue. UH played Hawaii Hilo on the Big Island and Chaminade on Maui. Neither game was televised or live streamed, and only the Hilo game was broadcast on the radio.

UH held a “Rainbow Madness” introductory event in the Sheriff last month but it did not feature any up-and-down action.

It all contributed to an sense of mystery for a roster that was heavily rebuilt from the 20-14 squad that bowed out in the Big West semifinals in March.

UH brought in four Division I transfers to help provide an immediate impact from the loss of its top six scorers, including an All-Big West second-teamer at forward in Justin McKoy and two career 1,000-point scorers in Noel Coleman and Bernardo da Silva. There are three more international additions and two high school graduates who made the direct leap.

“The sooner you know, the better,” 10^th-year coach Eran Ganot said to a question of his preferred lineup on Tuesday. “With this team, I’d say we’ve been experimenting more. We don’t want to make quick judgments when guys are still getting comfortable. But a group has emerged and I feel like we have some key guys coming off the bench to create a spark. There’s still some competing going on.”

UH, which is set to join the Mountain West as a full member in 2026-27, will attempt to overcome expectations and earn the program’s first postseason appearance since Ganot’s first season in 2016-17. The Rainbow Warriors were picked to finish seventh in the Big West coaches preseason poll.

The starting lineup will feature, at minimum, four players either new to the roster or unused to having their name read out to the crowd in pregame introductions.

That level of transition was apparent in the team’s preseason results. UH committed 54 turnovers and won by a combined eight points in the two games against local Division II teams.

Point guard, while always crucial, is the position to watch as the Rainbow Warriors find their way. Sophomore Tom Beattie is getting the first crack at the job, though UH has employed Houston Christian transfer Marcus Greene, freshman Aaron Hunkin-Claytor and walk-on-turned-scholarship guard Kody Williams at the position.

Ganot is fond of pairing point guards together in the backcourt, a la JoVon McClanahan and Juan Munoz last year.

“You want to have guys emerge. You don’t want to have a revolving door,” Ganot said.

Beattie, a 6-foot-5 New Zealander who made a name with his hustle plays last season, acknowledged his 12 turnovers against five assists in the exhibitions and said that he is still learning how to operate the offense while guarding opponents’ best perimeter player on defense. But, he added, he is up for the challenge.

The team’s giveaways, which happened on anything from inbounds passes against the press, in the open court and in the halfcourt, are “just things we can’t have,” Beattie said.

“I feel like it was just our sloppiness,” Beattie said. “Not making a firm pass, not being strong with the ball. The ball was taken from our hands probably five times in that Hilo game.”

The only returning starter, wing Ryan Rapp, missed both exhibitions with a hand injury and is questionable to play in the three-games-in-four-days round-robin tournament. Williams missed the Chaminade game but is available.

Rapp and Beattie were recently named co-captains.

The Rainbow Classic, while a storied piece of the program’s history, has been an inconsistent presence on the UH schedule in recent years. It was left off in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2023 due to difficulties filling out the field.

San Jose State (0-1) of the Mountain West and Pacific (1-0) of the West Coast Conference lead off the tournament at 4:30 p.m. preceding UH’s opener.

“We’re a lot like everybody right now, so it’ll be a lot of new faces for all the teams, learning about each other on the fly and how quickly we can make those adjustments in real time,” Ganot said.

The inclusion of Life Pacific marked the third time in the last five editions of the Rainbow Classic that a non-Division-I team was part of the field.

Life Pacific faced five Division I opponents in the 2023-24 season and had an average margin of loss of 29.6 points. The Warriors of San Dimas, Calif., played at Loyola Marymount on Monday and lost 99-56.

Friday’s game will not officially count for Life Pacific (1-0), though it will for UH. LPU is expected to come at UH with a smallball attack; the visiting Warriors top out at 6 feet 8.

UH will likely look to leverage its size, including with 6-foot-10 sophomore Akira Jacobs at small forward. Jacobs scored 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting against a similarly undersized Chaminade lineup.

Jacobs, who played for his native Japan in the 2024 Paris Olympics, is anxious to display that he is more than a 3-point specialist.

“Last year’s experience playing the 4, it was a very valuable experience playing against stronger (players),” Jacobs said. “I think that’s really helped me now that I’ve moved back to the wing. Having more height and being physically stronger than a lot of wings, I want to use that to my advantage in the games.”

There are opportunities aplenty around up front with the losses of McKoy, da Silva and Mor Seck, the affable 7-footer who went into the transfer portal and ended up at Fresno State.

Utah Tech transfer Tanner Christensen, a 6-10, 265-pound center with a deft outside touch, was UH’s most consistent player in the exhibitions; he posted a double-double in each game. Christensen has drawn raves (and administered bruises) with his physical screen-setting to free up guards.

UH is also expected to get an instant impact from Xavier transfer Gytis Nemeiksa (pronounced NAY-MAKE-SHA), a rugged, 6-8 Lithuanian with a dour countenance.

“You guys saw the game face,” Ganot moments after Nemeiksa walked past a media scrum. “We talk a lot about ‘the look.’ We don’t have to tell him that.”

Nemeiksa started 20 games for the Musketeers, averaging 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds.

“I expect him to follow the lead of what Kamaka (Hepa) and Jerome Desrosiers and Justin McKoy have done in the past,” Ganot said of the senior. “They’ve also had a process to go through. … But the potential’s there, the talent’s there, the desire’s there. He’s gotta stay with it.”

Along with junior Harry Rouhliadeff, UH is also expected to include Valparaiso transfer Jerome Palm in the frontcourt rotation. Palm, a vocal presence at 6-10 and 225 pounds, has enthusiastically battled the beefier Christensen on a daily basis.

“They come in and have that physicality from the get-go,” Beattie said of the bigs. “They have some of the biggest voices in the locker room. Experience, knowledge, and very smart dudes.”

SJSU went 9-23 last season and Pacific was 6-26.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.

Shareholders of Territorial Bancorp in Honolulu on Wednesday voted in favor of a sale to Los Angeles-based Hope Bancorp, ending a contentious and protracted campaign to derail the deal and paving a path to close it by the end of this year.

The deal, announced in April, faced major hurdles in recent weeks after an investor group stepped in with a competing offer — and a higher price tag — that called into question the merits of Hope’s offer. The shareholder vote was originally scheduled for October but was delayed to muster support.

The combination still needs regulatory approval.

“We expect our combination with Bank of Hope to strengthen Territorial for the long term, providing many advantages for our customers and employees as we become part of a larger organization with greater resources, enhanced technology platforms, and an expanded array of banking products and services,” Territorial Chairman and CEO Allan Kitagawa said in a press release after the vote. “We greatly appreciate the hard work of our employees and their unwavering commitment to delivering outstanding service as we progress toward the closing of this transaction.”

The $17.4 billion-asset Hope agreed in April to an all-stock deal valued at $78.6 million. Hope previously said its offer priced Territorial at $8.82 per share and that it expected to close the transaction by Dec. 31.

However, an investor group led by Blue Hill Advisors and former Bank of Hawaii CEO Allan Landon made a competing offer in August. Its initial cash bid valued Territorial at $12 per share. It later upped that to $12.50 per share.

“We think our offer is clearly superior,” Landon said in an interview ahead of the vote.

Territorial’s shares traded above $11 on Wednesday.

Landon said the Hope offer came before the Federal Reserve made clear that it planned to cut interest rates and provide relief to community banks such as Territorial, whose securities portfolios and earnings have been under pressure. The Fed lowered its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points in September and signaled more reductions could follow.

Territorial swung to a third-quarter net loss of $1.3 million, or 15 cents per share, from year-earlier net income of $880,000, or 10 cents per share. Territorial holds older bonds and other assets at low rates and had to pay more for deposits over the past couple years. As a result, its third-quarter net interest income decreased by nearly $2.6 million from a year earlier to $7.5 million.

However, with rates now declining, Landon said the bank’s earnings are poised to recover, and Territorial was worth more than the Hope offer implied.

Before the vote, Yakira Capital Management, one of Territorial’s largest shareholders, urged the bank to consider the Blue Hill offer, calling it financially superior.

“We continue to question why the board is so vehemently against an offer that provides approximately 25% more value for shareholders,” the Westport, Connecticut-based investment manager said. It owns more than 1% of Territorial’s shares. 

That statement came on the heels of proxy advisor Institutional Shareholder Services supporting consideration of the Blue Hill offer.

However, ISS reversed its position ahead of the vote, and proxy advisor Glass Lewis also recommended that shareholders get behind the Hope deal.

In a letter to shareholders last week, Territorial’s board said it remained committed to the Hope deal. The board said the Blue Hill bid presented too many uncertainties and ultimately did not appear stronger than the Hope package when all factors were considered.

The $2.2 billion-asset bank’s board said that the Blue Hill offer was made on behalf of investors who had not presented sufficient evidence that they had the financial wherewithal to follow through on their offer or the expertise to secure regulatory approvals.

Territorial also said it would have to pay Hope a $3 million termination fee to pursue the investor group’s offer — an expensive risk given uncertainty about whether the competing offer was sound.

The Blue Hill-led group in October provided an addendum to its offer to provide additional details about the “seven seasoned bank investors backing the proposal, whose individual expressions of interest in acquiring Territorial shares total $134 million,” according to a press release at the time. “That is $26 million more than the amount required to tender for 100% of Territorial’s shares at a price of $12.50 per share.”

The investors collectively manage $3.4 billion “and comprise a mix of funds, family offices and private investors who have executed hundreds of transactions like this,” according to the group’s press release.

Territorial’s shareholder vote was webcast Wednesday afternoon Eastern time. Executives, who were not immediately available to comment, said on the webcast that a majority of shareholders voted in favor of the Hope sale. They said a precise tally would follow in a forthcoming Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

A Blue Hill spokesman said Wednesday the group would await the SEC filing before commenting.

Hawaiian Electric Industries formalized a $2 billion agreement to settle damage claims from a wildfire that razed the historic town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people.

The utility-owner had reached a tentative agreement in August in which it, along with other defendants including the state of Hawaii, Maui County and landowners, would pay $4 billion to resolve hundreds of lawsuits stemming from last year’s wildfire, according to a filing Tuesday.