ScoringLive file photo

Purchase image 1 of 2

ScoringLive file photo

Purchase image 2 of 2

Around this time every year, some of the best prep basketball teams in the country converge here in Hawaii for one of the most prestigious boys basketball tournaments anywhere: The Iolani Prep Classic.

That was certainly true for the 2010 edition of the 16-team, five-day tournament. The 28th Annual Iolani Prep Classic featured a trio of teams ranked in the USA Today Super 25; two of them ended up facing off in the tournament final (No. 1 Oak Hill, of Virginia, defeated No. 25 Montverde, of Florida, 58-44).

The other top-25 team, 14th-ranked Mount Vernon, of New York, won the third-place game on the final day of the tourney, but got tested right off the bat in the opening round by an upset-minded Kamehameha team that was coming off of back-to-back appearances in the Division I state championship game the previous February.

Then-Warriors coach Jesse Nakanishi saw the first-round match-up against the Knights as an opportunity to push his mostly-veteran group out of its comfort zone.

"I think me, as a young coach at the time, I learned from my mistakes and prepping your team for the type of caliber team you're going to be facing, my approach totally changed," said Nakanishi, who has been the Director of Basketball Operations for the University of Hawaii men's basketball team since 2018.

Kamehameha's roster was made up of seven seniors, five juniors and two sophomores, most of whom were returning players from a season ago.

"Having an experienced, veteran group, coming off of a state championship game and state runner-up finish, our mentality was so different and our prep was so different," Nakanishi said of the game plan for Mount Vernon. "It was an attack mentality. We weren't going to pull it out or slow it down. If you had an open 3, shoot it. No stall, just attack, attack, attack."

The strategy paid off early as the Warriors went on an 11-2 run, capped by Charlton Tang's baseline jumper, to take a 15-13 lead with 56 seconds remaining in the opening period.

Mount Vernon held a 16-15 lead after one quarter and led at the half, 30-25.

"I anticipated that they would press and they pressed, but we ran our press-break pretty well and we were attacking it," Nakanishi recalled.

The Knights opened the second half with a 9-0 run and held a 46-35 advantage after three quarters. They eventually held on for the 63-50 win over Nakanishi's Warriors, who were led by Micah Christenson's 16 points.

"We were down five (points) at half, we lost by 13, but that game showed us a lot. We didn't quite execute in the second half and we kind of let it get away a little bit, but to me it just showed that we had something special with this group, that we were just going to be fearless and we were just going to attack and it was more about us than the opponent," Nakanishi said.

The Warriors' collective hunger that year stemmed directly from the heart-breaking end to the previous season, when they saw their hopes at a second straight D1 state title dashed by Iolani's Kainoa Chu, who hit a 3-pointer to break a 43-all tie with 4.6 seconds left. The Raiders held on, 46-43, to avenge their championship-game loss to Kamehameha in the 2009 final.

"That game stuck with us the whole next season. That was the impetus and the driving force behind every practice, I remember. It was, ‘we're not going to let that happen again. We're getting back to the state tournament and we're winning this state championship.' There was no other thought in mind. We were getting that state championship back," Nakanishi stated. "We were fortunate that we had an experienced group. We had seven seniors and it wasn't just talking about it, but they felt it and they had that state championship in mind that whole season."

Kamehameha went on to finish 2-2 in the Iolani Classic. Following the Mount Vernon loss, it bounced back with a 63-47 win over Kaimuki. The Warriors' final two games of the tournament were against the same team, Tsinghua, of Beijing, due to a change in the schedule. After a hard-fought 68-66 double-overtime win over the reigning Chinese national champion, Kamehameha fell short, 46-43, against the same squad a day later.

"Not winning the game (against Mount Vernon), but at least having some success playing against a nationally-renown team brought some confidence and to be honest, the game was tough, but the game we played against the Chinese team might have been tougher," Nakanishi said. "They were like 6-7, 6-8, 6-8 across the board and they were not soft, they were a tough team. That double-overtime game was a thriller. We persevered and pulled through in that game and that showed us a lot about our guys' grit as well."

That grit would be put to the test right away in the always-rugged Interscholastic League of Honolulu. Just two days after the final day of the Classic, Nakanishi's team returned to the Iolani lower gym for their ILH season opener, which went the way of the Raiders — narrowly, 41-40.

The Warriors avenged the loss a few weeks later with a suffocating defensive effort in a 50-38 win at Kekuhaupio Gym, but just five days after that were dealt a 66-61 loss by AOP despite 22 points, including five 3-pointers, from Christenson.

"It was at their place and it was a close game, a very intense game," Nakanishi said. "I wouldn't call it a turning point necessarily, but that was a reality check that we're not there yet and we still had a long road ahead to get our goal accomplished."

Turning point or not, it would be the last game Kamehameha lost that season. The Warriors went on to win their final 12 games en route to their second state championship in three seasons. Along the way they downed AOP in the regular-season rematch at Kekuhaupio, 64-42, and locked up their spot in the state tournament with an 86-54 rout of Mid-Pacific in early February.

However, it was Iolani and not Kamehameha that won the ILH championship that year. The Warriors finished 12-2 in ILH play and were the league's second representative. They had to win four games in four days if they were to hoist the state championship trophy once again.

Kamehameha opened the 12-team tourney with a 86-38 rout of Baldwin and followed that up with an 80-51 quarterfinal-round victory over Kamehameha-Hawaii.

In the semifinals against AOP, Christenson poured in 28 points and grabbed 19 rebounds to lead Kamehameha to the 68-54 win.

The team that awaited the Warriors in the final?

Iolani, of course.

Kamehameha erased the memories of its heartbreak at the hands of the Raiders a year prior with a 64-53 win before a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 3,648 fans.

"I think those two losses in the regular season happened for a reason," Nakanishi said. "They were a reality check and it made the final product of that state championship even more rewarding because we beat the two teams that we faltered against earlier and those were two very quality teams, well coached and athletic, so that made it even more rewarding."

In the title game, Christenson once again led the way with a game-high 21 points. He was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and went on to earn State Player of the Year honors from both the Honolulu Advertiser and Star-Bulletin.

During the state tournament, Christenson averaged 22.5 points, 11 rebounds and three steals per game. The 6-foot-6 forward displayed his soft shooting touch, even from beyond the arc, where he was 10 of 18 in four state tournament games. He averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds per game over the course of the season and also led the Warriors in assists, blocks and steals.

"It's hard to put things into words, but for us everything went through him X's and O's wise and everyone knew we were going to do that — our team did, every other team did — but everyone bought into their roles because they all knew that Micah was going to create for them and he just made everybody better," Nakanishi explained.

"This group was by far the most bought-in group that I've ever been a part of at any level of the sport that I've played or coached and Micah embodied that and was the leader of it." He went on, "We had clearly defined roles and everyone just performed those roles to the highest level and that's why it was such a joy to coach this team in particular."

Christenson guided the Kamehameha boys volleyball team to a state championship of its own in the spring and was also state Player of the Year in that spot. He went on to become a two-time First Team All-American in volleyball at USC and has been the starting setter on the U.S. Men's National Team. His professional career has thrived in Italy and Christenson recently announced via Twitter that he has teamed with Nike and Athlete Performance Solutions to release his own "MC11" clothing line.

ScoringLive file photo    Purchase image

"We all knew volleyball was his ticket, but he also had a deep passion for basketball and I really believe he could have played at the high-major (collegiate) level," Nakanishi said of Christenson. "Not only was he good, but he was coachable and accountable and everyone wanted to be on his level and just followed him. Every day in practice it was just so fun to come to that type of energy and cohesiveness, so that was a really special year, one that I'll never forget."

The Warriors completed the season with a record of 18-4. It was Nakanishi's final season as coach of his alma mater before he went on to join the Hawaii Pacific University staff. The 1995 Kamehameha graduate compiled a coaching record of 174-65 in his eight seasons at the Kapalama campus, where he was also a dorm advsior.

"A lot of years on the hill and in that gym, such great memories," Nakanishi reminisced. "I'm a proud native Hawaiian and proud Kamehameha alum so I'll always bleed Blue and White and I'm so appreciative of what Pauahi has provided for me and Kamehameha opened that door up for me to get into that profession."

Nakanishi served as an assistant for six seasons at HPU, four of them as an associate head coach. He spent the 2017-'18 season as the director of operations at Seattle University before taking over the same role with the Rainbow Warriors in 2018.