UH aims to live up to potential after Midnight

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Every player emerged as a hero for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team early yesterday morning.

Rainbow Wahine Amy Kotani and Brittany Grice played to the crowd as Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman during Midnight Ohana festivities early Saturday. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

"There's a lot of potential out there," Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace said. "It's a different kind of club, so we have more work to do than this time last year."

The Rainbow Warriors were introduced to the public yesterday during the annual Midnight Ohana before around 4,000 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center. Yesterday was the first day that NCAA basketball teams could begin practicing, and the 'Bows continued their tradition of debuting in disguise shortly after midnight.

This year, the players and coaches came out dressed in superhero costumes.

"The kids have fun with it," said Wallace, who dressed as Darth Vader. "They all picked who they wanted to be."

Among the notable: Julian Sensley riding into the arena on a motorcycle as The Punisher; Vaidotas Peciukas swinging on the basketball net as Tarzan; Jeff Blackett and Matt Gipson battling each other as Roman gladiators.

"I can't celebrate Halloween now," Gipson said. "There's no way I can top this."

Blackett and Gipson then teamed up again — in basketball jerseys — to help the Green team to a 31-28 victory over the White in a 20-minute intrasquad scrimmage.

Blackett scored 11 points on 5 of 8 shooting, and Gipson scored the final four points of the scrimmage to help the Green overcome a nine-point deficit.

"It's just a pick-up game, but if you're going to play it, you might as well go out to win it," Gipson said. "This is for bragging rights until next year."

Gipson, a 6-foot-9 forward, is one of five new scholarship players on this season's team. He finished with four points and four rebounds.

Another newcomer, 6-5 shooting guard Matt Gibson, contributed nine points for the winning Green squad.

Bobby Nash led the White with 14 points, including 4 of 5 shooting from 3-point range. Earlier in the morning, Nash won the 3-point shootout, 10-7, over Amy Sanders of the Hawai'i women's team.

Jeff Blackett scored 11 points for UH Green in a 31-28 scrimmage victory. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

New point guard Deonte Tatum scored five points for the White team, and also won the slam-dunk contest. On his winning dunk, the 6-3 junior tapped the ball off the backboard then reverse-slammed it.

"I told my people back home I was going to win it," said Tatum, who is from Milwaukee. "This was a good time, but there's a lot more to come."

Wallace was especially excited about his big men — 6-8 Blackett, 6-9 Gipson, 6-9 Julian Sensley, 7-foot Chris Botez and 6-11 Milos Zivanovic.

"There's a lot more potential for speed and quickness there than we've had in the past," Wallace said.

Blackett added: "There's a lot of talent, but you can also see that everybody is getting after it, trying to earn their place. That's only going to make us better as a team because we're pushing each other."

The two candidates for Honolulu mayor, Duke Bainum and Mufi Hannemann, served as guest coaches for the scrimmage.

Hannemann was with UH associate coach Jackson Wheeler on the Green team; Bainum was with UH assistant coach Bob Burke on the White.

The 'Bows held their first "real" practice yesterday afternoon.

"We're nowhere near where we want to be," Tatum said. "But I think we definitely have the people here to do great things."

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.