Hawaii looks forward to getting in Terps' way
Today, with the Terps' first Sweet 16 berth since 2003 at stake, Hawaii coach Eran Ganot and the Rainbow Warriors — particularly star center Stefan Jankovic and first-round heroes Roderick Bobbitt and Quincy Smith — will be trying to block the route to Louisville's South regional semifinals.
Making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2002, the year the Terps won the national championship, 13th-seeded Hawaii took advantage of a California team that was missing its starting backcourt Friday to advance with a 77-66 victory.
Asked what it meant to win an NCAA tournament game for the first time in five tries, the 33-year-old Ganot said: “It's special. I said when I got hired [last year] that this was an honor to represent a program I had been to before [as an assistant] and had studied the history of the program.”
With a large contingent of Hawaii's fans in attendance spending the first half yelling at the officials for an abundance of foul calls and the second half alternating between chants of “Rain” and “Bows,” Ganot's team proved to be tougher and smarter than the talented but suddenly average Bears.
Ganot, who was an assistant at Hawaii and Saint Mary's, credited the rowdy fans for helping the team to its most significant win in program history.
Led mostly in the first half by Jankovic — the 6-foot-11 junior forward from Canada who scored 10 of his 16 points before getting into some foul trouble — Hawaii built a 36-30 lead by halftime.
Led mostly in the second half by Bobbitt and Smith — a couple of Northern California guards who combined for 17 of the Rainbow Warriors' 36 first-half points — Hawaii broke the game open in the final five minutes.
The Bears unraveled playing without senior point guard Tyrone Wallace, who broke his hand at practice Wednesday, and junior Jabari Bird, who missed the game with back spasms.
Freshman forward Ivan Rabb finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds, and star freshman guard Jaylen Brown got into foul trouble, finishing with just four points and seven turnovers in 17 minutes.
Cal coach Cuonzo Martin would not blame his team's defeat on the absence of his guards or the tumultuous week his team went through with the dismissal of assistant coach Yann Hufnagel after violating the school's sexual harassment policy.
“I don't think it was frustrating at all,” Martin said. “We all kind of moved past that as the week went on, and we were solely focused on the game. And so we didn't let it distract us, and unfortunately we couldn't come out with the win.”
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