Micah Mitchell attempts a 3-pointer against Kalani in last year's Division II state tournament. Tyler Guieb | SL

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Hawaii Baptist, the defending Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II boys basketball champion, will look a lot different on the basketball floor this season.

With the graduation of guard BJ Hosaka and transfer of center Isaac Liva, who both were league all-stars and selected to the ScoringLive All-Hawaii team, the Eagles have gone through a major overhaul to their system to remain competitive on the court. 

Advocates for a shot clock in high school basketball will have no complaints watching this year's Hawaii Baptist squad. The Eagles will push the tempo and get up the court as fast as they can just to fire a shot attempt within seven seconds of crossing the half court line. 

With a lot of running involved, Hawaii Baptist will use every able body on its bench.

"Our strength is in numbers," said Hawaii Baptist coach George Weeks. "We're just going to come out and play hard and do the best we can. That's kind of our motto this year.

Instead of playing with a six or seven man rotation as they did a season ago, the Eagles will go 15 players strong.

"Last year we won the ILH title, but I felt like we had two teams," Weeks said. "I felt like we had one team that was a 7-man rotation, and then we had another team that was six guys that didn't get to play a lot.

"If you do this for long enough, you kind of feel like the only reason why these kids play this game is to have fun. We just want to reinject the fun back into the game and playing this way allows us to go deep in the bench."

Without an offensive presence down in the post, it's no secret where majority of the Eagles' offense will be coming from.

"We're trying to get 40 3-pointers up on the glass, try to take about 80 shots and just play as fast as we can," said Weeks.

The Eagles weren't far from those marks in their final preseason game of the year. In the Saint Francis Holiday Hoops Classic championship game against University, Hawaii Baptist attempted 48 3-pointers and had 63 total shot attempts in a 73-53 loss.

Even though the Eagles converted on just 25 percent on their 3-point opportunities, Weeks was upbeat and encouraged his players to shoot the ball regardless of how many attempts they missed.

University coach Walter Quitan was impressed with the Eagles' moxie and spoke highly of Hawaii Baptist's Micah Mitchell, who scored 25 points on six treys against the Jr. Bows.

"It's unbelievable because they'll just keep shooting it and they're a dangerous team when they get hot," said Quitan. "No. 5 (Mitchell), I haven't seen a better shooter so far. That kid can shoot the ball."

On the outside looking in, the Eagles' new playing style isn't pretty. If you're a fan of efficiency, missed jumpers that are off target isn't something you want to watch. If you try to take full stats by yourself like myself, everything turns to a blur trying to keep up with who had a shot attempt and who had a rebound and so forth.

Regardless how you view them, the Eagles are confident in what they do and will continue to play for each other no matter how unorthodox their style of basketball may be. 

"We rely on each other, we trust in each other, everybody has a role," Weeks said. "It may look like it's a little bit chaotic, but it's actually organized chaos and these guys all understand what exactly we're trying to do. Regardless of win-loss record or whatever, I'm the most proud of these guys because they play for each other and this style really kind of fosters it and feeds it."