Friday, November 14th, 11:59 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) -- Honolulu, Hawaii. Television: Local. Home Record: USF 0-0, Hawaii 0-0. Away Record: USF 0-0, Hawaii 0-0. Neutral Record: USF 0-0, Hawaii 0-0. Conference Record: USF 0-0, Hawaii 0-0. Series Record: San Francisco leads, 8-4.

GAME NOTES: Rex Walters begins his reign with San Francisco tonight as he and the Dons face off against the Hawaii Warriors as part of the Verizon Wireless Tip-Off Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu. Walters, who was previously the top man with Florida Atlantic, was hired in the middle of April after the Dons posted a miserable 10-21 record in 2007-08 and were just 2-13 on the road. USF, which began last season under Jessie Evans before the legendary Eddie Sutton made his way to the bench and earned his 800th career win in the process, failed to win a single game on the road against a program outside of the West Coast Conference and didn't win back-to-back games over Division I foes until stringing together three in a row the first week of March. As for the Warriors, they are in their second season under head coach Bob Nash, the successor to Riley Wallace who finally made his exit after a quarter century. With his son one of the primary performers on the team a year ago, Nash was only able to work out 11 wins in 30 attempts for the Warriors. The team dropped seven in a row to close out the campaign and was a mere 7-9 in Western Athletic Conference action. San Francisco leads the all-time series with the Warriors by a count of 8-4, but Hawaii has taken two in a row, including an 89-85 decision during the 2006 edition of the Rainbow Classic.

The Dons bring back their top two point producers from a year ago in Dior Lowhorn and Manny Quezada. Lowhorn, an All-West Coast Conference First Team selection, led the team and the league in scoring with his 20.5 ppg, shooting an impressive 51.3 percent from the field and making more free-throws (123- of-174) than any one of his teammates had even attempted. Lowhorn also paced the program with his 7.4 rpg and 28 blocked shots, but for someone who has his hands on the ball as much as he does, posting a mere 22 assists and turning it over 93 times was not a good sign. Quezada (13.9 ppg) may fancy himself a three-point threat after placing second with 38 baskets beyond the arc, but his 30.9 percent accuracy did little to strike fear into defenders. If Walters is smart, he'll get Quezada to focus more on running the offense and sticking to his passing, which resulted in a team-best 142 assists last season.

The Hawaii roster is littered with new, young faces and there isn't a single senior to be found. Of the juniors, Bill Amis represents the most experience for the program after starting 20 of the 30 games for the team a year ago and averaging 8.5 ppg along the way. Amis, who shot a strong 55.7 percent from the floor but only 66.7 percent at the free-throw line, was the team leader with 40 blocked shots and one of the top rebounders with better than four and a half boards per contest. However, in playing rather physical at times Amis limited his own minutes and ended up fouling out of five games in 2007-08. Kareem Nitoto, the only other player on the current roster who started a single game last season, picked up some minimal experience and 2.9 ppg in 11 minutes per contest, but fellow starters Petras Balocka, Lasha Parghalava and Adhar Mayen will have to bring more to the table if this team is going to survive in 2008-09.

Although they were awful a season ago, perhaps keeping some solid performers and the memory of such an abysmal effort will be all the Dons need to pick up the victory here tonight.

Predicted Outcome

San Francisco 78, Hawaii 63