Or was it just a case of one-night stupid basketball tricks by his normally steady alma mater?
The University of Hawaii men's basketball team had a surprisingly easy 83-75 victory over the Cardinals to win the Hawaii Nike Festival last night at the Special Events Arena.
The Rainbows improved to 6-1 on the season, while Ball State fell to 6-2.
The loss of starting center Seth Sundberg - who was suspended for one game after punching Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo's Russ Bryden in the Rainbows' victory Saturday night - didn't hurt much, either.
Junior forward Michael Robinson started and pulled down 18 rebounds, 14 in the first half.
The smaller, but quicker, UH lineup also used a zone defense to effectively cool off Ball State's outside shooting, especially its biggest gun, Bonzi Wells.
Wells led the Cardinals with 23 points, but was only 6 for 20 from the floor and had just eight points in the first half.
"Starting is no big issue for me," said Robinson, who also scored 15 points in his 39 minutes of playing time. "But our center (Sundberg) would have got a lot of those rebounds, too."
UH head coach Riley Wallace wasn't surprised by the success his altered starting lineup.
"I saw that lineup as being a possibility in preseason because we looked a little quicker and did some goods things in it," he said. "We're confident in it."
Alika Smith led the Rainbows with 23 points, while Eric Ambrozich stayed hot with 18 points. He was voted the tournament MVP.
Hawaii only led by six at the half, 35-29, but effectively cut short a couple of late Ball State runs in the second half.
The Cardinals stuck with a man-to-man defense for the entire game instead of going to a zone, which several recent UH opponents found more effective against the run-happy Rainbows.
"That threw us off a little bit," Smith said. "We've been working so hard in practice against the zone, we got away from our man (offense) and it showed a little tonight."
UH also turned the ball over 20 times, compared to 13 for Ball State, which used a full-court press for much of the second half.
Overall, play-maker Anthony Carter, who had 13 assists said he is happy with his new team so far this season.
"We've made good progress," he said. "Everybody is playing together and keeps hustling."
The rest of the all-tournament team consisted of: Robinson (UH), Carter (UH), Smith (UH), Wells (Ball State) and Carlos Williams (UAB).
Williams scored 23 points and Cedric Dixon added 19 to lead the Blazers (5-3) over the Mustangs (5-3).After falling behind, 16-4, less than five minutes into the game, the Blazers went on a 23-2 to more or less put the game away.
Hawaii 83, Ball State 75
Cardinals (6-2)
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Johnson 8 0 2 0 0 2 2 0 Zachary 31 3 9 4 4 2 0 12 Clemens 7 1 3 0 0 0 2 3 C. Smith 7 0 3 1 2 1 4 1 Hosier 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Williams 20 4 10 2 2 4 3 10 Mason 22 6 13 0 2 4 0 16 Hankins 12 2 5 0 0 1 1 4 Wells 36 6 20 8 10 10 3 23 Martin 28 1 1 0 0 4 3 2 Reed 26 2 5 0 1 3 3 4 Team 1 Totals 200 25 71 15 21 32 22 75
Rainbows (6-1)
mp fgm fga ftm fta reb pf tp Curry 8 2 3 0 2 0 0 0 4 Robinson 39 2 8 11 13 18 4 15 Gallon 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Kroeger 36 6 9 0 0 6 4 12 A. Smith 36 9 11 3 4 1 3 23 Carter 36 3 10 5 6 2 3 11 Miller 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Anderson 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ambrozich 39 7 9 4 4 8 2 18 Team 4 Totals 200 29 51 23 27 39 16 83Halftime score-Hawaii 35, Ball State 29.
3-point goals-BSU 10-28 (Mason 4-9, Wells 3-10, Zachary 2-7, Clemens 1-1, C. Smith 0-1), UH 2-2 (A. Smith 2-2). Assists-BSU 16 (Wells 5), UH 21 (Carter 13). Turnovers-BSU 13 (Wells 6), UH 20 (Kroeger 5, A. Smith 5, Carter 5). Steals-BSU 9 (Wells 4), UH 7 (Carter 2). Blocked shots-BSU 3 (Johnson 1, Zachary 1, Williams 1), UH 4 (Robinson 3).
Technicals-none.
A-5,376 (tickets issued); 3,536 (turnstile). Officials: Thornley, B. Smith, Peterson.
Alabama-Birmingham 93, Cal Poly-SLO 81
UAB (5-3): C.Williams 8-13 7-10 23, Bristow 1-2 0-1 2, Cobb 1-4 0-0 2, Dixon 6-10 5-6 19, Bailey 2-2 1-3 5, Lee 3-4 0-2 6, Jones 2-3 2-2 6, Lewis 4-8 1-2 9, Albritton 1-3 4-4 6, N.Williams 4-5 7-11 15. Totals: 32-54 27-41 93
CP-SLO (5-3): Levesque 4-6 0-1 8, Ketcham 4-9 1-2 13, Larson 1-5 0-0 3, Ohnstad 4-13 1-2 12, Cotright 2-9 13-14 17, Kinner 0-2 2-2 2, Porter 0-2 0-0 0, Fleming 0-1 0-0 0, Wozniak 5-10 2-2 17, Bryant 3-8 0-2 9. Totals: 23-65 19-25 81
Halftime-UAB 44, Cal Poly-SLO 34. 3-Point goals-UAB 2-4 (Dixon 2-2, C.Williams 0-1, Cobb 0-1), Cal Poly-SLO 16-40 (Wozniak 5-7, Ketcham 4-7, Bryant 3-7, Ohnstad 3-9, Larson 1-5, Porter 0-1, Kinner 0-2, Cotright 0-2). Fouled out-Fleming, Larson. Rebounds-UAB 47 (N.Williams 10), Cal Poly-SLO 23 (Ketcham 6). Assists-UAB 11 (Jones, Dixon, Bailey, N.Williams 2), Cal Poly-SLO 19 (Ohnstad 8). Total fouls-UAB 22, Cal Poly-SLO 30.