Gameday: Hawaii Pacific

UPDATE: Point guard Roderick Bobbitt is not dressed to play against HPU and will miss his first game of the season.
Per UH: “The team is working through some issues with Roderick Bobbitt.”

Isaac Fleming is getting the start in his stead. I’d hinted that this might be a possibility in Saturday’s paper.

UPDATE: Here was Eran Ganot after UH’s 83-71 win: “I think he was a good teammate on the bench today. He didn’t play, I’ll leave it at that. We’ll meet and go from there. I think there’s been some nagging deals, same we had with (Stefan Jankovic), same with a lot of our guys.”

Ganot added that he expected the team to be at full strength for the upcoming Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.

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Is everyone enjoying the PacWest tour?

Whether or not you’re feeling this portion of Hawaii’s schedule, UH presses on against local Division II competition when the Rainbow Warriors host Hawaii Pacific tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

After tonight, UH will have faced all four D-II teams in the islands in some form. There was a preseason closed-door scrimmage against BYU-Hawaii, an exhibition win in overtime against Chaminade and a 19-point victory over Hawaii Hilo on Tuesday.

It is the third straight year two of UH’s official games are against a Division II foe. This year, however, it seems exacerbated because the games come back to back, something that hasn’t happened since 1982.

Athletic director David Matlin has said he’s cut Eran Ganot some slack on this year’s schedule, which was completed late with the coaching changeover and has received some criticism for its overall strength. It’s possible the recent trend of D-IIs could get dialed down again in future seasons … but we’ll see. They can be a convenient stopgap for holes in the schedule. Aside from exempt tournaments, its tough to get premier competition to come all the way out here these days — next year’s stand-alone game with North Carolina notwithstanding. And that one came about as a byproduct of the Tar Heels heading over to Maui.

As for tonight … HPU should be a more competitive foe than extremely undersized Hilo. The Sharks have three former Division I players to lean upon, some size (6-10) to employ, and coach Darren Vorderbruegge just got his team healthy in recent days. HPU has some big-game experience already, as well, and can shoot the ball.

Something to watch for is the minutes given to point guard Roderick Bobbitt. Bobbitt has struggled in recent games and frankly looked disinterested against Hilo on Tuesday. Isaac Fleming supplanted him in practicing with the first team the last couple days, and it sounds like he will get the start.

Bobbitt may have gotten the message.

I've been through so much in my life and the fact that I wake up every morning in Hawaii is a blessing , real talk. #Blessed

— Roderick Bobbitt (@Kingbobbitt5) December 10, 2015

Meanwhile, big man Stefan Jankovic will be back out there after missing his first game of the season Tuesday, causing the first change in the starting lineup this season. Jankovic said if it were a Big West game he could have played but it didn’t make sense to make his back worse against Hilo.

UH and HPU are only 1-1 in official meetings. The last came almost exactly five years ago, a 22-point Rainbows win. HPU kicked off the series with a 10-point win in December of 1985, also the last time a non-D-I opponent defeated UH. UH was 4-24 that year under Frank Arnold.