Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Saturday, October 14, 2000
Rainbows rock Midnight Ohana began this morning at the Stan Sheriff Center with Troy Ostler calling out "Jason" and then slam-dunking his "head."
after midnight
Midnight Ohana was fun,
but the UH men's basketball
team will get serious when
it begins practice todayBy Dave Reardon
Star-BulletinBut as expected, there are more demons for the University of Hawaii basketball team to deal with than former volleyball player Clay Stanley dressed up as the "Friday the 13th" villain.
Ostler scored a game-high 15 points in the team's first intrasquad scrimmage, and the Rainbows met their fans and got an idea of how far they have to go.
"I think we've got lots of work to do," freshman guard David "Jeep" Hilton said. "I'm not happy with the way I played. But tomorrow we start practice and it's serious."
There are hopes for UH to improve on its 17-win season of a year ago, and some of the potential shined through raggedy free-lance play this morning.
The real stuff begins today at 3 p.m., and coach Riley Wallace said the first priority is learning the art of stopping the other guys from scoring.
"You can see we've got to work on defense," Wallace said after the scrimmage. "This isn't going to be a super-quick team, so it will have to play good solid defense. We'll be concentrating on defense the first few days.
"We've got 13 guys on scholarship who can all score and do things you want, but not all of them are playing defense. We scored points last year in the WAC, we just didn't stop anyone. That's why we lost on the road."
Junior guard Mike McIntyre -- who sealed the Green team's 48-45 victory with a steal and two free throws -- said the next few weeks before the Nov. 17 season opener against Louisville won't be all drudgery.
But the carefree days of informal scrimmages are definitely gone.
"Basketball's always fun, but I guess you can say the hard work begins now. Nobody in the gym but the coaches and you," McIntyre said.
Although they didn't shoot well last night, the Rainbows return a lot of firepower in Ostler, as well as McIntyre, Predrag Savovic, and even a more aggressive Nerijus Puida from the perimeter.
The only serious question on offense is a big one -- point guard, with newcomers Hilton and Ricky Terrell contending for the starting spot.
They both played on the Silver team last night. Terrell, a junior, outplayed Hilton, a freshman.
"I think David was a little nervous. Ricky wasn't," Wallace said. "The two years of JC makes a difference. I thought David tried a little too hard."
Terrell showed an ability to penetrate and create open shots on the perimeter for teammates.
Freshman post Haim Shimonovic was solid all-around. He and junior forward Mindaugas Burneika were the most impressive of the new players, both scoring 12 points. Redshirt freshman guard Carl English looked good in spots.
Redshirt freshman forward Phil Martin did not participate because he broke an unspecified team rule, Wallace said. He will be back for practice today.
ALL IN THE OHANA: Crystal Lee of the women's team won the 3-point contest for the second-consecutive year, beating Mike McIntyre and KCCN's Bobby Curran. ...Carl English won the slam-dunk competition with a winning shot in which he leaped over Lance Takaki. ... Riley Wallace swished a free throw to win a semester's tuition waiver for a student.
Box score in Scoreboard http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu