Mitchell brings fast, fun rebrand to familiar Rainbow Wahine basketball product

HONOLULU – Meet the fast and furious Rainbow Wahine.

The University of Hawai’i women’s basketball team kicked off practices for the 2026-27 campaign on Tuesday, marking the true start to first-year head coach Khalilah Mitchell’s tenure.

“Grateful, excited, nervous, confident, prepared, all at one time,” Mitchell said of the feelings after officially kicking off her head coaching career.

Mitchell was tabbed by many as a top option to replace former head coach Laura Beeman, who retired in March after spending the past 14 years leading the Rainbow Wahine. An LSU women’s basketball alum who had been with Beeman and UH for seven years, Mitchell provided a perfect combination of continuing a culture of excellence while bringing her own style to the table.

The Rainbow Wahine will play in a read-and-react offense under Mitchell, providing plenty of players with different opportunities to score and be playmakers as part of a free-flowing system that thrives in transition.

“It’s a style that I’m familiar with, [that] I played at LSU,” the former Tigers guard-turned-coach said. “I wanted to bridge that gap between my experience as a player, what I learned from Coach B and the roster, the personnel that we have.”

That quick reaction, transition-heavy style will require an elite level of conditioning for a Hawai’i roster that enters the 2026-27 season with a dozen players total. If there are no more additions to the roster before the regular season starts in November, it’ll mark the first time in the 21st century that the Rainbow Wahine enter a campaign with 12 players or less.

Though the numbers are lower than usual, Mitchell and the rest of the Rainbow Wahine roster remain confident in the stylistic switch as they move into the Mountain West.

“I definitely embrace that a lot,” sophomore guard Bailey Flavell said of the new, faster offensive system. “I love to play fast, play freely. I’m really excited for this season and our new style of play; I think it’ll be super beneficial.”

Flavell, who also played for the New Zealand senior national team in the FIBA Pre-Olympic Qualification Tournament from August 17-23, did share that her summer included a lot running in preparation for her second college season.

Hawai’i G Bailey Flavell drives into the paint during the start of her sophomore year practices. | Photo Credit: Ku’ulei Agbayani, HSRN

“We want to get up and down,” Flavell said. “In order to maintain that pace throughout a whole game, you’ve got to be really fit.”

Mitchell hopes Flavell wasn’t the only one preparing for a faster pace of play heading into 2026-27.

“Every piece is so vital to complete this puzzle that we have,” Mitchell said of the 12-player roster. “The style of play is a real transition, so I’m really hoping they get in shape the way I need them to [over the next six weeks].”

Hawai’i returns eight players from last year, including 51.5% of the team’s scoring and over 54% of the total minutes played from 2025-26. Flavell was named the Big West’s Freshman of the Year honoree while 6-foot-5 center Ritorya Tamilo earned Sixth Player of the Year recognition in Hawai’i’s final Big West campaign.

Jade Peacock and Jovi Lefotu each provide experienced options at the guard spots while Tee Bond looks to build upon flashes from her freshman campaign as she enters Year 2 with the program.

Her sister, Taryn, is one of four new faces on the roster for the Rainbow Wahine. She joins Mt. San Antonio College transfer Liz Udeze, Siena transfer Zyriah Price and 6-foot-2 freshman forward Payton Mills as the newest members of the UH family.

Rebecca Moors and Kyra Webb are also back as experienced, athletic wing options for Mitchell’s debut season and 6-foot-4 Fiamma Serra looks as though she could be ready to contribute more after a mostly developmental freshman campaign.

For the Rainbow Wahine to be successful in 2026-27, they’ll need complete dedication to the new style and a dash of luck in the health department. With 12 players total, injuries take away depth for games and can impact preparation by taking away the ability to play 5-on-5 in practices.

“They have completely bought in,” Mitchell said of her team. “Like you said with the low numbers, it’s been hard sometimes because if something happens to one person, it trickles down … Some people [don’t get substitutions] and they’ve embraced that.”

While they have yet to release the full schedule for 2026-27, leaks from other programs have shown that a challenging non-conference slate is on the way for Hawai’i. Some of the programs with Hawai’i listed on their non-conference schedules include Oregon, California, Stanford, Columbia and San Diego State – all five of which recorded 20 or more wins and made either the NCAA Tournament or WBIT last season.