This Week in Vulcan Men's Basketball
Record: 11-12 (9-10 PWC)

PacWest Tourney Berth on line for UHH in final three games                                             
Saturday, Feb. 22 vs. Hawai`i Pacific (9-16 / 7-12 PWC), 3 pm, Civic Auditorium
Thursday, Feb. 27 @Chaminade (15-10 / 13-7 PWC), 7:30 pm, Honolulu, McCabe Gym
Saturday, Feb. 29 @Hawai`i Pacific (9-16 / 7-12 PWC), 3 pm, Honolulu, Shark Tank
 
Watch and Listen: All Vulcan home games are available via Live Stream and Live Stats. Live Stats are free, while the video is pay-per-view. Per game cost is $7.95. Additionally, Vulcan men's basketball games are "live" on KPUA AM-670 Hilo, with Russ Blunck on the play-by-play.
 
Senior Salute: Prior to Saturday's game versus Hawaii Pacific, the Vulcans will honor their two seniors—Kupaa Harrison and Kaleb Gilmore. The former high school teammates (Kalaheo HS) both found a home at UH Hilo after stints on the mainland at Orange Coast College (Harrison) and Jacksonville (Gilmore).

Trio of Rivalry Games Have Postseason Implications: UH Hilo will play its final home game this Saturday (Hawaii Pacific) and wrap up the regular season the following weekend with games at Chaminade and HPU. The Vulcans currently sit in sixth place in the Pacific West Conference, with just a skinny half-game lead over Academy of Art, a 1.5 game margin on Fresno Pacific and two full games on Hawaii Pacific. The top six teams at the end of next weekend's regular season games will head to Azusa for the PacWest tournament, March 5-7.

Harrison's a Hero: The Vulcans split two of four games on their most recent road trip to northern California, with senior forward Kupaa Harrison hitting the game winner in the two victories. In a 63-62 win over Holy Names, that gave the Vulcans a season sweep of the Hawks, the Kailua native hit the winner with six seconds left, and buried Notre Dame de Namur with 14 seconds remaining during a 64-63 win over the Argonauts. Earlier this year, Harrison drained a trey at the buzzer in overtime to beat Holy Names, 79-76.

I Recognize that Name: Kupaa Harrison's name is all over the top 10 season stat lists in the PacWest. He is third in the PacWest in scoring (17.9), sixth in rebounding (7.0), eighth in field goal percentage (.530), eighth in free throw percentage (.778) and fifth in steals (1.6).

Defending the Three: The Vulcans rank eighth in the NCAA in three-point defense, allowing only .309 percent accuracy per game. That's also tops in the PacWest.

Balanced Attack: Senior forward Kupaa Harrison leads the Vulcans with 17.9 points per game, but two other Vulcans are also averaging in double figures—Sasa Vuksanovic (13.8), and Elisha Duplechan (11.6). Vuksanovic is second in rebounds (6.3) to Harrison's 7.0. Kaleb Gilmore leads in three-pointers made (28), while Vuksanovic (55) has a slight edge on Harrison (53) in assists. Harrison paces the team in steals with 37.

Sharks and Silverswords: Vulcan rival Hawaii Pacific was right in the thick of the PacWest tournament chase until a recent skid in southern California. The Sharks have lost six in a row to fall back into ninth place in the conference. That loss string came right on the heals of a three-game win streak that saw the Sharks crawl into sixth place in the PacWest. HPU has one of the top scorers in the league in Ronald Blain (16 ppg), who ranks sixth in scoring and ninth in rebounding in the conference (6.5). The 6-5 forward sat out last season after playing the previous two seasons at Grossmont College. The Vulcans split games with the Sharks last year, and UHH leads the all-time series, 60-53. Chaminade looked very impressive just a few weeks again in beating the Vulcans in Hilo, 92-70. Tyler Cartaino is one of the top MVP candidates in the PacWest, leading the conference at 20.8 points per game. The Silverswords are coming off two heartbreaking losses to Concordia (72-70) and Fresno Pacific (77-76) and currently sit in fourth place at 13-7. Chaminade leads the all-time series with the Vulcans, 67-44.

Around the PacWest: Azusa Pacific (16-2) has a two-game lead on defending champion Point Loma (14-4) heading into the final two weekends of the regular season. Concordia is next (13-5), followed by Chaminade (13-7), Biola (10-9) and Hawaii Hilo (9-10) for the top six spots.

Rating the West: The first official NCAA D-II West Region rankings came out today (Feb. 19), from which the top eight teams (in the final poll) will qualify for the NCAA tournament. Here's how the first ranking looked. (1) UC San Diego 23-1, (2) Azusa Pacific 22-3, (3) Cal Poly Pomona 17-5, (4) Chico State 17-6, (5) Cal State San Bernardino 18-5, (6) Seattle Pacific 18-5, (7) Point Loma 17-6, (8) Western Oregon 16-6, (9) Western Washington 13-9, (10) Concordia CA 18-7.
 
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.

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 in 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.