HONOLULU – There’s plenty different about this year’s Rainbow Warriors.

The University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team officially opened up practice for the 2026-27 season on Monday, embarking on the program’s first journey through a new conference after spending the last 14 years competing in the Big West.

Coming off of an NCAA Tournament appearance and conference tournament crown last year, the Rainbow Warriors welded together a fresh cast of faces for their inaugural Mountain West campaign.

Gone and graduated are fan favorites Dre Bullock and Isaac “Big Fish” Johnson, along with starting point guard Hunter Erickson and last year’s captain Harry Rouhliadeff. Key reserves Gytis Nemeikša and Yacine Toumi also ran out of eligibility while four other former Rainbow Warriors hit the transfer portal after the championship season.

The six Rainbow Warrior seniors were honored on senior night in the regular season finale. | Photo: Daniel Fujita, HSRN

That eventually led to the addition of 13 new players to the program – 14 new players overall if you want to include guard Tanner Cuff, who missed all of last season with a knee injury.

“Obviously, we’re still to be determined in a lot of ways,” head coach Eran Ganot said of the roster for the Rainbow Warriors. “The sooner you know your team, the better. We know them better than we did in June, but there’s a lot of work still to be done.”

Hawai’i got a chance to work on chemistry and comradery a bit before the typical regular season began, taking a week-long international trip to Australia and getting a chance to compete against a pair of NBL squads at the start of August. As part of the foreign tour, the Rainbow Warriors got an extra 10 practices to coalesce before college actually started back up.

“You can’t judge a player or a team’s true talents until they’re in shape, which they should be … or [until they’re] comfortable, which takes time,” Ganot continued. “Not just new system but learning how to play together … We’re getting better, we know we have a way to go, it’s going to be rocky and there are going to be challenges and ups and downs and all that great stuff, but that’s awesome. It’s a blessing.”

Despite the change in faces and conference foes, the Rainbow Warriors want the program’s defensive and disciplined identity to remain the same. They’ve continued introducing players to the standard expected of them through identity series presentations and with the help of the growing leadership of Cuff and lone rotational returner Isaiah Kerr.

Ganot also added multiple familiar faces to the coaching staff after multiple key departures from last year’s bench, bringing back Adam Jacobsen, John Montgomery and Cody Kelley to the islands as assistant coaches while elevating Gibson Johnson to the associate head coach chair.

By bringing in a balanced group of coaches that know the previous standards and expectations of the program but have spent multiple seasons away from UH, Ganot believes there will be new ideas and improvements made simply from the continued career maturation of his assistants.

“They know Hawai’i, they know our program, they know our university but … they’ve been gone for some years and they come in with new ideas,” the 12th-year head man said. “We have this expectation for our guys to get better. Well, we better get better as coaches and I better get better, and I enjoy that part.”

Ganot expects the Mountain West to present plenty of challenges on a night-to-night basis, seeing teams that will be able to play big, play small, slow the tempo down or race down the floor every chance they get.

The roster for the Rainbow Warriors reads the same way with 11 of the 15 players on the team listed at 6-foot-6 or taller, adding an influx of athleticism into the rotation.

Cuff, who stands at 6-foot-7, provides a point guard who can post up and play outside the arc depending on the night. Davidson transfer Manie Joses, who is also listed at 6-foot-7, displayed elite defensive chops with the Wildcats and showed throughout the summer that his 7-foot-1 wingspan and leaping ability can be a plus on the fast break for UH.

The frontcourt also will have some optionality with 6-foot-10 Houran Dan and 6-foot-11 Bol Dengdit each presenting different profiles for the center spot.

Dan, a transfer from Seattle University, has a desire to dunk everything around the rim that he can and could be the most athletically freaky player on the team. Dengdit, who spent last year at UC San Diego and had multiple high-major programs after him in the portal, profiles more as a player who can stretch the floor from the center position and hold his own when he needs to play in the post.

Guards Chance Trujillo and Jaden Matingou also bring plenty of athleticism despite being on the “shorter” end of the roster at 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-3, respectively. Trujillo is built like a linebacker and has the quickest trigger on the roster, adding a high-level shooter to any rotation he’s a part of.

Matingou, much like Isaiah Kerr, is a winner that brings a toughness and competitive grit after spending multiple years at the Division II level. The Point Loma transfer has more bounce off the dribble than one might expect and is a capable defender and shooter that will only get more comfortable as his first season at UH progresses.

G Jaden Matingou handles the ball during his first official practice with Hawai’i. | Photo Credit: Ku’ulei Agbayani, HSRN

The 15-player roster will now embark on a six-week sprint to prepare for the start of Hawai’i’s non-conference slate and the regular season as a whole, hoping to build on the success from last year and take the program to places never seen before in the islands.

“I don’t think it’s ever been done in Hawai’i history where they’ve won the conference back-to-back,” Trujillo said ahead of the opening day of practice. “So especially going to a new conference in the Mountain West … I mean, that’s the expectation for us. And Hawai’i has never been to the Sweet 16, so… we know those are lofty goals but that’s why we’re pursuing them.”