Hawaii Basketball Reflects on Successful Season, Contract Talks Loom for Coach Eran Ganot
Over a few critical days in March, a prove-it season for coach Eran Ganot and the Hawaii men’s basketball team became a proven season. The Rainbow Warriors survived and advanced in their final head-around in the Big West, overcoming UC Irvine in the tournament championship game to be the last team standing for the second time in the program’s 14-year tenure in the conference. They received a 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament West Region and fell to No. 4 Arkansas, 97-78, last Thursday at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., a result that did little to diminish the impact of the preceding days.
Ganot is now one of two coaches to take the program to multiple NCAA Tournaments, after his mentor Riley Wallace, who got there three times (1994, 2001, 2002) in a 20-year tenure. UH has been to the NCAA Tournament only six times in its history.
What You Need To Know
- The Hawaii men’s basketball team reached the NCAA Tournament in the final season of coach Eran Ganot’s contract.
- Ganot and UH Athletic Director Matt Elliott are in discussions for a multi-year extension as UH prepares to join the Mountain West Conference in basketball.
- Players on the 2025-26 team vouched for the UH coaching staff and its pivot to bring in upperclassmen out of the NCAA transfer portal.
- UH will have to restock the roster with All-Big West players Isaac Johnson, Dre Bullock and Hunter Erickson among those to exhaust their eligibility.
Ganot’s contract is set to expire April 30, but the finish to the 24-8 season is a key source of leverage for the 11th-year program leader as his camp and UH administration discuss an extension.
The day before the Arkansas game, Ganot spoke about being humbled by his upbringing in Tenafly, N.J., and the coaches, players and other supporters he’s been around since UH made the NCAAs and won the program’s first NCAA Tournament game in his first season of 2015-16.
From NCAA Penalties to Tournament Success
A decade ago, UH was mired by the fallout of an NCAA investigation into violations committed by the regime of ex-coach Gib Arnold. A winding chain of events led to the hire of the former UH and Saint Mary’s assistant Ganot to clean up the program.
Ganot convinced most of a talented nucleus to remain for the 2016 breakthrough, though NCAA penalties remained well into his second season before UH successfully appealed the harshest of them, such as reduced scholarships.
“I said back then, as great a feeling as that was, to navigate what’s next and get us back here (to the NCAA Tournament) will be as good or better,” Ganot said. “We never wavered. We never lost our faith and conviction. We did it the right way. That’s what makes it awesome. When you get here, but you do it the right way with the right kids, the right people. … All the way up to (the state of) Hawaii, we take great pride in that.”
A Dramatic Roster Turnaround
UH executed a dramatic year-to-year turnaround to get back to the national stage. Coming off a season in which UH failed to qualify for the eight-team Big West championships, Ganot and his staff pivoted to a novel strategy.
Ganot turned to his private sector connections to compile a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) war chest of close to $1 million, one of the largest in the Big West.
Second-year assistant coach Gibson Johnson leveraged ties in his home state of Utah to bring in four seasoned players from the Beehive State while assistants Brad Davidson and Rob Jones helped fill in the gaps. All told, UH added nine newcomers — seven of whom would be key contributors on one of the oldest teams in college basketball.
The roster assembly occurred with remarkable speed; UH had most of its key pieces in place by mid-April. UH even brought back rugged forward Gytis Nemeiksa late in the offseason for one of the best bench punches in the league.
Team Chemistry and Key Performances
Over the ensuing months, players testified to a fast bond with each other and their new home. Utah State transfer Isaac “Big Fish” Johnson earned first-team All-Big West accolades and Big West tournament Most Valuable Player honors, and high-flying journeyman Dre Bullock attained second-team distinction in his sixth and final collegiate stop.
UH succeeded despite season-ending injuries to its two primary ball-handlers, Tanner Cuff just before the season opener and Aaron Hunkin-Claytor in late January.
Utah transfer Hunter Erickson, an All-Big West honorable mention, was pressed into service at point guard for the season stretch run. Erickson, who hit the game-winner against UC Irvine at the Stan Sheriff Center on Jan. 10, and Division II transfer Isaiah Kerr held things together in some tight contests, including a road game against Cal State Fullerton won on Bullock’s 3-pointer at the horn.
The team leaned on its strengths — rebounding and a help-averse defense adept at limiting 3-pointers — to grant itself a strong shot at the tournament title and an conclude to a decade-long postseason drought. It earned a top-two seed and a double bye into the semifinals of the Big West championships.
Bullock’s breakaway two-handed windmill dunk in the BWC tournament’s final seconds against UCI was catharsis for years of setbacks in the conference tournament.
NCAA Tournament and Future Outlook
UH’s NCAA Tournament contest was another example of the widening chasm between college hoops’ mid-major programs and the Power Four conferences; there would be no recurrence of the upset of a limping but still potent Cal team in 2016.
UH opened its season with a road game at Oregon and played an early home contest against Arizona State, narrow losses for the ‘Bows. UH missed out on facing other marquee names with the hiatus of the ESPN-operated Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
SEC tournament champ Arkansas existed on another plane of hardwood existence. The Razorbacks’ swift 11-0 start and their double-digit dunks tally by the midpoint of the second half were testament to the divide with the talent assembled by legend John Calipari, most notably a soon-to-be NBA lottery pick in point guard Darius Acuff Jr.
“This group … Whenever they walk in the halls of the locker room, there’s a plaque of every NCAA and NIT team,” Ganot said in NCAA’s postgame press conference. “There will be a plaque added. I know it hurts right now. There will be a ring prepared. And we can seem back at this and continue to grow.”
Ganot gathered team captain Harry Rouhliadeff in a hug as he checked out for the final time in his four-year UH career. Johnson was tearful as he flashed shakas to UH fans while walking off the floor in Moda Center.
“At the end of the day, we came here to be champs and that’s what we are,” Erickson said last week.
“That’s what a lot of us came here to play for, is getting to March Madness and playing a game like that,” he said. “It didn’t turn it the way we wanted it to, but at the end of the day we’re conference champs for the rest of our life and we’re a team that will be cemented in Hawaii history forever. We’ve got relationships that will last a lifetime. That’s something that’s invaluable.”
Looking Ahead: The Mountain West Conference
Now comes the question: Can UH replicate it in a tougher Mountain West Conference? The MWC loses strong programs in San Diego State, Utah State and Colorado State, but the ‘Bows will have to contend with powerful old WAC foes UNLV, Nevada and New Mexico and a recent comer in Grand Canyon, among others.
Erickson and Rouhliadeff felt the upperclassmen-heavy model has staying power. UH bids farewell to those two, plus Johnson, Bullock, Nemeiksa and Yacine Toumi, necessitating another year-to-year influx.
“Yeah, for sure. There’s definitely a lot of talent out there. It just depends where you go looking,” Rouhliadeff said. “But I’m just so grateful that we got the players that we did. We’ve gone through thick and thin together. Every single player (here) is talented, there’s no doubt about that. I know the coaching staff will do a great job in future years to bring in the right guys to win championships.”
Kerr, who savored his tournament test against Acuff with a season-high five assists against one turnover, said he plans to return for his senior season.
“I was thinking about how I was at Chico State deciding whether or not I wanted to enter the portal, or if I wanted to just stay,” Kerr said. “I’m just so, so glad to make the decision to leave and choose Hawaii. It’s been an awesome experience with such an awesome team. I’m just grateful I was able to play at this level with these boys. Excited for what’s to come.”