Could this be the
year for Wallace?
The UHbasketball coach
By Cindy Luis
is excited about his team and can't
wait for season to start
Star-BulletinRiley Wallace approaches his 11th season as University of Hawaii men's basketball coach with a calmness that belies the 3-on-3 game being played in his stomach. Could this be the year? An outright WAC title? An NCAA berth that showcases one of the premier backcourt tandems in the country? Anthony Carter the John Wooden Award winner as the nation's best college player?
Oh, the sweet possibilities that lie ahead bring a shadow of a smile to his lips. And then a shake of his graying head.
Wallace has been in the game too long to count baskets before the ball goes through the rim. He knows ... feels ... believes ... this could be the year.
The question is: Do the basketball gods?
"There's a lot of anxieties already," said Wallace, whose team opens its first official practice at tomorrow's Midnight Ohana. "It's a feeling I've never had before a season. The expectations the coaches are putting on themselves, the type of schedule, the vibes of the fans who are buying season tickets in record numbers.
"The fans liked the way this team played last year and I don't think they are demanding more. I think they are expecting more of the same."
Wallace has to believe the magic is still there. That the mystical connection between guards Carter and Alika Smith didn't evaporate during the off-season. That the big men recruited to replace the departed Seth Sundberg and Danny Furlong will give the Rainbows the strong inside game needed to hang consistently with the WAC's big boys.
Everything is in place, Wallace says, for a heck of a run. Four returning starters. Plenty of preseason hype. Tough schedule to jack up the RPI. Depth and strength.
Still, there are the questions.
Will Smith be at 100 percent after a near-tragic car accident this past summer? Will Micah Kroeger's knee hold up after the ACL surgery and rehab?
Wallace just doesn't know. Just like he didn't know what he had a year ago at this time.
"I had no clue, no expectations about that team," the 55-year-old said of the squad that went 21-8 and into the second round of the NIT. "I knew AC was a good player but I didn't know how he would blend in with the team or how his work ethic and personality would make everyone better.
"This year, I told the guys I wasn't recruiting to replace them but recruiting to help them. That's the first time I've ever really recruited with that attitude. The fans are going to like this team. I like this team."
But is it THE team? One that could surpass the 25-10 record of the 1989-90 squad? One that could get beyond the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever?
"I don't think I can say that this team will win more than 25," said Wallace. "That (1989-90) team should have gone to the NCAAs. That was a power team and they would have done well.
"But as far as TEAM with capital letters, oh yeah. These guys play together. They run the way I've wanted a team to run all through my years here. We just never had the guys who liked to push it and go, but under control.
"This is not an overly talented bunch. They're not great, great athletes. But they're smart. They play together. And they pick their spots."
This team more than any other in his 34 years of coaching reminds Wallace of himself. Unselfish. Hard-working. With a daring bit of flash.
"You know, I was the first one in my town who could dunk," the 6-foot-5 Illinois-raised Wallace says. "I was just a sophomore in high school and we used to fill the gyms. People would come to watch because we tore down the rims. Of course, you could do that in those days. But, hell yes, I could play."
His game was good enough for a scholarship to Centenary, where he was the team captain his junior and senior years. Even back then, Wallace had only one ambition: to be a basketball coach.
"If there was anything I'd change in my life I would make myself a head coach sooner," said Wallace, whose first head job was at Centenary in 1976. "Mine was late coming. But it's always been basketball for me. There was nothing else I ever wanted to do or could see myself doing, even now.
"I don't have any other plans. Maybe there's something down the line but for the next five years, I want to be the basketball coach at the University of Hawaii."
There's one other thing he would change if he could. To have his mother here for this season.
Mary Barbara Riley Wallace Siglock passed away in July in Illinois at the age of 86. All seven of her children were there to say goodbye at the end, including the middle one who was christened Robert Riley and called by his mother's maiden name.
"She was a big Rainbow fan," said Wallace. "This season will be dedicated to her in my own mind and heart. She'll be here with us."
"She had a great life. It wasn't easy for her with seven kids, especially after my father was killed my sophomore year in college. But she did a great job of managing her family. We kidded about her being the conductor of the orchestra."
The baton is in Wallace's hands now. A win over Bob Knight and Indiana in the season opener would be nice. A win over Rick Majerus and Utah during the WAC tournament would be nicer.
This could be the year.
The facts
What Midnight Ohana
1997-98 Rainbow Men’s Basketball
Schedule and Recordhttp://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
