Hawaii men’s basketball: JC guard Madut granted NCAA waiver, will join ‘Bows in January
The NCAA has approved a hardship waiver that will allow guard Junior Madut to join the Rainbow Warrior basketball team in January. Madut had signed with the ‘Bows in April.
Madut was born in South Sudan, grew up in Australia, attended a prep school in Florida, and played the past two seasons at Eastern Florida State College. A hardship was sought because of time Madut spent taking care of a family situation after high school.
“He was clearly a hardship (case),” UH head coach Eran Ganot said. “You have to go through the process of that. We did. And he got the hardship waiver.”
But because of the timing of the approval, it was decided Madut would enroll in January. He has three years to play two seasons. If needed, Madut could play during the 2020 spring semester. He also could redshirt in the spring, after which he would have two full seasons.
“You’re in the process of figuring out what’s best for him and the team in the long run,” Ganot said.
The ‘Bows’ first practice is Friday.
Hmm. What to do? I guess just in time for Conference. Can figure it out then. He may be the missing piece. Cut and slash, multi-position wing who can ball handle little bit, get to the rim with or without the ball and switch/help defend in half court. Tough decision.
I noticed UCF added home and home games with BYU and Boise St. Should help to clarify where Group of Five teams stand Nationally. I hope UH could schedule home and home against American Conference especially as Wisconsin cancels theirs. Anybody (maybe not UCF yet though, that’s for Boise). SMU, Memphis, Houston, Tulane and even Temple. Might draw better than like an Oregon St. or Central Arkansas. And more evenly matched than at Washington or Wisconsin. Will be on TV for sure both games. Can maybe make a little more money this way. We can save Conference USA for Hawaii Bowl.
Personally, I’d rather UH do away with scheduling FCS opponents. I get it that it helps to fill scheduling holes and to pad the W column, but really it’s a lose-lose situation. If you win convincingly, great congrats that’s what you should do. If you win in a close game, wow what happened but lucky to escape with a win. If you lose, ok time to panic that was embarrassing. It’s not like attendance has been good anyway, but having an FBS opponent vs an FCS opponent does make a difference in appeal.
I’d like to see the MWC and the AAC start to schedule each other more. The AAC claims they’re a “Power 6” conference rather than a group of 5 so why not have annual games that challenges the two. I’d rather see Hawaii play a Cincinnati, Navy, Temple, or Houston even it’s on the road rather than playing a Central Arkansas at home.
So how many years do you have to start the clock after high school ? Some attend prep school for one year . How many years did Madut take off for his family ?
A 2 year Mormon mission is allowed by the NCAA.
Why not UCF? That’s Mililani’s former quarterback at their helm. Would be great to play them.
#5 madeinhawaii
Soon but not yet. I think worse than home and home with Wisconsin. Maybe in a Bowl game somewhere first? But soon.
Mahalo for the update Tsai. Do you think it’s more likely that he redshirts this spring semester, or do you think he can still be able to step in and play for this time come conference play?
#2 – not understanding your logic. None of those American Conference teams will draw better than PAC-12.
8.
I agree. Oregon State while not the best football team is still a bigger draw than group of 5 schools in the AAC simply because they are a PAC 12 power 5 program. The exception of course would be UCF.
We need to get USC back. Those games used to either sellout or be close to sell outs.
speaking of the Pac-12 …
our 2020 Pac-12 schedule:
8/29 at ARIZONA
9/05 vs UCLA (Aloha Stadium)
9/19 at OREGON
other OOC:
9/12 vs Fordham – home
10/10 vs New Mexico State – home
azwarrior22
We should still play Pac 12 teams. But UH seems to match up physically better with AAC teams. Also the AAC usually has several teams on the cusp of the Top 25 similar or same as Pac 12 (and MW). Pac 12 might have better top end teams but UH cannot match-up with that kind of talent right now unless they’re at home, maybe. 22400 vs Arizona and 26600 vs Oregon St. So-so (good crowd for Oregon St. actually) attendance wise. It’s not hard to imagine though a 3-0 (#26) Memphis or 4-0 (#29) SMU or a 3-1 (#37) Tulane coming in here with UH not being physically overmatched (and having chance to “kick ass”), drawing a better than average sized crowd. Lets schedule and find out. But you’re right, we do need to see Pac 12 and we will over next few years. But AAC and MW need to play each other home and home more. They are so evenly matched.
USC, Washington, and Oregon (can we include a so-so UCLA here?) is guarantee at least 30000 at Aloha Stadium. Maybe games can be close here but probably a loss. And as visitor to those places loss for sure. Maybe embarrassing so (like Nevada at Oregon) unless incredibly prepared. Is that tradeoff worth it?
So further on the George Ornellas and Lincoln Victor comparison. Ornellas was listed in 1994 Advertiser All Star team as being 5′ 8″, 185 pounds. Victor is listed by UH athletics as 5′ 10″, 165. So comparable.
As for the old fart part, I’ve been a UH season ticket holder since the old stadium. I’ve seen all the great slots over the years: Bess, Owens, Davone, Salas, Ursua, Nate (before the weight) etc. I’ve seen (and remember!) the next tier down guys like RGM, Pilares, McArthur, Sydner. And I remember the solid, reliable workhorse guys like Veneri, Welch, Bain, Ahuna, etc.
Ornellas was different from all of them. It’s hard to compare players across the years, but he just might have been the most talented guy to ever play for UH. He only played a few games before he quit, but he was unreal. He could run by you. He could break your ankles. He could bulldoze you. So he had all the gifts, but what really made him special was his attitude. He had this intensity, this passion and focus that you could feel even sitting in the stands. It was almost a tangible thing. His goal was to take the ball to the endzone and if you tried to stop him, no offense, sir, but he would destroy you and everyone who ever told you it was okay to interfere with him.
So, anyway, it’s early in his career and I’ve only seen him in one game (against an FCS school at that), but Lincoln Victor reminds me of George Ornellas.
12 and 13
Another factor that influences attendance is also simply how well the team has been doing. Attendance in the last home game last year vs UNLV was 25,697. They go one the road and beat SDSU to fully more than secure a bowl spot and then bowl game vs LA tech attendance was 30,911. We of course get blown out and the next home game although next season vs Arizona is 22,396. Its a new season but still riding on the tailcoat of that final game embarrassing loss.
Same thing in 2016. Start the season 1-3. Home game vs Nevada to start the MWC season and win with an attendance of 22,396. Then go on the road and beat SJSU and suddenly UH is 2-0 going into a home game vs UNLV and attendance was 31,287.
Right now there’s that base line of about 20,000 that has been coming to every game. To get the average up, it’s just going to take consistent winning and getting into situations where Hawaii is in the hunt for winning the conference every year.
This Saturday is a must win if there’s any chance of breaking that 30K threshold this year.
Did a YouTube search and there are no clips of Ornellas at UH that I could find, but there are several from his St. Louis days. He’s #2 in the vids.
Ornellas had one good game for UH. He was incredible at St. Louis. Victor had one good game for UH. So same right now. Ornellas had lots of good games on my NCAA PlayStation for UH though. We need that game back somehow.
More than anything, I’d like to see Hawaii do a better job of spacing out the home games.
It’s sort of ridiculous that UH won’t be home for another four weekends. I think the go, and stop, and go, really hurts the flow — for fans, for attendance (oh, wait, that’s the same thing as fans).
Re: Turnovers
Sure, UH should cut down on giveaways. But it also needs to do better on takeaways.
Not sure how, though. I mean, you can’t just cross your arms and say: Turnovers. It’s an effort among the pass rush and tight coverage.
18.
Isn’t that more so a conference matter? Non conference scheduling is tough especially at the end of the season with championship week so all of the non conference games more so happen at the beginning. Other than that it’s just conference games and UH has no control over when the home, away games or byes happen right?
Andrew
Amen. 100%. Let’s play THE BEST people we can match up with and have a good chance to beat going into conference. Get the win total up. Get the core 20000 count up too. I think if say Stanford comes here as #18 team (28 to 30K I think) they beat UH close. If Memphis come here as #18 (27 to 32K) phase lll UH kills them. All because of the crowd and our physical ability to match up evenly. My opinion anyways.
21
Scheduling is part luck also. Some power 5 teams have droughts where they aren’t doing well but scheduling is done so far in advance, an Arizona team that is so-so right now or a UCLA team that is struggling could be top 15 teams in five years.
Warrior Mojo: I agree, Ornellas was something special. A dominant HS athlete. One of the best ever to come out of Hawai’i. Maybe he should have gone away for school. His star burned brightly, but for only a moment.
I can’t remember if Eletise is waiting for the NCAA or if he is on the DHHL wait-list.
UH – NEVADA blog score predictions
24 – 21 … Ipu Man
35 – 25 … NorthShoreFan
52 – 21 … wafan
52 – 31 … bg
56 – 13 … Kekoa
56 – 14 … Akamai Okole/d1shima
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Here are the ground rules for determining the prestigious prognosticator:
1) Duplicate predictions allowed (since there is NO prize)
2) OK to favor the opponent… but we hope you wrong 🙁
2) Predictions posted by 10:00 am on game day.
3) Closest score to the actual wins (absolute value total of over and under difference from both actual scores). Tie-breaker: closest guess to the winning team score.
Hope chevan doesn’t enter the transfer portal at the end of the season.
Apparently people on this blog really enjoy eating Saimin, or so I just read, somewhere. Hmmmm.
Some trivia for the older fans. LB Pono Arias’ grandfather was the lead singer for the Paradise Serenaders. Popular group back in the day.
Sorry. LB Hoku Arias. Pono is his brother. Invite their family to a Tsaiko event. Karaoke will be “Rockin”
I’m not a Tsaiko but I did shake Mr Tsai’s hand one time (collateral kindness?) when I was greeting (in passing) Alika Smith and Rob Pardini as Stephen was having a conversation with them at Kailua Target. Plus he did meet some of my family when he just missed Bobby Webster and the NBA Trophy at Kailua Gym last month… I too enjoy Saimin, And “fluff” articles every now and then.
Basketball recruiting has been a really disturbing…
VC listing us 7th talent-wise, now this.
This program has been taking some steps backwards, just like the BaseBows.
I just thought we would be better by now, since moving from the WAC to BWC in both programs.
#$ I don’t think there is a time limit. There are guys who go into the military first then go to college. Their clock begins when they attend a college that plays that particular sport.
Sorry that was #4
Yup # 4, I’ve known military guys do their first 10-15 years in service and then initially enter school in their 30s and play ball…i
26.
I keep forgetting Cole is a redshirt junior. If Chevan enters the transfer portal because he wants more playing time, then I don’t blame him. Honestly if he’s not getting any playing time, that means Cole is playing well which is a good thing. Chevan should also be able to seek another team where he can start (if he wants to)
The thing is, Cordeiro is just one snap and Uahinui is just two snaps from being the QB.
CtD – Kean was picked up by the Angels yesterday.
36
And hopefully it doesn’t come to that
37 most certainly agree. And don’t forget Cordeiro is still a Freshman.
I like this roster. Hopefully there was some good work done over the summer. Versatile. Should be able to match up and/or play at many different styles while remaining true to Ganot’s system. Should be interesting. Lots of “chess pieces” for Coach to mull upon.
Corderio has a lot to work on before he is the truly finished product that will be ready to lead Phase lll UH and to take them toward Phase IV. His time will come. Maybe sooner than later so he needs to sort out and fix the things that is holding him back (normal physical stuff most Freshmen face) and push Cole from right now. He will be unreal later. Different skillset from McDonald.
Irse
It will be just a matter of time before Coach Rolovich’s program (with the way it embraced the “culture” here) cascades through to the entire Athletics and touch all the major Sports at UH. Ganot has created a similar vibe culture wise and Beeman seems to have found similar “chemistry” to her 2015-2016 team. Ah Mow has fans thrilled with her teams style of play and Wade has showed everyone (especially Matlin) of how winning affects attendance. Trapasso’s teams are always real good on paper and just need to put things together. Maybe it just needs a “spark”. I think it’s coming soon because of Football.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutie_effect
Ah thought chevan was a sophomore
Okeke, Pritchard, and Akoteau return to lineup. Now await the word on Solo and Kohl. This changes the narrative. If the Nevada team that played the last few weeks show up all prognosis are off the table. Not one to predict scores but if we show up their secondary can not control our offense. Thirty degrees or so at game time. Should be fun!
US 38 them 27
That one good game Ornellas had was against UNLV, I think. Road game?
Manoa 17
Reno 16
burro sabio: I knew it! The Rays, for whatever reason, didn’t like him. Good riddance. UH recruit Jake Bauers batted .201 and was never sent down. Conversely, Wong hit .282 at Durham with some pop. Nine home runs. So in fourteen at bats, the Rays ownership said, “Nah.” They’re going to rue the day.
Come join our Road Warrior group at games at Reno and UNLV; and sit with other UH fans and families of our current players at the 50 yard line right behind our beloved Warriors; with the families of Cole McDonald, Justin Uahinui, Jason Matthew-Sharsh, Kanai Picanco, Derek Thomas, Ben Scruton, etc. I can email you the tix for Reno! Come meet Rolo’s mom and our group will meet the players & Rolo after the game!
Our group is 40+ at Reno and 500+ at UNLV; and come join our tailgates and meet your fellow diehard fans!
Email me: tomkitaguchi@yahoo.com
or Text me 415-324-0585
In an article yesterday on Athlon sports, they have their bowl prediction for the Hawaii Bowl
Hawaii Bowl
Dec. 24, ESPN at 8 p.m. ET
Tie-In: BYU vs. Mountain West/American
Projection: BYU vs. Hawaii
I’m sure that’s a bowl game that would attract a large crowd. BYU upset USC this season but also got smashed just as badly by Washington as Hawaii did. It would be a good chance for revenge for Hawaii after getting embarrassed in Provo the other year.
got to get more parking in the stadium. 30K very possible.
New post: https://www.hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=51259