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The ‘Iolani Red Raiders endured quite a path to a state-tournament berth. Somewhere in the midst of all the ILH boys basketball drama — thankfully all on the hardwood — Coach Dean Shimamoto‘s team is still standing while two other teams (Kamehameha and Punahou) remain locked in a battle for the final berth. ‘Iolani is resting until Saturday, when it will play one of those teams for the ILH championship. HPW: Winning the wild ILH tiebreaker playoff, then losing in […]

Kamehameha boys basketball coach Greg Tacon was kind enough to reflect and share his thoughts as the Warriors prepare for Friday’s ILH playoff final against Punahou. The winner secures a precious state-tournament berth, one of just two allotted to the ILH, and will meet ‘Iolani on Saturday for the league crown. “When I look back at what happened this year, I can’t help but to be proud and honored to be a part of this incredibly competitive ILH season. I’m […]

The Age of Iron Men continues in the unforgiving land of Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys basketball. Truly, winter is here. Vanquished as of Tuesday night: Top 10 teams Mid-Pacific and Maryknoll. The Owls of MPI fell to Kamehameha while the Spartans were ousted by one point as Punahou advanced. MPI went as far as it could with a strong nucleus, but depth-wise, it was difficult to match Kamehameha. The Warriors employ at least 10 players every night with scarcely […]

The Mad Librarian (my editor, Jerry Campany) asked. When the Mad Librarian asks, the translation to plain English is, just do it. So here goes. He wants me to seed the entire high school basketball universe in our beloved and beautiful islands. Mad Librarian is not a fan of classification in basketball. He echoes the spirit of prep hoops in Indiana, where the tiniest of burbs and old villes have a shot at the biggest throne because it is the […]

There’s the 6-foot-6 kid who has that pep in his step again, lifting Punahou to a seriously clutch road win. There’s the other 6-6 kid, a Wes Unseld clone from Maui now playing for Saint Louis, his dream of a weekend trip home completely obliterated. But first, there was Noa Purcell, on the floor in front of the Saint Louis bench as the buzzer sounded. It was Tuesday night and the first-place Saint Louis Crusaders had lost to host Kamehameha […]