I can’t tell you how excited I am to watch college basketball during Thanksgiving week, starting with the Maui Invitational Tournament Monday evening.
THE North Carolina Tar Heels will be one of eight teams in the stacked tournament, with other first-round matchups including Memphis against back-to-back national champion UConn, Colorado against. Michigan State, Auburn against Iowa State and most importantly, UNC against Dayton.
Before North Carolina faces a plethora of stacked opponents, it will be against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors during a tune-up on Saturday morning. The Tar Heels take on Hawai’i virtually overnight, with tipoff at 12:30 a.m. ET.
UNC has a 5-0 advantage in its brief history with the Rainbow Warriorsof which we will give you a brief overview.
Hawai’i, already off to a 4-0 start this year, is a member of the Big West Conference. Other conference members include UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State and UC Riverside.
The Rainbow Warriors opened their campaign with a 96-61 victory over Life Pacific on November 8. They beat San José State two days later, dominated Pacific 76-66 on Veteran’s Day, then escaped Weber State in overtime (73-68) in the final game. Sunday.
Hawai’i is rolling deep offensively, with four players averaging a minimum of 10 points per game. Starting center and Utah Tech transfer Tanner Christensen leads the Rainbow Warriors with 17 points per game, Tom Beattie averages 12.3 points per game, while Gytis Nemeiska and Marcus Greene both average 10.3 points per game each.
Hawai’i has five NCAA Tournament appearances under its belt, the most recent coming in 2016, when it beat a Jaylen Brown-led Cal team for its first-ever Big Dance win.
Here’s to hoping North Carolina can improve to 6-0 against the Rainbow Warriors, who will provide another tough test early in the season.
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This article was originally published on Tar Heels Wire: Getting to Know UNC’s Next Basketball Opponent: The Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors
