Rainbow Forecast: Hawaii football faces Army on senior night, basketball teams play 2 doubleheaders
First and foremost, happy Thanksgiving all.
In this week’s delayed edition of the Forecast (I got a little sidetracked at the Maui Invitational) some post-Turkey Day action makes for a busy weekend. Fortunately, there was nothing on the UH calendar in the first half of the week.
Of course, there’s the UH football team’s senior night battle against Army, concluding the regular season. Note the late start (7:30 p.m.) for the CBS Sports Network-televised game. The Rainbow Warriors (8-4, 5-3 Mountain West) are coming off their first MWC West Division title, and will face Boise State in Boise for the league championship on Dec. 7. However, they can’t just skip out on their meeting with the Black Knights, now can they?
The UH basketball teams fill out the rest of the schedule, with the Rainbow Wahine hosting the potent Heineken Showdown, which features some of their best competition of the year. That’s three straight days (Friday-Sunday) of action. For two of them, Friday and Sunday, the Rainbow Warriors will play a nightcap following the Wahine game.
Also — and this is not to be overlooked one bit — the Wahine volleyball team will learn its postseason destination on Sunday during the NCAA tournament selection show. UH, which has an RPI of 11, stands an excellent chance of hosting first- and second-round matches, but you never know.
There’s also a beach volleyball exhibition against USC on Friday and a pairs exhibition Sunday at Queens Beach.
FRIDAY
Women’s basketball: North Texas (2-3) at Hawaii (3-2), 5 p.m. (Spectrum Sports, KKEA 1420-AM)
The Texas theme to the home schedule rolls right into another tournament coming off UH’s split of contests with Texas-San Antonio and Texas Southern last week. While UH’s 74-57 loss to TSU of the SWAC was alarming, North Texas has a worse one, having fallen 61-59 to non-Division I Mid-America Christian on Nov. 7. Amy Atwell leads the Wahine with 10.4 points per game after being named to the all-tournament team last week.
North Carolina State and Texas meet in the first game of the day, at 2:30.
Men’s basketball: San Francisco (7-0) at Hawaii (4-2), 7:30 p.m. (Spectrum Sports, KKEA 1420-AM)
“Fabulous Five Night” will be the ‘Bows’ greatest home test so far under acting coach Chris Gerlufsen, or at least up there with South Dakota. This West Coast Conference team has been notoriously difficult to put away here over the years. The unbeaten Dons are led by 33-year-old Todd Golden, a former associate head coach under Kyle Smith, who left to take the Washington State job in the offseason. USF has outscored opponents by an average margin of nearly 20 points. For UH, senior shooting guard Eddie Stansberry has four 20-point games so far in playing nearly every minute of every game. As for the game theme, members of the 1971 NIT and 1972 NCAA Tournament teams will be on hand to be honored as part of UH’s ongoing 100th season celebration.
SATURDAY
Women’s basketball: No. 12 North Carolina State (5-0) at Hawaii, 2:30 p.m. (KKEA 1420-AM)
The Wolfpack of the ACC has yet to have a game go down to the wire; they’ve blown out every team they’ve faced so far. Their closest was a 17-point win at Saint Mary’s last Sunday. Other wins include Lamar by 41; UNC-Wilmington by 40; North Carolina A&T by 36; and Maine by 28. Yowza. NC State is the prohibitive favorite in this round-robin tournament. If you’re coming to this one, you SHOULD be able to hustle over to Aloha Stadium in time for UH football.
Football: Army (5-6) at Hawaii (8-4), 7:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Network, KKEA 1420-AM)
Nick Rolovich has resolved to pull no punches and pull no players for this game, UH’s second of the season against a service academy. While this battle against the Black Knights will have no bearing on UH’s bowl eligibility or Mountain West standing, of course the Rainbow Warriors want to be playing well heading into the Mountain West championship. The Knights have struggled a bit of late and aren’t quite up to the standard they set last year, when they outlasted the Warriors 28-21 at Michie Stadium at West Point, N.Y., and went on to finish 11-2, including an all-important win over Navy to cap the regular season. However, it’s worth noting that Army lost only 17-13 at Air Force. Side note: Where you at, haters of the UH defense? While the ‘Bows did not play offensive juggernauts the last two weeks, they managed to hold UNLV to seven points and San Diego State to 11. That’s nothing to sniff at. However, UH struggled mightily to stop the option against Air Force (56-26 loss), and the Knights will bring a similar offensive style to bear. The Knights average 302.6 yards per game on the ground, and about 83 passing. Who knows what UH will do at quarterback this time? Maybe Rolovich will rest some guys after all and Justin Uahinui will get to run the show.
Beach volleyball: USC at Hawaii (exhibitions), noon and 3 p.m.
This is the first glimpse at the 2020 SandBows. It will be an honest look, as the Rainbow Wahine face last year’s national runner-up, USC. The teams will play a pair of dual matches. Seven players return from last year’s squad that went 28-11 and finished in the top four of the national tourney.
SUNDAY
Women’s basketball: Texas (3-2) at Hawaii, 2:30 p.m. (Spectrum Sports, KKEA 1420-AM)
The formerly ranked Longhorns (No. 22 preseason) opened up the season with a loss at South Florida and have been out of the AP Top 25 poll since. But this team is still plenty dangerous, having spanked mutual opponent Texas-San Antonio by 31 (UH beat the Roadrunners by 12). The Longhorns are coming off a FIFTY-FOUR-point home win over Southern.
Men’s basketball: Hawaii Pacific (2-2) at Hawaii, 5 p.m. (Spectrum Sports, KKEA 1420-AM)
By the transitive property, UH should have an easier time with the Sharks than they did with Chaminade in a preseason exhibition. The Silverswords went on to win handily over the two Alaska Division II teams, Fairbanks and Anchorage. HPU went to the same tournament and lost to both Alaska teams. (But there’s a reason why the transitive property is not totally reliable in sports. Stuff happens.) Darren Vorderbruegge’s Sharks will likely use this game as an exhibition on their side of things, though it will officially count for UH. HPU is coming off two wins in Washington and will have been off since Nov. 13.
Beach volleyball: Pairs tournament, all day (Spectrum OC16)
The SandBows get in more work in advance of their 2020 season at their favorite off-campus site, Queens Beach. You can bet Cindy Luis will have more on this 16-pair event in the coming days. The 3 p.m. final is being televised.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE !!!!!!! Gobble-Gobble…….
Thankful for these Rainbow forecasts, it definitely helps me make sure I don’t miss an UH athletic events. Mahalo Brian!
My pleasure. Glad it is of some help. I’ll be back to doing them at the start of the week this coming week.
Football, the Defense and Rolovich.
Football. You always want to win, but it might be wise to start Chevan Cordeiro to keep McDonald fresh and injury free for the title game against Boise State. Same can be said for Chevan, so I also like your suggestion of playing Uahihui.
Defense Haters. Come on Brian, there are no haters. Just critics of the defense that gave up 59 and 56 points against Boise St and Air Force, respectively. Then they followed that by giving up 31, 41 and 40 points the next three weeks. Let’s see if the same defensive unit that showed up for the San Diego State game, shows up for Army.
Rolovich. Today’s article, “Assault at UH Game…” Bad, unfortunate news. Hope this matter is resolved quickly and amicably.
Boy do I get bored by the UH PA announcer for basketball games. I wish the volleyball announcer, Ben Kia’aina, would serve as the announcer for all sports.
My high school algebra teacher would be a better announcer that our basketball and football games.
This football game is a big one. First and foremost, these two teams have a lot worth fighting for.
Army, for one, is 5-6 currently, on a bye week. They need to beat Hawaii and Navy to get to a bowl game. Lose either of the two, they may not be eligible. Army’s been a weird team that’s had ugly losses despite some astonishing wins. Basically, (Like in a Clint Eastwood movie) “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” kind of team. They have astonishing wins against Morgan State, UMass and VMI, outscoring them 162-34, but had ugly losses to Western Kentucky, Georgia State (In which is a rare one), Tulane, San Jose State, and Air Force. They gave then ranked-7 Michigan all the could, but lost ugly by a sack and a fumble to boot. This game is begging to say “Trap game” right there. Despite them leading the nation in rushing yards, they haven’t proved it in their losses. Question becomes which Army team is going to show up at Aloha Stadium?
Hawaii, already has clinched not only bowl eligibility, but their conference division title (Despite it being partially marred by the brawl, as H-Man pointed out). They’re 8-4 currently and has played ugly in their last two games following their win against SJSU, winning 21 and 14 points respectably against UNLV and San Diego State. This team’s poise is starting to showcase, especially on their defense. Their focus was there, and now is the matter of attention to see if they can finish out strong in their final home game before the championship bout with Boise State. A win over Army could possibly make Rolo forget the 2017 3-9 season and possibly have the program tie the most wins of the season since 2010.
This final game will dictate their destiny and see how it will end. Hopefully, Hawaii will do good against the Knights. I’m expecting this to end in a down-to-the-wire scenario, because that’s technically how these two teams have done. I don’t think Hawaii can blow out the Black Knights like how they did it in 2003, 59-28. But, Hawaii needs to keep their composure and have Cole and Chevan put their best foot forward against them. Let’s do it! Do it for the 30+ seniors on the squad!
Whoops…I misread it on the website…it’s supposed to be 23. My bad, Brian.
H-Man,
I was being a little tongue-in-cheek on that one. The defense was definitely suspect until the last couple weeks.