Hawaii Pacific hopes to take next step despite plethora of new players

HONOLULU – Progress is not always linear, but it can be.

Coming off the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament in nearly a decade, the Hawaii Pacific University men’s basketball team enters 2026-27 with a roster filled with fresh faces. After going 18-12 last year and earning an at-large bid to the dance, the Sharks saw 11 departures via graduation and the transfer portal.

The coaching staff also looks different entering Year 4 for head coach Jesse Nakanishi, seeing former associate head coach Cam Flabel move on to Division I with Idaho State. That led to a promotion into the second chair for assistant coach Kyle Ruiz and the addition of two new coaching faces in Cole Cummings and David Rowlands.

“The formula here is you get some young grinders that go above and beyond for our guys because we wear so many hats as a Division II coaching staff,” Nakanishi said about filling out his bench. “Kyle really showed last year that he was that guy … so it was an easy answer for me to promote Kyle.”

Along with the new staff, Nakanishi and company added nine new players to the program as the Sharks look to earn back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths for the first time in school history. After losing over 75% of the team’s scoring from a year ago, impact players were a must-have for Nakanishi.

He also looked to add more size and toughness, which he found in Bellevue product Will Woodward and Western Oklahoma wing Franciz Wai – a pair of junior college products that stand tall at 6-foot-7 and enjoy competing on the defensive end.

Woodward, a former pitcher at the University of Washington before spending last year playing basketball at Bellevue, had an especially nice Sharks debut as he posted 10 points and a team-best eight rebounds against a Division I opponent in the University of Hawai’i during last Sunday’s season-opening exhibition in Mānoa.

HPU also brought in a new, dynamic point guard after seeing last season’s starter Quentin Meza transfer out of the program. Even with the loss of an all-PacWest selection in Meza, the Sharks believe they could get more from USC-Beaufort transfer Evan Kilminster.

Kilminster, who was an all-Peach Belt selection for the Sand Sharks last year, struggled to find his shot against a suffocating Rainbow Warrior defense but handed out a game-high eight assists while only turning the ball over twice in his first game action in an HPU uniform. Being held below double figures was a rarity for Kilminster in 2025-26, when he scored 10+ points in 20 of his 29 appearances for USCB last season.

Despite expecting growing pains through the year with a different roster, Nakanishi sees the program pushing along like previous campaigns.

“The expectation is to continue the growth of the program even though it’s with a lot of new faces,” the fourth-year head coach said ahead of the regular season opener. “The expectation is to take that next step, to win the league and finish in the national tournament.”

Nakanishi understands the difficulty of those goals, so he set up a schedule that can help achieve them.

HPU will start the new season earlier than the majority of the nation, taking on St. Edwards (TX) at 10 a.m. on Friday, October 30 in the Hoops in Hawaii Tip-Off Classic. It’ll be one of three events sanctioned by the NCAA Division II Conference Commissioners Association (CCA) to tip off the 2026-27 regular season.

The Hilltoppers present one of many challenges on the schedule for the Sharks, receiving votes in the initial national Top 25 poll for Division II. The season-opening opponent is one of five teams on the HPU schedule that were either ranked or received consideration in the season’s first national rankings.

“You learn from your experiences … the proof is in the pudding. Last year I challenged our team and myself and our staff that we were going to schedule as hard as we can,” Nakanishi explained. “If we didn’t do that route, we would’ve not gotten into the national tournament. It’s really difficult to win the PacWest, the PacWest Tournament and get that automatic bid so if we don’t, what’s the fallback plan?”

Nakanishi believes that the loaded Hoops in Hawaii Tip-Off Classic will provide a strong baseline for the team and point the Sharks in the direction of what they need to improve upon for the rest of the season. A few wins would strengthen the résumé for HPU but won’t come easily during the tournament.

“This tournament is going to be a great opportunity for us to grow,” Nakanishi said. “Definitely think we’re more than capable of winning the whole thing if we’re playing at our best. I do think getting a couple of wins towards [our NCAA Power Index] would go a long way for us in the grand scheme of trying to get into the national tournament with an at-large berth. A couple of wins would make this a successful tournament.”

The winner of Friday’s game between Hawaii Pacific and St. Edwards University will advance to the tournament semifinals and take on the victor between Adelphi University (NY) and Minot State University (ND) on Saturday, October 31 at 5:15 p.m. inside McCabe Gymnasium.