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For the first time in a decade, the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors are headed to the NCAA Tournament after going 23-8 and winning the Big West Tournament.
The Rainbow Warriors are the No. 13 seed in the West Region of the bracket and will take on fourth-seeded Arkansas in the first round on Thursday. But it’s the way that Hawaii reached March Madness that’s the true story.
It’s just the second time in 11 seasons that head coach Eran Granot, who is still just 44 years old, has led his team to the big dance. This time, however, he did so by employing a defense unlike anything that you’ve likely seen before.
The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors Refuse To Help On Defense!
Traditionally speaking in basketball, if a ball-handler beats a defender off the dribble, another member of the defense is supposed to rotate over and “help’ the defender that just got beaten.
If the ball-handler then passes the ball, teams will continue that rotation until, ideally, they have stopped the ball and gotten back into their normal defensive setup.
However, the Rainbow Warriors are breaking all the rules of basketball in the way they play man-to-man defense.
Thanks to college basketball analyst Jordan Sperber, who runs the YouTube page HoopVision68, we can see that Granot does the exact opposite of what every other team in basketball does.
Hawaii does not help on defense at all.
The Rainbow Warriors play what’s called a “drop” coverage on pick-and-rolls, meaning that the man responsible for guarding the screen drops deep to cut off the ball handler’s pass to the basket.
By doing so, Hawaii forces opposing ball handlers to settle for a number of pull-up jumpers, which are typically inside the 3-point line.
The Rainbow Warriors allowed an NCAA-low 9.6 assists per game in 2025-26.
Hawaii Isn’t Giving Its Opponents Any Good Looks From Beyond The Arc
But it’s not just about pick-and-roll coverage. Hawaii also does not help on straight-line drives, allowing its defenders to play one-on-one. This type of defensive coverage also leads to opponents shooting a number of contested two-point field goal attempts.
Granot’s defense, as Sperber points out in his video, shuts down opponents beyond the arc. In fact, the Rainbow Warriors rank 29th in the nation in 3-point defense, holding opponents to 30.7 percent shooting from deep.
Does the defense have some flaws? Sure.
It’s totally possible that Arkansas star Darius Acuff completely exploits the defense by getting to the basketball easily and scoring in the midrange.
But thus far, the strategy has been wildly successful for Hawaii. And it could be the key to a Cinderella run in the NCAA Tournament.