This Kentucky basketball team is taking a trip to paradise for a unique December road game
Plenty of Kentuckians have exciting plans or trips lined up for the festive month of December.
But you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone in the commonwealth with better travel plans for the month than the Eastern Kentucky University women’s basketball team.
The Colonels — who hold a 6-3 record this season and are on a five-game winning streak — are heading to paradise for a unique road game this week.
On Wednesday night, EKU will play at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, an NCAA Division II school located on the state’s namesake island. The game — which will count toward EKU’s record, but is listed by Hawaiʻi-Hilo as an exhibition game — is yet another marquee, destination opportunity for EKU head coach Greg Todd’s team.
Since Todd, an EKU alum, became the school’s head coach in May 2021, the Colonels have made it a point to schedule road games that allow the program to see distinct parts of the world.
During the 2022-23 season, Eastern Kentucky took part in the MAAC/ASUN Dublin Basketball Challenge, which saw EKU play Marist and Rider in Dublin, Ireland. EKU also played a road game at Army later that season.
During the 2023-24 season, EKU was one of the participants in the Great Alaska Shootout, which took place in Anchorage, Alaska. Eastern Kentucky reached the championship game of that event, defeating UAB before losing to Utah in the title game.
Now this season, EKU has a much warmer environment to look forward to with this week’s standalone game against Hawaiʻi-Hilo.
“One thing we’ve been very blessed (to do) is to travel, do some nice traveling since I’ve been here and the opportunity to go to Hawaiʻi is going to be very nice for the team,” Todd said in October during EKU’s preseason media day. “… I know the girls are really looking forward to that trip.”
When EKU announced this game in October, the program’s media release highlighted the fact that this marks the third-straight season that Eastern Kentucky is playing a women’s basketball game outside the continental United States.
EKU is 2-10 all-time in games played outside of the mainland United States.
“Before NIL got so big, I think being able to travel has always helped my teams recruit,” Todd said. “I think the young ladies really like to travel. Not every coach wants to, especially when you start getting into different time zones … I’ve always felt like it’s helped recruiting. I feel like it’s something that you can get through sports.”
Todd, who was previously the women’s basketball head coach at Morehead State, said that he leaned on connections from his coaching journey to put together this EKU trip to Hawaiʻi.
Todd said that he took several of the high school teams he coached at Berea and Lexington Catholic to Hawaiʻi on trips, and that he stayed in contact with people that he encountered on those visits.
Additionally, Todd also said he knows Hawaiʻi-Hilo’s coach, David Kaneshiro.
According to copies of the game contract between EKU and Hawaiʻi-Hilo that were obtained by the Herald-Leader via the Kentucky Open Records Act, there is no financial agreement that’s part of the game. In other words, neither EKU, nor Hawaiʻi-Hilo, is paying the other school for the game to occur.
Per the game contract, EKU will receive 30 complimentary tickets to the game, which will be played at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo, which is located less than a mile from Hilo Bay, which flows into the Pacific Ocean.
“I can’t wait to go to Hawaiʻi, it’s going to be great,” fifth-year EKU guard Alice Recanati said in October. “With Coach Todd, we’ve had so many good experiences. We’ve been to Alaska, Ireland, The Bahamas. It’s really great and I’m very thankful for it. And Hawaiʻi is going to be another good trip.”
“I feel like it’s a really big appeal. At my last school they always promised that we would go on foreign trips, and we never went on one,” fifth-year forward Jasmine McGinnis-Taylor, who previously played at Illinois State, said.
“As a freshman, that was something that Coach Todd was big on,” freshman guard Mya Wardle added. “He was like, ‘I am all for going different places and seeing different parts of the country and world.’ So I am super excited. I know it may be hard to be on the road a lot, but as a freshman I think it’s pretty cool all the places that I get to go this year.”
In addition to the upcoming road game at Hawaiʻi-Hilo, EKU’s nonconference schedule this season has also included trips to LSU and Michigan State.
Along with the sights, sounds and relief from typical winter weather that EKU’s trip to Hawaiʻi will offer, it also can serve as an important bonding moment for an EKU team that’s looking to build on what was a successful 2023-24 season.
Last season, the Colonels went 22-12 and earned an at-large bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. This was EKU’s first 20-win season since 2005 and the program’s first national postseason tournament appearance since 2013.
Former EKU women’s basketball star Antwainette Walker — who averaged a team-best 18.3 points per game for the Colonels last season — is now playing professionally in Belarus.
This season’s EKU squad was picked to finish fourth in the ASUN Conference in the league’s preseason coaches poll.
EKU is playing home games this fall at the Seabury Center on the campus of Berea College in Berea and at the Clive M. Beck Center on the campus of Transylvania University near downtown Lexington while ongoing renovations occur to Baptist Health Arena at Alumni Coliseum in Richmond.
The Colonels will be back inside Baptist Health Arena for ASUN play in January.
Wednesday
Eastern Kentucky at Hawaiʻi-Hilo
Where: Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo, Hawaiʻi.
When: 11 p.m. EST
Online: PacWest Network
Records: Eastern Kentucky 6-3, Hawaiʻi-Hilo 1-4
Series: First meeting
Note: The game will count toward EKU’s season record, but Hawaiʻi-Hilo lists the game as an exhibition. This will be EKU’s third-ever game in Hawaiʻi.
This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
