When Gib Arnold was hired as the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in March 2010, he inherited a once-proud program mired in the midst of three straight losing seasons. Many in the basketball realm considered his reclamation project as one of the most challenging for the newest crop of first-year head coaches. But that didn’t stop the 44-year-old Arnold whose “All In” approach has rejuvenated Rainbow Warrior basketball and has set a winning foundation for years to come.
In two seasons under Arnold, the Rainbow Warriors have won 35 games, including 19 wins and a post-season appearance in his 2010-11 debut season. His second season saw the continued ascent of the program, highlighted by signature wins over Xavier and Clemson in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. The win over the No. 14 Musketeers, who went on to the NCAA Sweet 16, was the program’s first over a nationally ranked team in six years. Later in the season, the Rainbow Warriors advanced to the Western Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals for the first time in nearly a decade.
The program has also continued to excel in the classroom. This past year the NCAA cited UH men’s basketball with a Public Recognition Award for posting multiyear scores in the top 10 percent in all of college basketball.
Arnold has been a relentless recruiter, attracting players from far and wide to Hawai‘i. Aside from top-notch American talent, his signing classes have sported an international flair with players hailing from Angola, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Latvia and New Zealand.
Arnold’s first UH recruiting class was rated fifth-best in the nation by The Hoop Scoop. Arnold meshed that class with a sparse, yet talented, group of returning upperclassmen to complete a remarkable turnaround season in 2010-11. UH finished the year with 19 wins, nearly doubling its win total (10) from the year prior. The 19 wins were the most for the school in seven years and tied Arnold with Bruce O’Neil for the most wins in program history by a first-year head coach.
There were numerous other highlights along the way. UH won its first five games of the 2010-11 season for its best start in six years; the ’Bows went 2-1 in the prestigious Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic; UH re-established its home-court advantage with a 14-5 record at the Stan Sheriff Center and accumulated its most road wins in seven years. Arnold also molded a formidable defensive unit as UH set a new school record for field-goal percentage defense, a mark that ranked eighth in the nation in 2010-11. The year concluded with a bid to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament and a victory in its first-round game versus Portland. It was the program’s first postseason appearance and first postseason win since 2003-04.
Arnold received national acclaim from Athlon Sports who named him one of the five best first-year coaches in 2010-11 after working “a minor miracle” at UH.
It was only inevitable that Arnold would one day lead his own Division I program. Arnold was tabbed by numerous outlets as one of the nation’s top assistants and recruiters after serving for schools in the Pac-10, Southeastern Conference and West Coast Conference. He also boasted head coaching experience having guided junior-college power College of Southern Idaho for two seasons.
It was even more fitting he would make the leap at Hawai‘i, where he was named the program’s 19th head coach. Arnold returns to Hawai‘i, following the footsteps of his father Frank who served as UH head basketball coach for two seasons at UH (1985-87).
Prior to arriving in Hawai‘i, Arnold coached at USC where he was an assistant for five seasons. He was instrumental in helping USC achieve a record three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, three straight 20-win seasons and the winningest five-year stretch in school history. In 2009, Arnold helped USC capture the inaugural Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, hosted by Hawai‘i. Arnold was the lead recruiter for former Trojan standouts DeMar DeRozan and Taj Gibson, both of whom were selected in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft, as well as 2011 first-round pick Nikola Vucevic.
During his career, Arnold has recruited more than 20 international players to play college basketball in the United States. Two of those players eventually went on to the NBA, including Vucevic (Montenegro) and Yakouba Diawara (France).
Arnold first received recognition for his coaching prowess while an assistant at Pepperdine. He spent four seasons (2000-03) there as the Waves won more Division I games in his tenure than during any other four-year span in school history. For his work, Athlon Sports named Arnold one of the top 10 Division I assistants in the country.
In between stints at USC and Pepperdine, Arnold spent two seasons as the head men’s basketball coach at the College of Southern Idaho. There he posted a 57-14 record, including a 33-3 mark in his second season. His Golden Eagles won the 2005 Scenic West Athletic Conference title and the Region 18 Tournament and advanced to the National Junior College Athletic Association tourney, where they finished third. In 2004, CSI went 24-11, won the Region 18 tourney and advanced to the NJCAA tournament. He was named District 13 Coach of the Year in both of his years there and during that time mentored 17 players that eventually earned Division I scholarships.
Arnold’s coaching journey has also taken him to Loyola Marymount, Vanderbilt, Utah Valley State College and Provo High School as an assistant coach.
A graduate of Punahou School, Arnold was a prep All-American and Hawai‘i’s high school Gatorade Player of the Year. He began his collegiate playing career at Arizona State, where his father was an assistant coach. He then went on a two-year Mormon mission to Munich, Germany, and upon his return, played at Dixie State College in Utah. Arnold completed his college career at UC San Diego, where he helped the Tritons to a school-record 17 consecutive wins and a No. 3 national ranking in NCAA Division III.
Arnold earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from BYU in 1994. He and his wife, Lisa, have five children: Analise (16), Ashton (14), Ally (12), Addison (10) and Ace (6).
