Near the end of any given practice, with the energy level below quarter-tank, the Hawaii basketball players break into two groups to shoot free throws.<\/p>\n
\u201cA strength of ours is getting to the line,\u201d guard Hunter Erickson said following Friday\u2019s practice at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep building on that, practicing free throws every day, keeping the balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The line has been set \u2014 the free-throw line \u2014 when the Rainbow Warriors host 3-5 UTEP. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of challenges with Hawaii because they have so many shooters on the floor and they\u2019re so skilled with the basketball,\u201d UTEP coach Joe Golding said after Friday\u2019s two-hour practice. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to be aggressive and also not foul. That\u2019s a big key. We have a tendency to foul a lot, and they don\u2019t foul a lot. They\u2019re really good free-throw shooters. We don\u2019t want to put them on the foul line. I think that will be a huge key to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 20.9 fouls per game, the Miners are ranked No. 338 (out of 361 Division I teams). In contrast, the \u2019Bows are 10th in free throws made (20.7 per game) and eighth in attempts (29.0). UH center Isaac \u201cBig Fish\u201d Johnson, has converted 92.5% of his free throws, including a since-ended run of 38 in a row. Harry Rouhliadeff, who rotates between the four and five positions, has made 80.8% of his free throws; Erickson is 76.9% accurate from the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cGames are won and lost at the free-throw line a lot of times,\u201d Johnson said. \u201dWhen you step up to the line, even in practice, it\u2019s business. We\u2019ve done a good job of finding a balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
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With 10 newcomers, the Miners are seeking offensive stability. Jamal West Jr. is a physical 6-6 forward who averages 5.6 boards, with 22 of his 45 rebounds claimed off the offensive glass. Elijah Jones is a stretch-post who has launched 24 3-point shots, second most among Miners. Kaseem Watson, who began his career at Cal State Bakersfield, is a creative 6-9 wing-forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a lot scorers and a lot of good players,\u201d UH assistant coach Rob Jones said.<\/p>\n
Golding said: \u201cWe\u2019re getting better ball movement. I think we\u2019re getting some structure to what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019re getting better the last couple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golding has established a system of aggressive defensive schemes that pressure at midcourt, switch matchups frequently, and attack the passing lanes. The Miners force 16.5 turnovers per game. They average 17.6 points off turnovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been married to that aggressive style on the defensive end,\u201d Golding said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to get this team to buy into it. Winning helps, and we haven\u2019t won a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erickson said: \u201cWe have to hone in on being strong with the ball. When they\u2019re reaching for the ball, we have to be strong with it. We\u2019ve got to make the officials call those fouls so we can get to the line. We need to impose our will in the paint.\u201d<\/p>\n
UH\u2019s game plan is to stick to their strengths: rebounding, point-of-attack defense and drawing fouls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are very good defensively,\u201d Golding said. \u201cThey\u2019re one of the top 20 defensive teams statistically in the country right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2019Bows are 19th in defensive rebounds (30.0 per game), 14th in rebounding margin (plus-11.0), 13th in scoring defense (63.3) and 10th in defending 3s (26.3%).<\/p>\n
\u201cRebounding is a cause of concern,\u201d Golding said. \u201cWe\u2019re a little smaller. We have to get more physicality and more toughness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Near the end of any given practice, with the energy level below quarter-tank, the Hawaii basketball players break…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-87926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}