Post by kaygee on Feb 8, 2005 12:27:17 GMT -6
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
Tatum is the Rainbows’ spy for Bracket Busters game
By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com
Deonte Tatum will play dual roles for the Hawaii basketball team in the days leading up to the Rainbow Warriors' ESPN Bracket Busters game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 19 -- point guard and advance scout.
Tatum grew up in Milwaukee and shared the court with most of the members of the current UWM roster at some point. His cousin, forward Joah Tucker, is the Panthers' second-leading scorer, and Tatum nearly enrolled at the school last summer.
So he knows better than most UH players what to expect when UWM visits the Stan Sheriff Center this month.
"I know their whole team. I know them well," Tatum said. "It's going to be pretty much even. They're talented, they've got a lot of seniors and juniors like us. They've got a team that was in the (NCAA) Tournament two years ago, so it's not going to be a cakewalk."
The matchup between the Rainbow Warriors and Panthers was officially announced yesterday, although Tatum and Tucker had been talking about the prospect of meeting on the court for the past few weeks.
"He's the one who called me and updated me early," Tatum said. "He called me and let me know it was going to be a possibility."
If he hadn't gotten a call from UH coaches late last summer, Tatum might have been playing against the Rainbows on Feb. 19.
After earning an associates degree from Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College, Tatum decided to give UH a look a week after visiting the UWM campus and eventually signed with the Rainbows.
Not only does the Bracket Busters game give Tatum a chance to play against his hometown school, it'll likely give him a trip back home next season.
The Bracket Busters arrangement calls for home teams to play a return game on their opponent's home floor the following season.
So Tatum and incoming UH recruit Matt Lojeski, who hails from Racine, Wis., are looking forward to a trip to Milwaukee during next season's nonconference schedule.
"That's going to be fun, a lot of people are going to come see that game," Tatum said. "A lot of people haven't seen me play in a while, so everybody's going to come check it out."
The UH-UWM game is among 11 Bracket Busters games that will be televised. Six games will be shown nationally on ESPN or ESPN2, the other five will be televised regionally on ESPN Full Court. The network will announce which games will get national exposure and the game times on Feb. 8.
Five Western Athletic Conference schools were picked out of a pool of 64 teams for the 11 televised contests.
The other TV games involving WAC teams are Vermont at Nevada, Murray State at Rice, and UTEP at Pacific. UTEP heads to the Sheriff Center to play the Rainbows the Monday after the Bracket Busters game.
"The WAC is very fortunate to have five teams in the field of 22," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said.
"The pairing will give all five schools the opportunity to improve their postseason chances."
UWM enters this week's action at 15-5 overall and 8-2 in the Horizon League. The Panthers played in the 2003 NCAA Tournament and last year's National Invitation Tournament, where they beat Rice before losing to Boise State.
The trip to Hawaii comes in a soft spot in the Panthers' schedule. UWM plays Butler on Feb. 16, flies to Honolulu for the game that Saturday, and doesn't have another game until Feb. 26.
"We're excited, what a great reward for our kids," Panthers coach Bruce Pearl was quoted as saying on the UWM Web site.
"There is always concern about the toll a long trip like this can take on your team, but our schedule is such that we don't play for a week after the trip. Usually the trip becomes a problem on the way back, but we have a nice amount of time to readjust."
If UH can gain one of the ESPN or ESPN2 slots, it would be the 'Bows' second national television appearance this season. Their New Year's Day game at Nevada was shown on ESPN2.
The game is being promoted as "Sellout Saturday" by the UH athletic department, which has designated it as a "Green Out" in which fans are encouraged to wear green shirts.
Posted on: Monday, January 31, 2005 11:06 AM HST
Rainbows will be part of ESPN's Bracket Busters
Hawaii will host Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 19
Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com
The Hawaii basketball team will face Wisconsin-Milwaukee of the Horizon League on Feb. 19 at the Stan Sheriff Center as part of ESPN’s Bracket Busters Saturday.
The matchups for the event were announced today. ESPN will announce next week which of the 11 Bracket Busters games will be televised nationally. Six games will be shown on ESPN or ESPN2 with the other five aired on a regional basis.
Five Western Athletic Conference schools — Fresno State, Rice, Nevada, UTEP and UH — were selected out of a 64-team pool for the 11 televised Bracket Busters games.
UH (12-5 overall, 4-5 WAC) is participating in the event that highlights “mid-major” conferences for the third straight year. The Rainbow Warriors are 1-1 in Bracket Busters games and will host a game for the first time.
UWM is 15-5 overall and leads the Horizon League at 8-2. The Panthers picked up a road win over Purdue 73-68 last week before having an eight-game winning streak snapped by rival Wisconsin-Green Bay 76-72 on Saturday.
UWM is the top scoring team in the Horizon League with 72.9 points per game and ranks second in scoring defense at 61.4.
The Panthers have emerged as a league power in Bruce Pearl’s three-plus seasons as head coach. UWM is 75-37 since Pearl’s arrival, winning the Horizon League tournament and earning an NCAA Tournament berth in 2003. Last year, UWM won the regular-season crown and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament.
“I know Bruce Pearl very well, and they’re a very good basketball team,” UH coach Riley Wallace said. “He’s turned that program into a power in their conference. They’ll be a good opponent.”
The Bracket Busters game will be sandwiched between UH’s WAC home games against Boise State on Feb. 16 and UTEP on Feb. 21.
The Rainbows went on the road to play Kent State in 2003, winning 79-78, and lost at Southern Illinois 66-62 last year.
“We had a tough trip to Southern Illinois and the other one the flu hit us because it was freezing cold at Kent,” Wallace said. “You just have to play.”
Senior guard Ed McCants leads UWM and is second in the Horizon League with 16.6 points per game. Junior forward Joah Tucker is second on the club at 14.4.
UH and UWM have one common opponent this year in Saint Louis with both teams beating the Billikens on the road.
Part of the Bracket Busters arrangement calls for home teams to play a return game the following season, meaning UH would play a nonconference game at UWM next season.
UH junior guard Deonte Tatum is from Milwaukee, while incoming recruit Matt Lojeski is from Racine, Wis.
“We’re excited about going to Milwaukee,” Wallace said. “I guarantee they’re doing flip-flops that they get to go home next year.”
Tatum is the Rainbows’ spy for Bracket Busters game
By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com
Deonte Tatum will play dual roles for the Hawaii basketball team in the days leading up to the Rainbow Warriors' ESPN Bracket Busters game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 19 -- point guard and advance scout.
Tatum grew up in Milwaukee and shared the court with most of the members of the current UWM roster at some point. His cousin, forward Joah Tucker, is the Panthers' second-leading scorer, and Tatum nearly enrolled at the school last summer.
So he knows better than most UH players what to expect when UWM visits the Stan Sheriff Center this month.
"I know their whole team. I know them well," Tatum said. "It's going to be pretty much even. They're talented, they've got a lot of seniors and juniors like us. They've got a team that was in the (NCAA) Tournament two years ago, so it's not going to be a cakewalk."
The matchup between the Rainbow Warriors and Panthers was officially announced yesterday, although Tatum and Tucker had been talking about the prospect of meeting on the court for the past few weeks.
"He's the one who called me and updated me early," Tatum said. "He called me and let me know it was going to be a possibility."
If he hadn't gotten a call from UH coaches late last summer, Tatum might have been playing against the Rainbows on Feb. 19.
After earning an associates degree from Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College, Tatum decided to give UH a look a week after visiting the UWM campus and eventually signed with the Rainbows.
Not only does the Bracket Busters game give Tatum a chance to play against his hometown school, it'll likely give him a trip back home next season.
The Bracket Busters arrangement calls for home teams to play a return game on their opponent's home floor the following season.
So Tatum and incoming UH recruit Matt Lojeski, who hails from Racine, Wis., are looking forward to a trip to Milwaukee during next season's nonconference schedule.
"That's going to be fun, a lot of people are going to come see that game," Tatum said. "A lot of people haven't seen me play in a while, so everybody's going to come check it out."
The UH-UWM game is among 11 Bracket Busters games that will be televised. Six games will be shown nationally on ESPN or ESPN2, the other five will be televised regionally on ESPN Full Court. The network will announce which games will get national exposure and the game times on Feb. 8.
Five Western Athletic Conference schools were picked out of a pool of 64 teams for the 11 televised contests.
The other TV games involving WAC teams are Vermont at Nevada, Murray State at Rice, and UTEP at Pacific. UTEP heads to the Sheriff Center to play the Rainbows the Monday after the Bracket Busters game.
"The WAC is very fortunate to have five teams in the field of 22," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said.
"The pairing will give all five schools the opportunity to improve their postseason chances."
UWM enters this week's action at 15-5 overall and 8-2 in the Horizon League. The Panthers played in the 2003 NCAA Tournament and last year's National Invitation Tournament, where they beat Rice before losing to Boise State.
The trip to Hawaii comes in a soft spot in the Panthers' schedule. UWM plays Butler on Feb. 16, flies to Honolulu for the game that Saturday, and doesn't have another game until Feb. 26.
"We're excited, what a great reward for our kids," Panthers coach Bruce Pearl was quoted as saying on the UWM Web site.
"There is always concern about the toll a long trip like this can take on your team, but our schedule is such that we don't play for a week after the trip. Usually the trip becomes a problem on the way back, but we have a nice amount of time to readjust."
If UH can gain one of the ESPN or ESPN2 slots, it would be the 'Bows' second national television appearance this season. Their New Year's Day game at Nevada was shown on ESPN2.
The game is being promoted as "Sellout Saturday" by the UH athletic department, which has designated it as a "Green Out" in which fans are encouraged to wear green shirts.
Posted on: Monday, January 31, 2005 11:06 AM HST
Rainbows will be part of ESPN's Bracket Busters
Hawaii will host Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 19
Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com
The Hawaii basketball team will face Wisconsin-Milwaukee of the Horizon League on Feb. 19 at the Stan Sheriff Center as part of ESPN’s Bracket Busters Saturday.
The matchups for the event were announced today. ESPN will announce next week which of the 11 Bracket Busters games will be televised nationally. Six games will be shown on ESPN or ESPN2 with the other five aired on a regional basis.
Five Western Athletic Conference schools — Fresno State, Rice, Nevada, UTEP and UH — were selected out of a 64-team pool for the 11 televised Bracket Busters games.
UH (12-5 overall, 4-5 WAC) is participating in the event that highlights “mid-major” conferences for the third straight year. The Rainbow Warriors are 1-1 in Bracket Busters games and will host a game for the first time.
UWM is 15-5 overall and leads the Horizon League at 8-2. The Panthers picked up a road win over Purdue 73-68 last week before having an eight-game winning streak snapped by rival Wisconsin-Green Bay 76-72 on Saturday.
UWM is the top scoring team in the Horizon League with 72.9 points per game and ranks second in scoring defense at 61.4.
The Panthers have emerged as a league power in Bruce Pearl’s three-plus seasons as head coach. UWM is 75-37 since Pearl’s arrival, winning the Horizon League tournament and earning an NCAA Tournament berth in 2003. Last year, UWM won the regular-season crown and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament.
“I know Bruce Pearl very well, and they’re a very good basketball team,” UH coach Riley Wallace said. “He’s turned that program into a power in their conference. They’ll be a good opponent.”
The Bracket Busters game will be sandwiched between UH’s WAC home games against Boise State on Feb. 16 and UTEP on Feb. 21.
The Rainbows went on the road to play Kent State in 2003, winning 79-78, and lost at Southern Illinois 66-62 last year.
“We had a tough trip to Southern Illinois and the other one the flu hit us because it was freezing cold at Kent,” Wallace said. “You just have to play.”
Senior guard Ed McCants leads UWM and is second in the Horizon League with 16.6 points per game. Junior forward Joah Tucker is second on the club at 14.4.
UH and UWM have one common opponent this year in Saint Louis with both teams beating the Billikens on the road.
Part of the Bracket Busters arrangement calls for home teams to play a return game the following season, meaning UH would play a nonconference game at UWM next season.
UH junior guard Deonte Tatum is from Milwaukee, while incoming recruit Matt Lojeski is from Racine, Wis.
“We’re excited about going to Milwaukee,” Wallace said. “I guarantee they’re doing flip-flops that they get to go home next year.”