When the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament begins later this week, the University of Hawaii will be well represented.

Of course, the Rainbow Wahine will take the court on Friday for their second straight trip to the Big Dance, a right the 2022-2023 ‘Bows earned when they rallied to beat UC Santa Barbara in the Big West championship game on Saturday.

A pair of prominent UH ties will be featured in the 68-team field as well. Former University of Hawaii men’s basketball player Mark Campbell, now the head coach at Sacramento State, guided the Hornets to their first NCAA Tournament in program history last week.

During his playing days at Hawaii, Campbell was the starting point guard for the ‘Bows in both the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 seasons. He was remembered for his unselfish and steady play at point guard, averaging 5.3 assists per game while also making the All-WAC Defensive team his senior year.

Campbell’s college coaching career started on the men’s side, where he was an assistant coach with Clackamas Community College, Pepperdine and Saint Mary’s, before moving to the women’s game. After a stint with Oregon State from 2010 to 2014, he joined Oregon for the 2014-2015 season and was promoted to the associate head coach position after one season. During his time with the Ducks, Campbell built a reputation as a prolific recruiter, helping UO land players such as Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally, the first and second selections in the 2020 WNBA Draft, respectively.

Campbell got his first head coaching job with Sacramento State in 2021 and has gone 39-23 at the helm thus far. The 2022-2023 season was a year of firsts for the Hornets, a Division I program since 2001, as they won a conference title and conference tournament for the first time ever.

The Hornets (25-7) are the No. 13 seed in the Greenville 1 Regional and will face UCLA on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. HST on ESPN2.

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Another prominent coach with Hawaii ties in the NCAA Women’s Tournament is Utah associate head coach Gavin Petersen, a University Lab alumnus who holds degrees from both Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific.

Petersen has coached at the college level for two decades, including two separate stints at Hawaii, where he was most recently the associate head coach during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons. He’s currently in his eighth year with the Utes and fifth as associate head coach.

Utah, a consensus Top 10 team nationally, is the No. 2 seed in the Greenville 2 Regional and will open against 15-seeded Gardner-Webb on Friday at 1:30 p.m. on ESPNU.