Men's Basketball Weekly
Hawai`i Hilo Overall Record: 7-7       Hawai`i Hilo PacWest Record: 5-5
 
Road revenge vs. Hawks, game vs. Argos next for Vulcans                                                
Thursday, Jan. 24 @ Holy Names (7-11 overall/6-7 PWC), 7:30 p.m. PT, Oakland, Calif.
Saturday, Jan. 26 @ Notre Dame de Namur (0-17/0-11 PWC), 3 p.m. PT, Belmont, Calif.
Live Stream/Live Stats at www.hiloathletics.com

Hilo Headlines: UH Hilo ran its win streak to four games with a victory over Hawaii Pacific on Jan. 12 (74-67), and then saw their upset bids denied against the top two teams in the PacWest—Concordia (84-75) and Point Loma (95-85).
 
Streaking: With the win over the Sharks, the Vulcans had won their fourth straight game—the most for a UH Hilo team since the 2015-16 season when they also won four in a row at the end of the season.
 
Tight as a Drum: The top six of the 12 teams in the Pacific West Conference qualify for the post-season conference tournament (March 7-9) in San Rafael, Calif. The Road to San Rafael, especially for the teams seeking spots 5-6, is about as tight as it can be. While Point Loma (12-0), Concordia (9-2), Chaminade (8-3) and Azusa Pacific (8-4) comfortably occupy the top four spots, the four other squads battling for the last two positions are literally only a game apart. Academy of Art is currently in fifth (6-5), UH Hilo is sixth (5-5), Holy Names seventh (6-7) and Fresno Pacific is eighth (5-6). Additionally, Biola, who is not yet eligible for NCAA post-season play, is also 5-6.
 
Making Things Uncomfortable: The Vulcans continue to use a template that they are getting better and better at—in fact they are now one of the best in the country in this category. The Vulcans rank sixth in the NCAA in turnovers forced at just under 20 a game (19.64). That also puts head coach GE Coleman's team at the top of the PacWest forced turnover ladder and they are also best in the west. The Vulcans are 16^th in the nation in steals per game (9.6), which is also tops in the PacWest and second in the west region. UHH is 17^th in turnover margin, which translates to second in the PacWest and fourth in the west region (4.6).
 
Tale of Three Fourths: For the first 25 minutes of Saturday's contest with first-place Point Loma, the Sea Lions looked like they might not ever lose a game the rest of the year. They hit 10 of their first 11 shots, and led the host Vulcans by 31 points (62-31) with 17 minutes left. The No. 9 team in the nation still led by 28 points with 10.42 remaining (72-44). The margin was 19 points with four minutes left. Then the highly improbable happened. The Vulcans caught fire, scoring 24 points in four minutes and nearly slipping by the conference preseason favorite. They were one rebound away from having a chance to tie the game, trailing by just three points (88-85) with 18 seconds left.
 
Griffin Goes Off: Senior James Griffin had four three-pointers in the final three minutes of play—and none of them were uncontested. While Point Loma closed the game on a 7-0 run at the free throw line to shut the door, Griffin had previously led his team on a 21-7 run, with help from Kupaa Harrison (two points), Jordan Graves (three assists), Larry Bush (four points, assist), and Cleo Cain (three-pointer, assist).
 
Coach C: "We've shown in the past two games, playing the top two teams in the conference, that if we continue to improve and cut down on some mistakes, we will be in good shape come time for the conference tournament," head coach GE Coleman said. "We are competitive with everyone, but we need to get over the hump against the better teams in our conference."
 
Here is the Other Shoe Dropping: James Griffin missed three games with an injury, including the last time the Vulcans played Holy Names at home. He is back now, but the Vulcans lost the services of senior post Devin Johnson and are still without promising freshman defender Damani Whitlock. Johnson was injured early in the second half of the Dominican game after dunking his 19^th point of the night, and is expected to be out for the immediate future. The 6-7 post hit 8-of-9 shots in just 14 minutes to collect a season-high 19 points in the win.
 
Projected Starters: Here are the projected starters for this week.
*G—#5 James Griffin, 6-5, 220, Sr., Brisbane, Australia (West Liberty)
*G—#21 Larry Bush, 6-2, 175, Sr., Calabasas, Calif. (UNLV)
*G—#2 Jordan Graves, 6-1, 180, Jr., Monterey, Calif. (Santa Rosa JC)
*F—#15 Kupaa Harrison, 6-5, 185, Jr., Honolulu, Hawai`i (Orange Coast College)
*F—#10 Denhym Brooke, 6-8, 210, Sr., Auckland, New Zealand (BYU-Hawaii)
 
By the Numbers: Griffin leads the team at 17.5 points a game, with Larry Bush next at 13.3. Jordan Graves, Devin Johnson and Kupaa Harrison are each just a few points under 10 points a game at 9.8 (Graves, Johnson) and 9.6 (Harrison) points a contest. Johnson leads with 5.6 rebounds a game, Harrison has 5.5 and Griffin 5.0. Griffin is hitting 41 percent of his three-point attempts (28-for-68) and Bush is also deadly at 45 percent (26-for-58). Smaller sample size, but also in the very good range from beyond the arch are Cleo Cain at 43 percent (18-for-42) and Harrison—41 percent (7-for-17).
 
Turnovers in Droves: The Vulcans forced Dominican into an unfathomable 38 turnovers on Dec. 31, likely a school record if such stats had been kept over the years. They helped Fresno Pacific turn the ball over 27 times two nights later, and where they did have a school record to stand on was in the steals category. UH Hilo had 20 steals against the Penguins and 19 versus the Sunbirds, either equaling or breaking the previous mark of 19 against BYU-Hawaii set in 1993-94.
 
PacWest Prognosticators: Point Loma was picked by the PacWest coaches as the favorites to win the league title this year. They collected 10 of the 12 first place votes, with the other two going to projected second-place finisher Azusa Pacific. The Vulcans are tabbed to finish ninth.
 
Regional Rankings: Monday's regional rankings (D2SIDA) looked like this on Jan. 21. (1) Point Loma 16-2, (2) St. Martin's 14-2, (3) UC San Diego 15-3, (T4) Cal State East Bay 15-3, (T4) Chaminade 14-3, (T4) Northwest Nazarene 11-3, (7) Western Oregon 13-4, (8) Seattle Pacific 9-4, (9) Concordia CA 13-7, (10) Humboldt State 14-6. Nationally, Point Loma is 9th, St. Martin's 13^th, and UC San Diego 15^th.
 
Hawk Headlines: Holy Names rallied back from 20 points down to stun the Vulcans on their own floor on December 17 (85-77). The Hawks then promptly lost five in a row after that, but have now caught fire again winning three of their last four contests—including an 85-71 rout of Azusa Pacific. They also topped Biola (72-58) and Notre Dame de Namur (73-65) during that run, before falling in overtime to Academy of Art (82-79). 6-3 guard Alonzo Taylor leads HNU with 15.1 points a game. Taylor is especially good at the free throw line (83 percent). He had 19 points in the win over the Vulcans, but UH Hilo still leads the all-time series, 9-4.
 
Argo Analysis: Notre Dame de Namur is winless heading into a Thursday night game with Hawaii Pacific. The Argonauts lost by just four points on Saturday to Fresno Pacific (61-57), and two other games have been decided by just one or two digits. Chazz Wade leads his team at 10.7 points a contest and with 27 three-pointers made. The Vulcans won the lone game played between the two teams a year ago in Hilo, and UH Hilo leads the all-time series, 20-11.

What's Next: After the two-game road trip to northern California, the Vulcans return to Hilo for a four-game homestand that begins on Feb. 1 against Azusa Pacific. 
 
Free, Free, Free!!: From here on and forever more, all UH Hilo and Hawaii Community College students will receive free admission to all Vulcan home events. Just show your student ID, and you are in!! 
 
Watch, Listen: All Vulcan home men's basketball games are available via video stream (and Live Stats). Improved coverage, which includes audio play-by-play, through Out of the Sea Media on the Vulcan website. Additionally, home games are on radio at AM 670 KPUA-Hilo with UH Hilo's Russ Blunck on the call.
 
The Coach: GE Coleman is in his sixth season at UH Hilo in 2018-19. Prior to his arrival at UHH, he was the associate head coach for six seasons at Central Washington, and was an assistant for five season with CWU prior to that. He also was an assistant coach at Eastern Washington from 2005-07. GE's father Gil Coleman was the head coach at Central Washington from 1990-95.