Hawaii’s Harry Rouhliadeff is rarest of Rainbow Warrior gems

HONOLULU – There’s plenty special about Harry Rouhliadeff.

The 6-foot-10 forward will be honored alongside five other seniors when the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team hosts Long Beach State to wrap up the 2025-26 regular season on Saturday night, but the Australian is unique amongst his peers.

Of course, Rouhliadeff is the lone captain on this year’s Rainbow Warrior squad. One of four players currently averaging 10.0 points per game or more, the forward has been a key component of a UH team that enters the final day of the regular season with a chance to claim at least a share of the Big West’s regular season crown.

But it’s the context of Rouhliadeff’s career that makes him a bit of a unicorn in today’s era of college basketball.

Rouhliadeff will be one of the two seniors honored Saturday night that has tolled multiple seasons in the islands. While fellow forward Gytis Nemeikša is uncommon in his own right, he is closer to the group of four that joined UH’s program this year than the team’s captain.

Nemeikša, like Dre Bullock, Hunter Erickson, Isaac Johnson and Yacine Toumi, spent time in the transfer portal and joined the Rainbow Warriors for a bigger opportunity and a chance to win. They flourished with a coaching staff and fan base that believed in them from the moment they met them and have helped reinvigorate a sleeping giant of an atmosphere inside Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Rouhliadeff picked Hawai’i from the start and never tested the transfer portal waters. He is one of two true seniors in the entire Big West this year that has spent all four seasons with the same program and the lone lifetime Rainbow Warrior of the six with expiring eligibility.

Harry Rouhliadeff (back, right) poses on UH’s Senior Night with the team in 2023 as a freshman. | Photo Credit: HSRN

An 18-year-old prospect from Brisbane when he made the trek to the islands in 2022, Rouhliadeff appeared in 26 games in a reserve role for a UH squad that went 22-11. Stuck behind Kamaka Hepa, Samuta Avea and Bernardo da Silva in the rotation his first year, Rouhliadeff returned for his sophomore season and checked into 32 games while helping the Rainbow Warriors tally another 20-win campaign in 2023-24.

The 2024-25 season was a bit bumpier, seeing another pair of transfers come into the fold and clog up opportunities for Rouhliadeff as he entered his junior year. He lost his starting job after opening the season in the starting five, getting demoted into a bench role where he didn’t get over 20 minutes of action in a game for a month.

Rouhliadeff worked back into the starting lineup for 10 of the final 11 games, suffering an immediate injury after checking in against CSUN in the season finale as the Rainbow Warriors missed the Big West tournament for the first time ever.

With Hawai’i facing a mass roster overhaul, Rouhliadeff had done enough to attract opportunities to reset as a senior elsewhere after a solid personal finish to his junior campaign on the court. He had a choice to make – did he hit the road like eight former teammates or remain in a room that would bring in eight new faces to replace them?

Rouhliadeff chose to stay in the islands, forgoing his final chance to enter the transfer portal for one last run with the Rainbow Warriors in the Big West.

“It’s hard to leave a place like this,” Rouhliadeff said at the start of his Senior Week when asked about staying the course with the Rainbow Warriors. “It’s home and I’ve loved every second.”

Harry Rouhliadeff celebrates after a win with the UH crowd. | Photo Credit: Michael Lasquero, HSRN

He’s been rewarded by the basketball gods for his loyalty.

One of four players to return from last season’s disappointment, Rouhliadeff was named the captain in the preseason and lived up to the title throughout his final campaign in green. He has helped pilot what has the chance to be one of the best year-to-year turnarounds in recent Big West memory for UH.

After finishing outside the field of top eight teams last season and watching the Big West Tournament from home in 2025, the Rainbow Warriors enter the final day of the regular season in 2026 with a chance at claiming at least a share of the conference crown.

With a win over Long Beach State on Saturday night, UH would become the third team since they joined the Big West in 2012 to win a share of the regular season conference title after finishing ninth or worse in the standings during the previous year.

Rouhliadeff has been a big part of the bounce back by the ‘Bows, averaging career highs in points, rebounds, assists, FG%, 3PT% and blocks while providing multiple clutch moments for a heart stopping Hawai’i team.

He will end his career by becoming one of the two lone players in UH program history to be a part of three separate seasons of 20 wins or more when it’s all said and done.

[**Editor’s note: G Dyrbe Enos was a part of three 20-win seasons while with UH, but the 2013-14 season saw all 20 wins vacated as part of the school’s response to a notice of allegations from the NCAA regarding ineligible players participating in the final two years under former head coach Gib Arnold.]

Rouhliadeff has played every role from deep reserve to full-time starter in his time with the Rainbow Warriors, but Saturday gives him a chance to do something he still hasn’t experienced with the program.

Win a conference title.

“We’ve got such a huge opportunity in front of us,” Rouhliadeff said of the stakes of his final regular season week as a Rainbow Warrior. “Not to put any pressure on ourselves, but we just take every game like it’s a championship game.”

Saturday could be a crown jewel for Rouhliadeff’s Rainbow Warrior tenure. It would be the fourth regular season conference title in program history and the first since 2016.

Regardless of the Saturday result for Hawai’i, Harry Rouhliadeff has already proven to be the rarest of gems.