Hawaii basketball: Saturday seeding scenarios for Rainbow Warriors, Wahine
Both the Hawaii men’s and women’s basketball teams have multiple scenarios heading into the final day of their regular seasons on Saturday.
Up-and-down play by UH and some jumbled standings have made for uncertain seedings and matchups in the Big West tournament in Anaheim (and also at Long Beach State in the case of the women).
Here’s how the standings look heading into Saturday’s games — at Cal State Northridge for the men (17-12, 8-7 Big West) and at home, senior night, against Cal Poly for the women (14-14, 8-7).
The men:
Updated March 7
| Conference | Overall | |||
| W-L | Pct. | W-L | Pct. | |
| UC Irvine | 13-3 | .813 | 21-11 | .656 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 10-6 | .625 | 21-10 | .677 |
| Cal State Northridge | 10-6 | .625 | 15-17 | .469 |
| Hawaii | 8-8 | .500 | 17-13 | .567 |
| UC Davis | 8-8 | .500 | 14-18 | .438 |
| UC Riverside | 7-9 | .438 | 17-15 | .531 |
| Cal State Fullerton | 6-10 | .375 | 11-20 | .355 |
| Long Beach State | 6-10 | .375 | 11-21 | .344 |
| Cal Poly | 4-12 | .250 | 7-23 | .233 |
The women:
Through March 11
| Conference | Overall | |||
| W-L | Pct. | W-L | Pct. | |
| UC Davis | 12-4 | .750 | 17-12 | .586 |
| Hawaii | 9-7 | .563 | 16-14 | .533 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 9-7 | .563 | 14-15 | .483 |
| UC Irvine | 9-7 | .563 | 13-18 | .419 |
| Cal State Fullerton | 8-8 | .500 | 17-14 | .548 |
| Long Beach State | 8-8 | .500 | 13-17 | .433 |
| Cal State Northridge | 7-9 | .438 | 12-19 | .387 |
| Cal Poly | 6-10 | .375 | 11-18 | .379 |
| UC Riverside | 4-12 | .250 | 8-22 | .267 |
For the Rainbow Warriors, they’re within a game of three teams — UCSB (9-6), CSUN (9-6), and UC Davis (8-7) after Thursday’s Samuta Avea-led comeback win at Davis.
Among those, UH loses the head-to-head tiebreaker to UCSB (split head to head, but Gauchos beat first-place UC Irvine); it owns the tiebreaker over Davis (via head-to-head sweep); and would own the tiebreaker with CSUN (via head-to-head sweep) if UH manages to win at the Matadome on Saturday.
So the seeds can shake out for the UH men as follows:
2 — If UCSB loses at home to Cal Poly and UH beats CSUN (via three- or four-way tiebreaker in UH’s favor with UCSB, CSUN, UH, UCD)
3 — If UCSB wins and UH wins (via two- or three-way tiebreaker in UH’s favor with CSUN and UCD)
4 — If UH loses and UC Davis loses at UC Riverside (via head-to-head tiebreaker over Davis)
5 — If UH loses and UC Davis wins.
As for possible first-round opponents, it looks like UH could face anyone except UC Irvine, UCSB and CSUN.
For the Rainbow Wahine, the standings are also very jumbled, perhaps more so, but the possibilities for UH are actually pretty streamlined because it loses head-to-head and multi-team tiebreakers to UCSB, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Long Beach State.
Their possibilities are:
4 — If UH beats Cal Poly
5 — If UH loses and Long Beach State loses to UC Davis
6 — If UH loses to Cal Poly and Long Beach State beats UC Davis
UPDATE: Added possibilities for 5 seed
The difference between a win and a loss on senior night is huge, as UH would avoid the first round reserved for the bottom four teams in the tournament with a win. Regardless, they’ll be opening up play at the Walter Pyramid next week on either Tuesday or Wednesday. Teams are re-seeded in the brackets each round, so if UH is the 4, it will face the highest-seeded team to emerge from Day 1. If it is the 6, it will face the 7 seed on Day 1, which could be Long Beach State, CSUN or Cal Poly.
What’s so sad about this is that my parents pretty much scrutinized me from not going to the Cal Poly WBB game just because of the stupid coronavirus debacle roaming about. And that first case occurred around the same day where the MVB match against BYU and the baseball game against Oregon came on about.
I’m extremely aggravated because now the concern looming ahead is if I end up missing more UH games just because of this “panic” of the coronavirus raging on about.
I understand UH is trying to calm the surface by not creating such a fuss with the coronavirus roaming on about, but what concerns me is if some games currently on schedule for the active UH sports get cancelled just because of this. Chicago State men’s basketball had to cancel their travel to Seattle U just because of precautions concerning with the coronavirus. Already in, we have one case, and people are freaking out for no reason whatsoever, therefore, causing people to panic and worry by just staying safe at home. Give me a break. A full crowd ended up at the Stan around the same time baseball against Oregon came on about where the same day saw our first Coronavirus case. This is a joke if I end up missing out more UH games if my parents continue to give me problems with staying home and not attending any games with it roaming on about. So frustrated to say the least.