This Week in Vulcan Men's Basketball
Record: 1-1 (0-0 PWC)

Vulcans Open PacWest Play with Tough Home Tilt vs. Cougars                                          
Monday, Dec. 2 vs. Azusa Pacific (5-1 / 0-0 PWC), Civic Auditorium, 7:30 pm

Next Season Starts Now: Over two weeks after opening the 2019-20 with a split of games in Oregon, the Hawai`i Hilo men's basketball team will tip-off Pacific West Conference play at home against No. 2 regionally ranked Azusa Pacific on Monday (7:30 pm). The challenging home opener gets the Vulcans into conference play, which they resume in southern California later in the week.

Remember When?: The Vulcans got the season under way with a 74-69 win over Concordia (Ore.) on Nov. 15, using 25 points from Kupaa Harrison, a second half comeback and clutch free throws down the stretch from Jordan Graves for the win. One night later against host Western Oregon, the Vulcans fell by the same score after trading baskets with the Wolves until late in the game. Graves had 21 points to lead the visitors.

Half Dominance: Two Vulcan senior leaders took turns playing 20 minutes of dominant basketball at the tournament in Monmouth. Against the Cavaliers, Kupaa Harrison had a half to remember when he scored 19 points in the first 20 minutes, missing only a trio of shots. He finished with a career-best 25 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals. One night later, Jordan Graves had 21 second half points against WOU after a scoreless first half. He hit 4-of-5 three-point attempts, including two late in the game.

Balanced Attack: UH Hilo's two returning starters and senior leaders Harrison (21 ppg) and Graves (16.5) are the team's scoring leaders after two games, but three others are also in double figures or close to it in Sasa Vuksanovic (11), Damani Whitlock (10) and Jaylen Thompson (9.5).

Cougar Chatter: Azusa Pacific is off to an impressive 5-1 start against good competition from around the west. The Cougars have wins over Cal Poly Pomona, Chico State, Seattle Pacific, Western Washington and Cal State San Marcos. Their only loss was to Cal State LA. They are ranked No. 2 in the latest unofficial west region poll. PacWest Preseason Player of the Year Selom Mawugbe hasn't disappointed so far, with 15.7 points per game and 11.5 rebounds while shooting .611 from the field. The 6-foot-10 center, already the PacWest's all-time shot block leader, is averaging 4.2 swats per game this year. Mawugbe has help. Alaska Anchorage transfer Brennan Rymer is averaging 16.3 points and 4.5 assists a contest, and Seattle University transfer Jake Spurgeon adds 15 points a game. Ben Avera adds a three-point presence, having already converted 15-of-36 treys (.417). APU was picked to finish second in the PacWest Preseason poll. The Vulcans and Cougars split games last year, with both winning at home, and APU leads the all-time series, 8-4.

What's Next: After Monday's game with the Cougars, the Vulcans hit the road for one of their most challenging trips of the season. The begin the southern California swing at preseason favorite Concordia (Dec. 7), followed by Biola (Dec. 10) and defending champ Point Loma (Dec. 12).

PacWest Poll: The Pacific West Conference Preseason poll looked like this: (1) Concordia, (2) Azusa Pacific, (3) Chaminade, (4) defending PWC champ and NCAA runner-up Point Loma, (5) Biola, (6) Fresno Pacific, (7) Academy of Art, (8) Hawai`i Hilo, (9) Holy Names, (10) Hawaii Pacific, (11) Dominican, (12) Notre Dame de Namur.

Rating the West: In the D2SIDA West Region poll released earlier this week, the PacWest had four of the top ten teams (records are through last weekend). (1) UC San Diego (6-0), (2) Azusa Pacific (4-1), (3) Point Loma (4-1), (4) Alaska Anchorage (5-1), (5) Chaminade (2-0), (6) Concordia CA (5-3), (7) Cal Poly Pomona (3-2), (8) Cal State San Bernardino (3-2), (9) Western Washington (2-3), (10) Western Oregon (3-0).

Last Year: The Vulcans finished 12-14 overall and 10-12 in the PacWest. They were in postseason contention (PacWest tournament) up until the final day of the season. They lost a buzzer-beater to Chaminade in their final game, and all the other domino pieces that needed to happen didn't. Nonetheless, it was UH Hilo's best record since 2014-15 (also 12-14) and their best PacWest mark since 2010-11 (8-8). Senior transfers James Griffin (15.8 ppg) and Larry Bush (15.5) were key cogs for a team that was one of the top ball-hawking teams in the country. The Vulcans had a turnover differential of 4.5, 14^th best in NCAA Division II.

The Coach: Vulcan head coach GE Coleman  is heading into his seventh season as the leader of the program. Prior to arriving on the Big Island, Coleman was the associate head coach at Central Washington for six seasons, and an assistant with the Wildcats for another five years prior to that. He was also an assistant for two seasons at Eastern Washington.