Hawai’i predicted middle-of-the-pack finish in Mountain West preseason poll

HONOLULU – New conference, new summit to climb to.

Entering a new conference after leaving the Big West as champions, the University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team saw themselves predicted to finish in sixth place in the new-look Mountain West, according to the league’s preseason poll that released on Wednesday.

Hawai’i’s sixth-place selection was the highest of the three new programs in the Mountain West, seeing fellow Big West transplant UC Davis picked to finish in eighth place while UTEP checked in right behind in the ninth slot.

New Mexico, led by a rising star head coach in Eric Olen and the conference’s preseason Player of the Year honoree in G Jake Hall, was narrowly selected to finish at the top of the Mountain West with nine first-place votes and 179 points overall. The Lobos placed a pair of sophomores on the preseason all-conference team in Hall and G Uriah Tenette.

Right behind UNM was Grand Canyon, who received 10 first-place votes and 178 points overall in the poll. The Lopes had a league-high four selections making up the 10-player preseason all-conference team, led by preseason Newcomer of the Year pick Dylan Darling.

Nevada and UNLV were picked to finish third and fourth in the league while Wyoming rounded out the top five teams in the poll. Nevada had a pair of players put onto the preseason all-conference team in F Elijah Price and G Vaugn Weems while UNLV saw first-year forward Jackson Kiss picked as the conference’s preseason Freshman of the Year and graduate student G AJ Storr and sophomore F Tyrin Jones snag spots in the all-conference team.

Wyoming sophomore G Naz Meyer rounded out the preseason all-conference team for the Mountain West after averaging nearly 13 points and five rebounds per game as a freshman for the Cowboys.

“I’m fired up,” Hawai’i head coach Eran Ganot said at Mountain West Media Day in Las Vegas when asked about the program’s move into a new conference. “We’re actually rekindling old rivalries. We all used to be kind of in the WAC together … Both things can be true: we’re very appreciative of our time in the Big West [and] we’re very excited to transition into the Mountain West.”

Hawai’i returns just two players from the 2025-26 squad that won the Big West tournament title and made the NCAA Tournament last March, bringing in 13 new faces to the program ahead of the first run through the Mountain West.