Hawaii Warrior World

Formerly about Rainbow Warriors basketball, but now covering all University of Hawaii sports.

About the blog host

Brian McInnis has covered sports on Oahu full time since 2007, when he joined the Honolulu Star-Bulletin staff as a general reporter. He was the UH basketball beat writer from the 2008-09 season through 2017-18. Follow him on twitter @Brian_McInnis

Latest news

Alexander takes step forward

By Brian McInnis on February 7, 2019

UPDATE: The Rainbow Wahine pulled out a 70-68 road win at UC Irvine on Thursday, extending their road winning streak to three games. Jadynn Alexander scored five points on one shot from the field and two free-throw attempts. The Hawaii women’s basketball team has a collection of defensive-minded guards that coach Laura Beeman can call upon in a pinch. Savannah Reier. Rachel Odumu. And Jadynn Alexander. Of the three, Alexander has emerged as the biggest two-way threat for the Rainbow […]

Avea takes his shot to Long Beach

By Brian McInnis on February 5, 2019

Hawaii takes another shot at its first Big West men’s basketball victory at Long Beach State on Thursday. Sophomore wing Samuta Avea is taking his shot, too. “We haven’t done well in the Pyramid, so we’re ready to change that,” Avea said with conviction in front of assembled media outside the Stan Sheriff Center. Behind him, the team prepared to board the bus to the airport at noon Tuesday. For one of the first times in his young career, he […]

Jaylen Jasper reflects on island time

By Brian McInnis on February 3, 2019

Even minutes after Stanford fell in straight sets to Hawaii for the second time in three nights, Cardinal opposite Jaylen Jasper was filled with appreciation, not disappointment. His perspective? It was a pretty cool trip for someone with his family history. Jasper is the son of two former Hawaii athletes, but had never visited the islands until arriving for this weekend’s games with his Cardinal teammates. He was born in California and calls Annapolis, Md., home. “It’s a beautiful state,” […]

Gaucho oucho

By Brian McInnis on February 3, 2019

There are setbacks, and then there’s what happened to Hawaii on Saturday night. UC Santa Barbara thoroughly demolished the Rainbow Warriors in the second half in rolling to a 75-54 road victory, turning what was a battle for temporary top-three standing in the Big West into a referendum on who can and can’t compete for a title in the conference. The lackluster way UH played, and as sound as Santa Barbara was at both ends, led one to believe that […]

Bench mobs Long Beach State

By Brian McInnis on February 1, 2019

Long Beach State made its presence felt from the get-go on Thursday night. So did the officiating crew. Yet it was Hawaii that prevailed in the Big West clash, 74-57, thanks to a relentless effort from its bench players. The stat of the night: 35 bench points for the hosts, 10 for the visitors. This was a night in which shooting came at a premium for both teams, UH shooting just north of 40 percent and LBSU just under it. […]

Can ‘Bows beat out pick again?

By Brian McInnis on January 30, 2019

Hawaii baseball has never been picked especially high in the Big West. It’s also true that Mike Trapasso’s teams have outperformed their perceived status the last several years. The Rainbow Warriors were picked to finish sixth in the 2019 coaches poll announced Wednesday. It might not sound like much, but that matches the highest league prediction in UH’s seven years of Big West baseball. It’s the third time UH was picked there, along with its first two seasons in the […]

Buggs outduels Shorts

By Brian McInnis on January 26, 2019

Drew Buggs really, really didn’t want to give UC Davis any life. On Wednesday against UC Irvine, he’d seen what could happen when that happened. So when Davis was hanging around within 10 points in crunch time, Buggs slammed the coffin shut on the Aggies and reigning Big West player of the year TJ Shorts II. He unleashed several minutes of scoring and playmaking that represented some of the best ball of his young career, taking the Rainbow Warriors home […]

UH tops No. 5 ASU, remains unbeaten