HOTTEST sport in America? It has to be hoops, hands down. Basketball is hot - even in Hawaii
While soccer can state its case as the world's most popular sport - for the first time it surpassed even hockey as Canada's favorite - basketball is the ball du jour on U.S. courts.
Consider these numbers from the American Sports Date, Inc., annual survey:
Since 1987, basketball has attracted the greatest number of new participants, beginning with 6-year-olds. There were 46.5 million hoopsters hogging and clogging the lanes in 1995 alone, an increase of 30 percent from 10 years ago. Only beach volleyball (29 percent) enjoyed comparable growth, although the sport's innate geographic impairment limited participation numbers to 13.3 million.
Hawaii is following the national trend, if the Kailua Basketball Association is any indication. The league for youngsters ages 5-14 had a record 470 players on last Saturday's opening day rosters.
The biggest KBA growth was in the 5-6 age-group, where the co-ed league added two extra teams. There's also been an increase in female participants.
"We made an active effort to recruit more girls," KBA president Wade Nakashima said. "We could have had even more kids participate but there's just not enough court space."
NOW if Riley Wallace could just translate that popularity into filled seats at the Special Events Arena. I don't know which the University of Hawaii coach was bemoaning more after Saturday night's huge win over New Mexico, the number of empty seats or lack of recognition in the national polls.
Wallace should be a little happier today. Both the Associated Press and USA Today/CNN polls gave the Rainbows points.
As a voter in the AP poll, I did not rank Hawaii in the Top 25 until yesterday. Before last week, the Rainbows had not proven much other than they could beat the teams they should beat.
The win over a good Memphis team Monday was a start toward national recognition and the victory over the Lobos was the clincher. Saturday was a legitimate win over a legitimate Top 25 team; New Mexico was not jet-lagged, having arrived nearly a week before, and there was no officiating home cooking.
Wallace contends that area pollsters should protect their parts of the country with some regional favoritism. It is true that there are more voters in the East than the West but, with the pervasiveness of television coverage, there is no reason for a voter to eschew objectivity.
It's also true that the WAC doesn't get the same respect as the ACC, the Big East or even the Pac-10. But don't blame the pollsters; when was the last time a WAC team made it to the Final Four, let alone win it all?
Can you say Texas Western (aka Texas-El Paso) 1966?
As for the polls, consider that Rainbow Classic champion Georgia was 7-1 coming into the tournament. And unranked.
Bulldog coach Tubby Smith wasn't complaining about the polls. He said his team hadn't played anybody and that he'd rather be winning than ranked.
So, Riley, you want more votes? Win on the road this week.
Heck, win two. The Rainbows have swept a road trip just once in 10 years (1992) and are 19-48 in regular-season away games during that span.
Guarantee you, that will draw some attention.
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.