Saturday, January 5, 2002
[ UH BASKETBALL ]
’Bows-Broncos a Rod Jensen admitted he wasn't great on names. But the Boise State basketball coach definitely was aware of numbers, such as the big ones that Hawaii has been putting up.
matchup of
tough defenses
UH and Boise State are 1-2 in the
conference in points allowed per gameBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.com"I've never spent much time watching Hawaii play before this season, but I can see why they've been so successful this year," Jensen said in a telephone call yesterday from his office. "I've seen how hard they get after it. And they're such great shooters.
"Their No. 1 (Predrag Savovic) is a heck of a player and No. 23 (Carl English) really makes that team go. They'll be hard to defend."
Defense is the watchword for the two teams heading into tonight's game at the BSU Pavilion, the first meeting ever of the schools. Hawaii (12-2, 3-0) leads the Western Athletic Conference and is ninth nationally in scoring defense (58.6 ppg), and also is the conference leader in field-goal defense, holding opponents to .382 shooting.
Boise State (7-6, 1-2) is second in the WAC at 60.1 ppg. The Broncos, playing in their third conference in five years, won their first WAC contest Thursday over San Jose State, 61-52.
"It was nice to get that out of the way," said Jensen, in his seventh year at the Idaho school. "You always have nightmares about going oh-fer. Getting that first one is the toughest. Now that we've got that one, we can relax a little and build on it."
The Broncos will have to do that by ripping up the momentum that the Rainbows have going. Hawaii has won six in a row, including Thursday's 70-68 victory at UTEP, the first for the team in El Paso since 1994.
BSU, which leads the WAC in 3-point defense (.306), will have to contain the top outside-shooting team in the league. Hawaii has hit a combined 27 3-pointers in its past three games.
When: Today, 4:30 p.m. HST GAMEDAY
Where: The Pavilion (capacity: 12,380)
TV: Live, KFVE-TV (Channel 5)
Radio: Live, 1420-AM
Internet: kccn1420am.com
Savovic has hit 12 in conference play, 10 in the past two games. He also provided some entertainment during a late timeout against UTEP on Thursday.
According to a report in yesterday's El Paso Times, Savovic wandered over to the UTEP bench and asked for a cup of water. The Miner managers and trainers were too surprised to react.
"Oh, I was just having a little fun," said Savovic, who scored 23 of his season-high 29 points in the second half against the Miners.
Savovic has scored 78 points against the Miners in the past three games, including a career-high 31 last January. It will be Boise State's first time to experience "Savo" and the rest of the Rainbows.
"We're going to have to do something to disrupt their offensive flow," said Jensen. "If they're shooting on a flow like they have been, it's going to be tough to stop.
"On our end, we're going to have to shoot the ball better. We shot better at home than we did on the road."
The Broncos opened their inaugural WAC season with likely the toughest road trip in the league, going to SMU and Louisiana Tech. The Mustangs shot 27 more free throws than BSU in pulling away to an 80-67 win.
In a 59-36 loss to the Bulldogs, the Broncos scored just 12 first-half points and shot 30 percent from the floor. The 36 points was an all-time low for the program and the team failed to hit a 3-pointer for the first time in 192 games, dating back to the 1993-94 season.
BSU rebounded Thursday, shooting 41 percent from the floor and hitting 6 of 15 3-point attempts. Sophomore guard Booker Nabors was 5-for-6 from long distance en route to a career-high 23 points.
"We've had a hard time scoring," said Jensen. "I knew we were making a big jump from the Big West to the WAC, but it's been an eye-opening experience.
"The players (in the WAC) are bigger, faster, stronger than we're used to seeing. Our guys have competed well in some areas, but we've been struggling in others."
Part of the problem can be attributed to the loss of junior starting point guard Joe Skiffer. He tore ligaments in his shoulder and will have surgery during spring break.
Another problem has been the recent shooting slump of senior all-America candidate Abe Jackson, the team's leading scorer at 17.8 ppg. In his past two games, Jackson has scored 15 points on 7 of 27 shooting from the field. He was 1-for-7 in 3-point attempts in the win over San Jose State.
The Broncos forced 15 turnovers against San Jose State, turning those into 27 points. Boise State is third in the WAC in turnover margin (+2.15), behind Tulsa (+4.58) and Hawaii (+2.29).
Hawaii coach Riley Wallace was also making his first trip to Boise. He arrived yesterday with a pregame scouting report via former San Diego State coach Fred Trenkle, who lives in nearby Ketchum.
"He told me they play good defense and are good at home," said Wallace. "He also said they have a good coach and it's cold as hell. The good thing is we have guys who grew up in cold weather."
It's not as cold as when Hawaii's women's team played in Boise last weekend. The low was 19 degrees and there was snow.
It hasn't snowed in nearly a week and the overnight low was expected to be 23 degrees.
WAC STANDINGS
Conference AllGames W L Pct. W L Pct. Hawaii 3 0 1.000 12 2 .857 La. Tech 2 0 1.000 8 3 .727 SMU 2 0 1.000 7 5 .583 Tulsa 1 0 1.000 10 2 .833 Fresno St. 2 1 .667 10 5 .667 Nevada 1 2 .333 8 5 .615 Boise St. 1 2 .333 7 6 .538 Rice 0 1 .000 5 6 .455 UTEP 0 3 .000 5 9 .357 San Jose St. 0 3 .000 5 10 .333 Today's games (All times HST)
Hawaii at Boise State, 4:30 p.m.
SMU at Louisiana Tech, 1 p.m.
Rice at Nevada, 4 p.m.
San Jose State at UTEP, 4:05 p.m.
Tulsa at Fresno State, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)
PROBABLE STARTERS
HAWAII (12-2, 3-0)
Ht. Pts. Reb. Ast. G Carl English (So.) 6-5 14.9 5.1 3.5 G Mark Campbell (Jr.) 6-4 3.4 2.5 5.6 G Predrag Savovic (Sr.) 6-6 19.6 3.3 1.5 F Phil Martin (So.) 6-8 10.1 5.7 1.4 C H. Shimonovich (So.) 6-10 9.5 7.5 2.3 BOISE STATE (7-6, 1-2)
Ht. Pts. Reb. Ast. G Booker Nabors (So.) 6-4 10.2 2.5 2.9 G C.J. Williams (Jr.) 6-0 3.1 1.8 1.9 F Abe Jackson (Sr.) 6-7 17.2 4.7 1.6 F Jason Ellis (Fr.) 6-7 5.5 5.3 0.8 C Richard Morgan (Sr.) 6-8 9.1 2.9 1.6 Notes: This is the first meeting between the two teams. ... Hawaii coach Riley Wallace is in his 15th year (228-200). Hawaii is 3-0 in the WAC for the first time since the 1993-94 season and just the third time since joining the conference in 1979-80. The 1981-82 team opened 5-0. ... The 12-2 start ties for the best under Wallace; the other came in 1997-98. UH's best start was 17-2 in 1972-73. ... Senior guard Predrag Savovic has 12 3-pointers in the past three games and is second on the UH career list at 124. Senior guard Mike McIntrye is fourth at 112. Alika Smith holds the career mark at 161. ... A win tonight against Boise State would mark the first time since 1997-98, and the fourth time in the program's history, that the team has swept a road trip. Hawaii is coming off a 70-68 victory at UTEP, only the fourth time in 20 trips to El Paso that the Rainbows have won. It also marks the first time since 1994 that Hawaii won its WAC road opener. ... Sophomore center Haim Shimonovich is leading the WAC in blocked shots with 27. ... BSU coach Rod Jensen is in his 7th season (103-82) and become the second coach at the Idaho school to win 100 games. He reached that plateau with the 77-74 win over Wyoming on Dec. 12. ... The Broncos are coming off a 61-52 victory over San Jose State Thursday, their first win in the WAC. This is the third conference in five years for BSU, having previously competed in the Big Sky and the Big West. ... The Broncos are 6-1 at home this season, their only loss coming in the season opener against Portland State, 60-53. ... Forward Jason Ellis became just the fourth true freshman in 19 years to start for BSU when the team opened with Portland State on Nov. 17. ... Hawaii travels to Boise State, Saturday. The Broncos were 61-52 winners over San Jose State.
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