Following the past Saturday\u2019s setback, the Hawaii basketball team has been in attack mode in preparation for tonight\u2019s game against Cal State Bakersfield in Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.<\/p>\n
In the road loss to UC Santa Barbara. the Rainbow Warriors were out-rebounded for the fourth consecutive game, started off in a 7-0 hole, and allowed missed shots to dissolve into tentative play.<\/p>\n
\u201cExposed as a team, exposed in some areas,\u201d head coach Eran Ganot said. \u201cThat\u2019s life. What do you do with it? I feel we\u2019ll attack it well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2019Bows emphasized rebounding in recent practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lost four straight on the boards,\u201d Ganot said. \u201cI don\u2019t know the last time we\u2019ve done that. We\u2019ve always been a real good rebounding program, sometimes elite. But exposed. Let\u2019s attack it and address it because there are some really good rebounding teams in our league and good rebounding teams coming in here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2019Bows still average a plus-7.5 rebounding advantage overall, but that margin is only plus-3.0 in seven Big West games. The \u2019Bows also have slipped from the top 10 to 57th nationally in defensive rebound percentage (72.9%).<\/p>\n
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\u201cProbably falling away from the habits,\u201d post Harry Rouhliadeff reasoned. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been a great rebounding team just because of those habits. We just need to get back to it. Once we get a good rebounding game under our belt, we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ganot also wants the \u2019Bows to continue to draw shooting fouls. The \u2019Bows are 56th in the NCAA with 24.4 free-throw attempts per game. Center Isaac \u201cBig Fish\u201d Johnson is the nation\u2019s 31st most accurate free-throw shooter (89.7%).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have consistently shown we\u2019ll bounce back and attack those (shortcomings) rather than say, \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s this or that.\u2019\u201d Ganot said. \u201cWe\u2019ll own it, address it, attack it and make us better. We have to keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Challenges have been a season-long theme for Cal State Bakersfield.<\/p>\n
Last September, it was revealed Kyle Conder was no longer the athletic director; assistant coach Kevin Mays was arrested and charged with several felonies, and Rod Barnes resigned after 14 years as CSUB head coach. Mike Scott, Barnes\u2019 top assistant, was named acting head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was challenging because of the swiftness that it happened,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIn terms of what we taught them to do and what we\u2019ve done, we changed some things from what Coach (Barnes) was doing to try to fit to our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott initially implemented a quick-tempo style that involved \u201ca little better spacing.\u201d But injures forced Scott to make further alterations. Dailin Smith, who leads the Roadrunners with 14.9-point scoring average, missed the final two games in December because of an injury. Tom Mark, a 6-7 forward, missed five games. This month, guard CJ Hardy suffered a broken foot and will be sidelined between four and six weeks. Wing Jaden Alexander, who averaged 15.4 points the past eight games (including 35 against UC Davis), hurt his foot on Saturday and is unlikely to be available tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of been like that throughout the season,\u201d Scott said. \u201cRight now we\u2019re down CJ Hardy and Jaden Alexander. Both have been playing really well for us. It\u2019s kind of been one of those years for us injury-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Scott has drawn from several coaching mentors and his own vision to utilize a roster that emphasizes athleticism, physicality, rim protecting and hunting for rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Bakersfield\u2019s brand of basketball,\u201d UH defensive coordinator Rob Jones said. \u201cThey\u2019re always physical. They\u2019re always going to make you work. They turn you over and try to run in transition. They\u2019re confident in taking their shots. They know the other four guys are going to rebound it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Roadrunners are connecting on 41.8% of their shots, including 29.7% from behind the arc. But they have rebounded 36.2% of their misses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t shot the ball great all year long,\u201d Scott said. \u201cWhat\u2019s helped us out is when we miss some shots, we try to go get some back (on rebounds) to keep us in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ronald Jessamy, a 6-8 transfer from Tennessee State, has grabbed 33% of his rebounds off the offensive glass. Jessamy averages 2.0 blocks per game. Pierre Geneste, a 6-11 post who previously played at Fresno State and Louisiana Tech, averages 0.36 rebounds a minute.<\/p>\n
After sitting in the transfer portal for more than a year, Smith, who recovered from a leg injury suffered at Alabama State, has emerged as the Roadrunners\u2019 leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnbelievable kid,\u201d Scott said of Smith. \u201cHe\u2019s been really good for our program. He\u2019s one of those guys who always does the right thing. He\u2019s always cheering on guys, even when he\u2019s not playing. He\u2019s definitely one of the kids you want to have in your program every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
RAINBOW WARRIORS BASKETBALL<\/p>\n
At Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center <\/p>\n
CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD (8-12, 2-5 BIG WEST) AT HAWAII (13-4, 5-2 BW)<\/p>\n
>> When: 7:05 p.m. today<\/p>\n
>> TV: Spectrum Sports<\/p>\n
>> Radio: 1420-AM\/92.7-FM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the past Saturday\u2019s setback, the Hawaii basketball team has been in attack mode in preparation for tonight\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,14596],"class_list":{"0":"post-144539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news","11":"tag-editors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}