HONOLULU — Coming up on the midpoint of the college basketball season, the three Hawaii-based PacWest Conference schools have trained an eye on a realistic postseason.

Since the PacWest tournament began in men’s basketball in 2013, a full representation of Hawaii teams — at one point four schools, now three — in one championship bracket has not occurred.

For a while, that was due to Hawaii Hilo, which hit a lull in the 2010s and only qualified for the first time in 2022. Then, Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade had off years. (BYU-Hawaii dropped its Division II athletics programs in 2017.)

But things have lined up in 2025 to the point that Chaminade (12-4, 6-3 PWC), Hilo (10-6, 3-3) and HPU (8-7, 3-3) are all thinking tournament. The six-team PacWest competition will be held March 6-8 at the Conlan Center in San Rafael, Calif., on the Dominican University campus.

“I think all three Hawaii teams are highly competitive. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if all three were in,” Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird told Spectrum News recently. “I think all three have a chance to beat anybody on a given night, and have a chance to make a run (at the title).”

HPU won the PacWest tournament in 2017 while Chaminade took it in 2014.

This year, they are aided by the fact that three teams in the 14-team conference — William Jessup, Vanguard and Menlo — are transitioning to NCAA Division II and are ineligible for the postseason. So, the Hawaii teams must place in the top six of 11 instead of 14.

Postseason dreams took a hit last weekend, as three of the best teams from the mainland — Point Loma, Azusa Pacific and Biola — played in the islands and dealt all three local teams a loss on Thursday. Chaminade and Hilo bounced back and beat Azusa Pacific and Biola on Saturday.

Point Loma leads the league with a 7-1 record.

HPU coach Jesse Nakanishi has quickly restored the Sharks into a contender for a PacWest spot since he took over for longtime leader Darren Vorderbruegge, who retired.

“You know, I think we’re typical of most teams in our league,” Nakanishi said. “There’s a lot of parity. There’s really quality basketball at this level in our league in particular. Everyone has D-I transfers, everyone has the experienced JUCO guys. Very balanced programs. So any team can beat anyone on any given night. Point Loma has been the gold standard, if you will, lately with their level of success.”

The longtime Silverswords coach Bovaird totally rebuilt his roster after experiencing one of his toughest years (10-18) in 2023-24. He did so in the mold of his former program, national power West Liberty (W.V.), which used a run-and-gun style to great success.

Chaminade leads the conference at 88.3 points per game.

“We wanted to get back and find guys who can play that style. They gotta be able to do everything — handle the ball, shoot and drive, guard multiple positions,” Bovaird said. “We went out and recruited those guys. We were off to a really good start, still playing well, lost a tough one in overtime (88-81 to Biola) to that could’ve easily gone our way if we’d knocked down free throws. But yeah, we’re in a good spot.”

Hilo, led by Kaniela Aiona, is coming off its first PacWest semifinal appearance. Hilo combines top-three league scoring (79.5) with a top-two defense (67.6 allowed). Hilo and Chaminade are one and two in scoring margin, at plus 11.9 and 10.5, respectively.

"We are just six games into league play but have shown flashes of our potential," Aiona said. "We like our depth and how we are playing right now."

HPU guard Sherman Brashear is one of the conference's elite free-throw shooters at 86.4%.

All three local teams have a lengthy California road trip coming that could determine whether they remain in the chase for a tournament seed. HPU has a four-gamer, Chaminade a five-gamer and Hilo a four-gamer.

“I think all three of us will be in the mix in late February, we’ll all be fighting for one of those six playoff spots and have our chance to get in there,” Nakanishi said. “It’s a matter of, right now, you can’t drop the home games and all three of us did last (week), unfortunately for our respective causes. But you gotta go make up for them on the road and get ones that are going to be tough to get.”

HPU hosts Kam’s Helmets Drive at its Shark Tank upon its return from the mainland on Feb. 1 against Dominican. It is in honor of former HPU player Kameron Steinhoff, who died in 2011 following a skateboarding accident in which he was not wearing a helmet. The purpose of the event is to provide helmets to keiki.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.