HONOLULU — Eran Ganot is fond of the keiki clinics the Hawaii men’s basketball program puts on every summer. The enthusiasm of young minds and the transfer of knowledge to them gets him going at an otherwise quiet time in the hoops calendar.
Good thing, too, because the 10th-year Rainbow Warriors coach will be overseeing something approximating a higher-stakes version of a hoops seminar over the next several weeks.
UH held its first full preseason practice for the upcoming 2024-25 campaign on Friday. Among the roster of 15 players to exert themselves in the pleasant air conditioning of Gym II were eight newcomers – they and a few returning rotation players went to work in a series of drills and some officiated competition.
[Note: See below for more photos of the first UH men's basketball practice.]
The ‘Bows lost the core of their 20-win outfits of the last two years – JoVon McClanahan, Noel Coleman, Bernardo da Silva and Juan Munoz among them.
Ganot gave a nod of appreciation when asked about the education that must take place ahead of the Nov. 8 opener against NAIA Life Pacific.
“We’ve got to explain all the rules. We’ve got guys coming in from high school, from junior college, from international,” he said. “There’s a little bit of that, throwing them in the fire, seeing what they can handle, seeing where we can push them, taking steps back, chipping away at this thing.
“The objective is to make sure we’re executing at a high level and making sure everybody’s on the same page. But there is some experimenting right now, and guys jockeying for spots, and that’s not a bad thing.”
UH’s most productive returnee is Ryan Rapp (3.9 points per game, 40.0% field-goal shooting), who stepped into a starting role at midseason. After falling just short of a berth in the Big West championship game, the Rainbows lost their top six in terms of scoring average, including career 1,000-point scorers Coleman and da Silva and a second-team all-conference honoree in Justin McKoy.
To help replace them, Ganot signed four Division I transfers in forward Gytis Nemeiksa (Xavier), guard Marcus Greene (Houston Christian), center Tanner Christensen (Utah Tech) and forward Jerome Palm (Valparaiso).
The crop of first-year college players includes guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor, wings AJ Economou, Osahon Obasohan and Jacopo Van der Knaap and forward Roy Igwe. Economou arrived at midyear of 2023-24 and redshirted.
Sophomores like Tom Beattie and Akira Jacobs suddenly qualify as team veterans. Point guard Kody Williams, redshirt freshman Logan Robeson and junior forward Harry Rouhliadeff are the other returnees.
“The new guys have come in with such a good mindset,” said Beattie, an Australian who used hustle plays to become one of Ganot’s top reserves last year. “They really want to learn the system, learn how to play with us, with each other.”
Beattie wants to showcase improved shooting while Jacobs, a 6-10 wing, plans to apply his summer spent with Japan in the Paris Olympics to be a more than just a 3-point specialist. Forty-six of his 60 field-goal attempts last year were from beyond the arc; he made them at a 34.6% clip.
“It was definitely the longest two and a half months of my life,” said Jacobs, who at one point was tasked to guard 7-foot-4 French phenom Victor Wembanyama, among other standouts. “But in that short amount of time, I felt like I learned so much about the game of basketball, from the players there, playing in that competition. That’s why I’m so ready for this year for Hawaii.”
Dating back to the program’s first season in 1912, there have been only three men to coach the ‘Bows for a decade or more: Riley Wallace (20 years, 1987-2007); Eugene “Luke” Gill, (1930-1941); and Red Rocha (1963-1973).
Ganot, the former Saint Mary’s and UH assistant from Tenafly, N.J., is primed to be the fourth.
Much has changed in college basketball over Ganot’s decade at the helm. In a sign of these largely unregulated times of Name, Image and Likeness benefits, a prominent booster with the Rainbow Collective who has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into the program – with much of that going directly to players – took in Friday’s practice alongside members of the media.
UH’s announced preseason trip to Hawaii Island to face UH Hilo in an exhibition at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium on Oct. 25 is being financially backed by people in the same collective.
Ganot acknowledged the changes of the last three to five years have been immense in men’s basketball.
“You either whine and complain about it or adjust to it, embrace it, because at the end of the day as a staff, from Day 1, we’re pro-student-athlete,” he said. “You navigate your program through those changes while staying true to who you are, how you want your culture to be and consistent with the values of Hawaii. That’s a great challenge right now, but that’s why you coach.”
He had some key staff changes in the offseason. Associate head coach John Montgomery joined Chris Acker’s staff at Long Beach State. To replace him, Ganot hired one of the standout players of his first few years in Manoa, Gibson Johnson, over from Utah Tech. Cullen Neal, a staff member at Rice last year, is Ganot’s new fourth assistant in the role formerly known as director of basketball operations.
UH will put on its eighth annual Tipoff Event fundraiser and team introduction in the Stan Sheriff Center on Oct. 17. Individual tickets are $350.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.