Pointing out he had little hair on his head, the grinning coach with a nose piercing and earrings said: "Once you get too frustrated you don't enjoy the game so we have a young bunch of guys here and we have the next two years to fight for every game."
Nevertheless, all that didn't detract from the fact the Paora Winitana-captained Hawks had thumped the newcomers in what started off with a lot of promise but looked more and more like a mid-week scrimmage at the Hastings Boys' High School gym from the second quarter.
Guard Dion Prewster and US import slasher Brian Greene claimed double-doubles for the Tab Baldwin-coached Hawks who registered their second win from five outings.
Prewster, who scored a career-high 31 points and 10 rebounds, said a win-less Waitakere had put up a fight but the Hawks had stifled them.
"I think coming into this game we wanted to focus on our systems to try to get better so the score was irrelevant," he said, after Greene posted 27 points and snaffled 13 rebounds with consistency at both ends.
"Our confidence is good because, obviously, we've lost two [games] prior to this so it's good to take away a win but the thing we take away is our execution," he said, elaborating it was technical things such as boxing out and running offences that needed tweaking.
This Sunday at 3pm will be a sequel to the fine-tuning process as the Rangers host the Hawks.
Prewster said it wasn't that the Hawks couldn't execute Baldwin's up-tempo philosophy, because they did that with aplomb during practice, but the issue was they couldn't transfer it to games.
"That's our biggest problem because our practices are more intense than our games."
Discipline, he said, was pivotal in finding that elusive mind set regardless of who their opponents were.
Hawks led 21-18 in the first quarter although point guard Jarrod Kenny's lean season continued as he lasted 52 seconds due to an ankle injury as Aidan Daly clocked 24:32 minutes.
The second quarter saw the hosts pull away 26-15 (47-33) as the visitors found no love from the rim and looked limp in the wrist under little pressure.
Even the Born to Move Dance Studio Hastings dancers showed more rhythm and fluidity during the halftime entertainment.
The third was also one-way traffic as the Hawks ground down Waitakere 35-18 (82-51), prompting coach Tab Baldwin to roll on his young and new brigade of Ezra Nikora, Matt Wilson and Geoff Heather although Burton and Sam Walker had come in earlier in the game.
With six minutes remaining, the Hawks broke the 100 mark before running away 36-22 in the final spell.
Maybe a more interesting scenario would have been playing young and inexperienced Hawks, with perhaps one senior player, for a better gauge of depth on the bench.
On the flip side, opponents such as the Rangers are often godsend to instil self-belief in teams not playing to their potential.
No doubt, the Hawks' litmus test will be the back-to-back away matches against the table-topping Otago Nuggets and Southland Sharks on May 24-25.
Ho said the Rangers didn't claw their way back but this Saturday they would put up a better fight in their house.
"We thought we'd get our young boys on to give them some valuable minutes so it'll play down the stretch later on in the season.
"We're not going to win the championship this year because we're building to get growth every year from every game."
Ho said like the New Zealand Breakers, the Rangers weren't getting too many calls early in the season but they would make adjustments.
