JUST back from Las Vegas and I'm in a betting mood. Wahine get mistreated
by NCAAagainAnd this is a pretty safe one.
How many fans would have been in the Special Events Arena later this week for the first and second rounds of the NCAA women's volleyball tournament? Nineteen thousand over two days? Easy.
How many will show up for the Northern Illinois against Villa-nova match at Penn State? I doubt that the entire East Reg-ional will draw more than a com-bined 20,000 for its 10 matches.
No, I'd put money on it.
Those fine folks at the NCAA again showed Hawaii just what its acronym stands for: No Clue At All.
Just when you thought that women's volleyball had taken a giant step forward, expanding to 56 teams and all, someone tries to shove a 45 into a CD player.
Sunday's pairings were a throwback to the mid '80s, when the NCAA forced the sport into a regional war. Where the best team from each region got to the final four, not the best four teams.
Obviously, the expansion did not extend to the committee's mind set. Otherwise, how would Maryland or Arkansas, tied for 18th in last week's poll, get selected as hosts for mini-regionals instead of No. 15 Hawaii, which will be sent off to Long Beach, Calif., to face No. 21 Loyola Marymount?
IF it's supposed to be strictly regional, then don't send token teams like BYU to the East or Washington State to the Central.
Don't say that travel cost is not a factor, then turn around and give UCLA and Pepperdine hour-long drives to Santa Barbara. Or ship Stephen F. Austin out of its region but keep it within Texas for play.
Don't say it will cost less to send Hofstra, Temple and Michigan to Texas A&M than it would to send three teams to Honolulu. Even if it WERE more expensive, the gate revenue would more than offset the travel expenses.
"I don't think if this were men's basketball, the committee would have the liberty to make these kinds of decisions without being called out for them," said Long Beach State coach Brian Gimmillaro.
"You take us, where 47 coaches voted us No. 1 and only seven voted for Penn State. Yet they get seeded first in the tournament over us. I was shocked.
"Then you look at what happened to Hawaii. I couldn't believe it. A lot of good teams are being sacrificed in the first round and it's very upsetting."
ONE of the lambs is obviously Hawaii. This is a program that has shown athletic departments everywhere that women's volleyball can be a revenue sport.
Hawaii's attendance figures are the envy of every coach in the country -- with its 100,000-plus crowds the past few seasons.
Yet Hawaii is now in the most unenviable position of anyone this week. The question is why? There is absolutely no worse draw in the entire bracket than that of the Wahine.
And Hawaii's assistant athletic director was on the committee! What would have happened if Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano hadn't been? Would Hawaii have been left out altogether?
This was almost more of a slap than when the 28-4 Wahine basketball team was snubbed for a postseason berth in the 1993 NCAA tournament.
Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano says the committee's hands were tied because only eight teams could be seeded. Then brackets were balanced for strength but not reseeded, a change the committee has recommended for next year, along with expanding the tournament to 64 teams.
Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano said Hawaii, Loyola and Long Beach were "geographically attractive to the committee" but admitted Michigan State just as easily could have been sent there instead of to Nebraska.
The Wahine deserved better.
And so did their fans.
Cindy Luis is a Star-Bulletin sportswriter.
Her column appears weekly.