Largely unseen Hawaii men's basketball team readies for debut in Rainbow Classic

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.