Men's Basketball Weekly
Hawai`i Hilo Overall Record: 11-13   Hawai`i Hilo PacWest Record: 9-11
 
Post-Season Tourney Hopes on the Line This Week                                                           
Tuesday, Feb. 26 vs. Notre Dame de Namur (1-24/1-18 PWC), 7:30 p.m., Afook-Chinen Civic, Hilo
Saturday, March 2 vs. Chaminade (20-6/14-6 PWC), 7:30 p.m., Afook-Chinen Civic, Hilo
Live Stream/Live Stats at www.hiloathletics.com
Radio broadcast at AM 670 KPUA-Hilo, 7:20 p.m.

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.
 
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!!
 
Hilo Headlines: And so it comes down to the final two games in the final week of the season. The Vulcans are looking for their first post-season berth since the Pacific West Conference began hosting a tournament in 2012. The top six teams go. The Vulcans are in eighth place currently, one-game behind Academy of Art for sixth, 1.5 games behind Holy Names for fifth.
 
Clear as Mud: The remaining schedule has the Vulcans playing Notre Dame de Namur (1-18) and Chaminade (14-6) at home, while Academy of Art plays Azusa Pacific (14-6) and Biola (10-10) on the road. Should the Vulcans and Urban Knights end up tied, UH Hilo wins the tiebreaker (they split against each other, but UHH won against first-place Point Loma—the next tiebreaker). Should Holy Names enter the equation (they have one game left versus Fresno Pacific) and there is a three-way tie, the Vulcans lose the tiebreaker to the other two, and their season would be done.
 
Stunner in San Diego: The Vulcans posted the stunner of the season at Point Loma, knocking off the No. 8 Sea Lions, 81-77. PLNU remained in first place in the PacWest despite the loss, but fell out of the top spot in the west region, possibly costing them the chance of hosting the NCAA regionals. While the result was a shocker to the rest of the PacWest, the Vulcans served notice to the Sea Lions here in Hilo back on Jan. 19 when they rallied from a 31-point deficit to within three points in the second half before falling by ten (95-85). The Vulcans overcame a 13-point shortage this time, outscoring the Sea Lions in the second half, 41-31. Larry Bush had 16 of his season-high 27 points in the second half during the upset. He was named the PacWest Player of the Week for his work.
 
LA not as fun as SD: The rest of the SoCal trip didn't go as planned as the Vulcans lost to Concordia (98-81), Biola (79-63) and Azusa Pacific (88-70), carrying a three-game losing streaking into Tuesday's game with Notre Dame de Namur.
 
Road Warriors: Despite losing three of four, UH Hilo's road record finished at 5-6, the best in quite some time for a Vulcan team. The last time that UHH won four games ALL season on the road was in 2008-09 when they finished 4-5. The 2007-08 squad went 4-6 in road uniforms, as did the 2005-06 Vulcan club. The last UHH team that has a winning record away from home was the 2004-05 Jeff Law-coached team that was 25-4 overall and 6-3 on the road.
 
Making Things Uncomfortable: One thing that is pretty predictable on a Vulcan post-game stat sheet is the fact that they will have less turnovers than their opponents. The differential is now +4.8, which is second best in the PacWest and fourth in the NCAA West Region. UH Hilo is now 15^th nationally in turnover differential.
 
By the Numbers: James Griffin leads the team at 16.2 points a game, with Larry Bush climbing fast at 15.5. Kupaa Harrison has raised his average to 10.9 points a contest. Harrison also leads the Vulcans on the boards (5.7) and is second in assists (61). Jordan Graves leads UH Hilo in assists (90) and steals (54). Denyhm Brooke paces the squad in blocks (38) an Cleo Cain is the most accurate from three-point range (.412).
 
PacWest Lists: James Griffin is eighth in the PacWest in scoring and ranks third in three-pointers per game (2.2). Denhym Brooke is second in blocked shots per game (1.6), while Jordan Graves is second in steals (2.3) and sixth in assists (3.8). Larry Bush is seventh in the conference in field goal percentage (.500) and fourth in steals (2.0).
 
Pickpockets: The Vulcans have the second, fourth and seventh top ball stealers in the conference. Jordan Graves is second, Larry Bush fourth and Kupaa Harrison seventh.
 
Devin's Done: Senior post Devin Johnson is done for the year after an MRI revealed numerous tears and a fractured knee cap. The 6-7 post was injured early in the second half of the Dominican game on Dec. 31 after dunking his 19^th point of the night. The 6-7 post hit 8-of-9 shots in just 14 minutes to collect a season-high 19 points in the win. Earlier in the year, the Vulcans lost standout freshman guard Damani Whitlock (shoulder). Having played in only four games, Whitlock will file for a medical redshirt season to get his freshman year back.
 
Projected Starters: Here are the projected starters for this week.
*G—James Griffin, 6-5, 220, Sr., Brisbane, Australia (West Liberty)
*G—Larry Bush, 6-2, 175, Sr., Calabasas, Calif. (UNLV)
*G—Jordan Graves, 6-1, 180, Jr., Monterey, Calif. (Santa Rosa JC)
*F—Kupaa Harrison, 6-5, 185, Jr., Honolulu, Hawai`i (Orange Coast College)
*F—Denhym Brooke, 6-8, 210, Sr., Auckland, New Zealand (BYU-Hawaii)
 
Regional Rankings: The first official NCAA Division II West Region rankings came out on Feb. 20. The final eight rankings and/or the conference champions from the PacWest, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the California Collegiate Athletic Association will qualify for the NCAA tournament. (1) St. Martin's 19-3, (2) Point Loma 20-4, (3) Cal Poly Pomona 15-5, (4) Northwest Nazarene 15-4, (5) Seattle Pacific 15-6, (6) UC San Diego 18-7, (7) Chaminade 18-5, (8) Cal State East Bay 19-5, (9) Western Oregon 14-8, (10) Concordia CA 18-8.
 
Argonaut Accolades: The Argonauts begin the Hawai`i trip with this contest Tuesday night against the Vulcans. NDNU has just one win on the season, albeit a very solid one against Fresno Pacific (67-57) a couple of weeks ago. Senior guard RJ Louis leads his team with an even 10.0 points per game. The Vulcans had to rally in the second half for a 66-56 win when these two teams met in Belmont last month, and UH Hilo leads the all-time series, 21-11.

Silversword Sentences: Chaminade is still playing for the right to a first-round bye at the conference tournament, and thus certainly won't look past the Vulcans. The Silverswords are 20-6 overall and 14-6 in the PacWest, sitting in a tie for third in the conference and seventh in the region. The Silverswords were nipped in overtime at Concordia last week (91-83) and also lost in extra time to Point Loma on their SoCal trip (97-92). Those are their only two losses in their last eight games. Chaminade leads the PacWest in scoring at 81.3 points a game, paced by Grant Dressler at 19.4. The Silverswords rolled the Vulcans back in December in Honolulu, 114-101 and Chaminade now leads the all-time series between the two teams, 65-44.
 
Turnovers in Droves: Back on Dec. 31, 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.
 
The Coach: GE Coleman enters into 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.