College final exams have a way of putting everything in perspective.
UH-Hilo men’s basketball team departed for the Hoops in Hawaii D2 Power Invitational in Honolulu, where two more tough foes await Friday and Saturday, feeling in many ways that hard work was over.
That the focus turns from the classroom back to hardwood and the resumption of a meat-grinder of a schedule provided a sense of relief, coach GE Coleman said.
“It will be good to get away,” he said Thursday evening via the telephone as the Vulcans (2-4) waited to catch a flight at Hilo International Airport. “A time to exhale. They’ve paid very little attention to basketball (recently).”
Saint Martin’s (4-5), which reached the West Regional finals last season, and Alaska Anchorage (8-2), ranked fourth in the West, come to Hawaii from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and provide UHH with its last two nonconference games before resuming Pacific West Conference play
In that sense, these tuneups can be considered quizzes, not full-fledged tests.
“This weekend is all about getting better,” Coleman said.
UHH has had eight days off since it completed a winless road trip in Southern California against three teams that have combined for one PacWest loss, leaving it 1-3 in league play.
“We’ve got to learn how to close out games,” Coleman said. “On the road against high level teams, we really did not rebound well.”
Upon returning from Oahu, the Vulcans will take the mandatory seven days off required for NCAA Division II teams and they they’ll embark on a stretch that sees them play nine home games in a month’s time.
Coleman already is looking ahead to a Jan. 2 game against Fresno Pacific at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium. In UHH’s only home game to date it beat Azusa Pacific, another upper-echelon team from the PacWest.
“I don’t know where our strength of schedule ranks in Division II, but it’s got to be high,” he said. ‘The good news is we’ll continue to get better and get ready for the (homestand).”
