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Hawai‘i coach Eran Ganot watches his team's offense in the second half against CSUN on Monday.

The end of the month saw a flurry of announcements involving the University of Hawaiʻi men’s basketball program as the NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal for the 2025 season officially opened on Monday, March 24. 

Firstly, acting UH Athletics Director Lois Manin issued a statement Monday announcing that longtime UH men’s basketball head coach Eran Ganot, who will enter into the final year of his contract in the 2025-2026 season, will return as head coach for the upcoming campaign. 

Ganot has been the Rainbow Warriors’ head coach since 2015, and also served as an assistant coach from 2007-2010. He formerly won Big West Coach of the Year following the 2015-2016 season, the same year that saw him lead the ‘Bows to program-first Big West regular season and conference tournament titles, as well the team’s first-ever win in the NCAA tournament. 

Ganot boasts a .592 career-winning percentage, and is the second-most-winningest coach in program history, however, has not seen the same stellar results of that historic 2015-2016 replicated since. Especially following a fairly disappointing 2024-2025 season that saw Hawaiʻi go 15-16 overall, 2-7 in the Big West Conference, and failing to qualify for the Big West tournament, this potentially final season in Ganot’s storied tenure with UH represents a significant crossroads as the program grapples with what must be done to move forward with success.

Major announcements also included the departure of several athletes from the men’s basketball program. Headlining those entering the transfer portal was Akira Jacobs, a second-year guard from Yokohama, Japan, as reported by Verbal Commits, and later announced by Jacobs with a post to his personal X (formerly Twitter) account on March 24. 

The six-foot-ten, beloved Rainbow Warrior, who represented Japan at the 2024 Summer Olympics, previously led Team Japan to a second-place finish at the 2022 FIBA U18 Asian Championships, and was a member of the NBA Global Academy training program, averaged 6.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 0.1 steals in 30 games played during his sophomore campaign. 

Also reported by Verbal Commits Monday were the entrances of redshirt freshman guard Logan Robeson and freshman guard Jacopo Van der Knaap into the transfer portal. Robeson, a Moraga, California native and former high school Diablo-Foothill Basketball League MVP and 2022 Division-II State Champion for the Campolindo High School Cougars, appeared in 10 games for UH in the 2024-2025 season with 17 total minutes played, scoring a total of three points and two rebounds. 

Van der Knaap was Hawaiʻi’s first-ever international signee from Italy, as well as the first with origins in the Netherlands. A member of the Dutch national team at the 2022 and 2023 FIBA U20 European Championships with previous experience in several European professional basketball leagues as an amateur, the 21-year-old only appeared in two games for the Rainbow Warriors with two total minutes played, scoring a total of three points. 

Along with several athletes transferring out of the program, UH Basketball also saw commitments from a couple of new faces. Guard Tanner Cuff, a graduate transfer from the University of Evansville, announced his commitment to the University of Hawaiʻi on his personal X account on March 24. 

The American Fork, Utah native started in all 32 games he appeared in for the Purple Aces during the 2024-2025 season, averaging 8.8 points, 3.2 assists, 1.3 steals, 6.2 total rebounds and 32.8 minutes per game. Cuff was also previously named to the Missouri Valley Conference All-Bench Team for the 2023-2024 season as a junior.

Also hailing from American Fork is center Isaac Johnson, UH’s second transfer commit of 2025, who announced his commitment to Hawaiʻi via X on March 29. The seven-foot junior, a former four-star high school recruit, previously played for the University of Oregon and Utah State University, appearing in 65 total games for the Aggies across the past two seasons while averaging 5.2 points, 0.6 assists and 2.4 total rebounds over 12.1 minutes per game.

Johnson has made appearances as a member of the Aggies in the NCAA Division-I Men’s Basketball Tournament for the past two seasons, notably contributing a career-high 19 points and four blocks in an 88-72 victory that sent TCU home in the first round of March Madness in 2024.

And announced earlier this week was yet another transfer from Utah, this time the University of Utah with guard Hunter Erickson. Erickson previously played for BYU and Salt Lake Community College. In the last two season with the Utes, Erickson started in 2 of his 70 games played, averaging 4.2 points per game. 

Along with the three aforementioned transfers, the conclusion of the 2024-2025 season saw the graduation of five players: center Tanner Christensen, forward Gytis Nemeikša, guard Marcus Greene, guard Ryan Rapp, and forward/center Jerome Palm. Christensen and Nemeikša in particular both played key roles as team leaders for the 2024-2025 season in several statistics, including points, rebounds, and blocks. 

With these commitments from new and exciting talent, as well as other recruits to come, the University of Hawaiʻi men’s basketball program will be looking to find a way to fit the ‘right pieces’ together for a new, hopefullyprosperous and growth-filled season.

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