The University of Hawai'i men’s basketball team received some undesired incentive today when it was picked to finish last in the Western Athletic Conference preseason polls.

The Rainbow Warriors were picked to finish ninth in the nine-team WAC by both the conference’s coaches and media.
“It’s going to give us a lot of motivation going into this preseason to come together for when WAC starts and prove a lot of people wrong,” senior forward Bill Amis said.
Hawai'i returns 10 players from last season, when it finished 13-17 overall and placed eighth in the WAC with a 5-11 conference record.
“Considering how last year went, I wasn’t really surprised,” senior forward Roderick Flemings said. “But they don’t know much about our recruits. We can come out now and turn it around and make it look a lot better.”
Utah State, which won the WAC regular-season and tournament titles last season, was picked to finish first by both the coaches and media.
“It doesn’t make a whole lot of difference where you’re picked at this time of year,” Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said. “It’s where you finish in the final poll, not the beginning poll. We’re going to work hard no matter where we were picked.”
Nevada forward Luke Babbitt was named the Preseason Player of the Year by both the coaches and media.
The coaches and media also had the same Preseason All-WAC first team: Babbitt and Armon Johnson of Nevada, Mac Hopson of Idaho, Jared Quayle of Utah State, and Jahmar Young of New Mexico State.
Flemings was named to the Preseason All-WAC second team by the coaches (media did not select a second team).
“That’s not really a big deal for me,” Flemings said. “Second team, first team, no team. As long as we win, I don’t really care.”