HONOLULU — A pinch of postseason recognition helped ease the burn of a dashed senior night for the elder statesmen of the Hawaii men’s basketball team.
Rainbow Warriors center Isaac “Big Fish” Johnson and wing Dre Bullock were named to the All-Big West first and second teams among conference postseason awards announced Tuesday, while guard Hunter Erickson was tabbed an honorable mention.
Those three are among the oldest players on a team with an average age of beyond 23 years. If the Rainbow Warriors are to make a run to a Big West tournament championship and the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2016, odds are strong they will play a key role.
Second-seeded UH (22-8) was more concerned with its response to Saturday’s loss to a 10-win Long Beach State team just before tournament time than the accolades. The defeat cost UH a share of its fourth all-time conference regular-season title.
The team got in a practice described as “locked in” on Monday ahead of the Credit Union 1 Big West Championships in Henderson, Nev. The four-day tournament begins Wednesday with first-round action at Lee’s Family Forum. UH will play an opponent to be determined at 5:30 p.m. Hawaii time in Friday’s semifinals thanks to its top-two standing and double bye.
“We own it. It was painful,” UH coach Eran Ganot said Tuesday in the Stan Sheriff Center loading dock before the team boarded its bus for the airport and a high-stakes trip.
“I’ve been very appreciative and impressed by our guys’ ability to let it hurt but then come back ready to roll,” the coach added.
UH’s all-conference honorees have been around the ZIP code. They were UH’s final Big West honors before it heads to the Mountain West next season.
Johnson, of American Fork, Utah, came to UH from Utah State and started his college career at Oregon. He averaged a team-high 13.7 points per game in just 20.9 minutes per game to become UH’s first player to make the BWC first team since Eddie Stansberry in 2019-20.
“It’s pretty amazing. Coming from a place where I felt undervalued last year, and to have the opportunity to come out here and to” — the 7-footer paused — “feel the love and feel the support and the belief from my coaches. It’s a night and day difference, and that accolade is a testament to that, of the belief and the love from the coaching staff for my teammates, and it’s an amazing honor.”
Hawaii wing Dre Bullock pushed the pace in transition against Long Beach State on Saturday. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)
Bullock, a high-flying 6-foot-6 native of Franklinton, N.C., was an effective complement to Johnson on the wing and put in 13.6 points and team highs of 5.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. His season-best 27-point performance at Cal State Fullerton included the game-winning shot from the top of the arc.
Bullock called it the best season of a college career that featured six different stops in six years, including four at the Division I level.
“I feel like my coaches just believed in me since Day 1,” Bullock said. “They didn’t … shoot me any lies or sugarcoat anything. They told me straight up what it was, and I needed to work hard to earn their trust too, to kind of balance that out. But yeah, they believed in me. My teammates believed in me. … That’s what made it happen.”
Erickson, a Utah transfer who also played at BYU, stepped in as acting point guard once primary ball-handlers Tanner Cuff and Aaron Hunkin-Claytor went down with season-ending injuries before and during the season. His 4.1 assists per game was fourth in the Big West.
Awardees were selected from voting by the league’s 11 head coaches.
Cal State Northridge point guard Josiah Davis, of Kitchener, Ontario, was named Big West Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year.
Long Beach State guard Gavin Sykes, the conference’s second-leading scorer who led his team to the upset of UH on senior night with a 34-point outburst, was named Freshman of the Year.
Cal State Fullerton’s Dedrique Taylor was named BWC Coach of the Year for the first time after he guided the Titans from a last-place preseason prediction to the third seed with a brand-new roster.
UC Irvine big man Kyle Evans was the Best Defensive Player, CSUN’s Mahmoud Fofana picked up Best Hustle Player and Andre Henry got Best Sixth Player.
Ganot said he thought UH’s top reserve Gytis Nemeiksa had a legitimate shot at the sixth man award and team captain Harry Rouhliadeff deserved to be in the discussion as best defensive player.
Johnson was joined on the first team by Davis, UC Irvine’s Evans and Jurian Dixon, UC Santa Barbara’s Aidan Mahaney and Cal Poly’s Hamad Mousa.
Bullock’s company on the second team was Andrew Henderson of UC Riverside, Larry Hughes II of CSUN, Sykes of LBSU and Josh Ward of Cal State Fullerton.
“Well deserved,” Ganot said of the awards. “Great players on great teams. Usually individual success comes from team success. I certainly hoped that we had a couple more (recognized). But at the same time, think there’s a lot of really talented players our league.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.