Hawai`i is similar to UC Davis with respect to having a long tenured coach who has taken his team to one NCAA tournament but has otherwise hovered in the middle of the Big West pack year. This is the one school who will continue to be a rival in the MWC after next year. Coach Eran Ganot lost all of his starters, but to graduation not to the transfer portal. (He did lose monster center Mor Seck to Fresno State.) Maybe this is the reason why Hawai`i has been erratic this season, uncharacteristically losing two conference games at home while beating both UCR and Fullerton on the road.

What has helped is that four key returners have stepped up to contribute, not so oddly, all of them being international students. Four good newcomers give Hawai`i a lot of depth which they are using 9 players in their rotation. A key player is Gytis Nemeiksa a 6’8” forward from Lithuania who averages over 50% from the floor and 36.6% from the arc plus 7.3 rpg. Tanner Christensen is another big addition at 6’10”. Those two will cause major problems for the height challenged Ags. The rotation of four guards, Ryan Rapp, Tom Beattie, Marcus Greene and Kody Williams can wear other teams down. Christensen is often posted high where they run a screen and roll off him. We’ll have to see which Hawai`i team shows up this week, but they usually play well against UCD. In the series history, the Ags hold an 8-5 edge at home with a four game winning streak at Davis since 2021. Game streamed live on ESPN+.