One of Laura Beeman’s goals in recent years is to put together a better nonconference resume to help with seeding in the event the Hawaii women’s basketball team happens to find itself in the NCAA Tournament come March.
The Rainbow Wahine have already clinched a winning record in nonconference play but can shine the resume up quite nicely in these final two games of 2024 against Clemson today and San Diego State on Saturday as part of the San Diego Classic.
Hawaii, which is 6-3 overall with one loss coming against Long Beach State in an early Big West opener, rounds out its nonleague schedule against two teams, in the Tigers (7-3) and Aztecs (10-1), that rank in the top 75 in NCAA NET Rank.
UH’s only two nonconference losses are to No. 1 UCLA and Portland, which are a combined 23-0.
“That was the plan with a veteran team, just to schedule some really challenging games that also puts us in an opportunity to have a .500 or above record which we normally don’t have after preseason,” Beeman said before the team left on Wednesday.
A much more pressing concern for the coaching staff is the recent health issues that have again hit the Rainbow Wahine hard.
Already without guards Daejah Phillips and Danijela Kujovic, who both missed Monday’s 41-point win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, UH boarded a plane Wednesday without guards Kelsie Imai and Jovi Lefotu, who both left Monday’s game in the fourth quarter after falling on the court.
Beeman’s hope is to get her team as healthy as possible for the restart of Big West play on Jan. 2 at UC Santa Barbara. Hawaii’s next four games are on the road.
“You never want to see kids go down. It’s going to be a little bit day-to-day,” Beeman said. “They won’t be traveling to San Diego with us, but they will be back up with us after the break on the continent and we’ll see where they are and go from there.”
Hawaii will likely go with a sixth different starting lineup today against Clemson in the first meeting between the two schools.
The Tigers added 10 newcomers to the roster in the offseason, including Alabama transfer Loyal McQueen, a 5-foot-8 guard averaging 14.1 points and 6.0 assists per game.
Fifth-year wing MeiLani McBee, who is one of five Rainbow Wahine averaging at least 20 minutes a game, has seen a lot of teammates go down with injuries in her career.
This is nothing new for an experienced team to deal with.
“Obviously it sucks, but we know that we’ve battled adversity a lot throughout my years here and so we know that we can hold our own and step up when it needs to happen,” McBee said.
McBee is tied for the team lead in 3-pointers made with Lily Wahinekapu at 14.
Wahinekapu, who will have to carry a heavy load with four guards on the roster likely out, is shooting a career-best 40% from the 3-point line this season.
Shooting guard Jade Peacock is averaging 17.8 minutes a game and backup senior point guard Mia ‘Uhila is averaging 9.9 minutes per game, which should go up this week.
Freshman guard Kira-May Film played 15 minutes and hit a 3 in Monday’s win in her first game back since the opening two-game road trip to start the season.
“I feel very confident in what we have one through 15 nightly,” Beeman said.