Sensley will
need some rest

The Hawaii forward isn't tired
yet, but Wallace thinks it's a good
idea to trim his minutes

One of UH basketball coach Riley Wallace's goals entering the season was to give junior forward Julian Sensley more rest.

So far, that hasn't happened.

Sensley, who averaged 35.1 minutes last season, has been on the bench a total of 5 minutes in leading UH to a 4-0 start. He played all 40 minutes against Coastal Carolina and Southern Illinois and 39 in last Saturday's road win over Saint Louis.

The junior enters Saturday's nonconference game against Saint Mary's (Calif.) at the Stan Sheriff Center averaging 38.8 minutes per game.

"I love it," Sensley said. "I do what I have to do to help this team win, whether it's playing 40 minutes or it's playing 20 minutes.

"It wasn't a problem for me last year. Coach gets on me a little bit about getting tired, but that's all mental. I'm in shape and I think I'm capable of playing 40 minutes per game."

The long minutes haven't hurt Sensley's production so far. He leads UH with 14.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game and has a team-high 13 assists. He had enough in the tank on Saturday to hit the game-winning shot with 15 seconds left in UH's 53-52 win at Saint Louis.

"He needs to play about 35, but so far every game's been close and we haven't had that luxury," UH head coach Riley Wallace said.

"He's the anchor, he's the guy that makes things run. He picked it up and turned it on and got stronger as the game went on. So it's not a factor yet, but it will be later on."

Senior Vaidotas Peciukas was expected to give Sensley some relief at small forward and has gotten significant playing time in the last two games. But Wallace kept Sensley on the floor by moving him to power forward when Peciukas entered the game.

"It's just a huge mental thing," Sensley said. "One thing about Division I basketball is you get a lot of timeouts with the media so you have to take advantage of that."

Gibson disciplined: The Rainbows started yesterday's practice with three shooting guards and ended it with one.

Sophomore Bobby Nash was the only two-guard to make it through the three-hour session after senior Jake Sottos went to the bench with a sore neck and sophomore Matt Gibson was sent to the locker room early.

Gibson was ordered out of practice late in the workout after a verbal exchange with UH coaches. Wallace said Gibson will be held out of today's workout and his status will be evaluated later this week.

"When it gets emotional like that, it's better to sleep on it," Wallace said.

Gibson, a fiery transfer from Three Rivers (Mo.) Community College, is second on the team in scoring with 11.9 points per game and is first in steals with nine. He's tied with Nash for the team lead with seven 3-point goals.

He came off the bench to score 22 points in his debut against Mississippi Valley State and earned a starting spot at point guard against Southern Illinois and Saint Louis. He finished Saturday's game with seven points, two assists and two steals.

Sottos watched from the sidelines after taking a blow to the top of his head midway through practice. Wallace said he thinks the senior will be fine, but will get checked out by a doctor.

White leads: With one day of voting left, UH fans were in favor of the Saint Mary's game being designated a "White Out."

Fans were asked to vote on HawaiiAthletics.com on whether to designate the game a White Out, Green Out or Black Out. They could also vote for no color designation. As of last night, White had close to 1,700 votes, while Green was approaching 1,000. Black (437) and "no color" (78) trailed.

UH held a "Black Out" against Southern Illinois on Nov. 29. The team wore black uniforms and most of the fans showed up in black shirts.

Voting closes at 5 p.m. today.