WAS it really only five weeks and a day ago that the basket 'Bows were destiny's darlings? Wallace should start
thinking about himselfDown went Kansas, the No. 2 team in the land, vanquished by a scrappy band of Rainbows.
Dick Vitale and the gang at ESPN were waxing at top volume about the dynamic duo and the renaissance of the program.
Things happen in a hurry.
The Rainbows are fighting for their postseason lives. Four losses in their first swing through the Western Athletic Conference has tempered some of the national enthusiasm.
They are clearly still a good team, but they are just as clearly struggling mightily with their game.
In the grand scheme of the men's basketball program, however, losing a few games here and there is minor.
Remember, things happen in a hurry.
When Riley Wallace had a tube placed in one of his coronary arteries last week, the importance of maintaining a spot in the national basketball polls waned considerably -- at least for me.
It got me to thinking how much Riley Wallace is thinking, "Is all of this really worth dying for?"
WHILE doing research Friday for an article on Wallace's surgery, I came across a story with this headline: "Sheriff puts retirement rumors to rest."
It basically was a conversation with former athletic director Stan Sheriff. In it, Sheriff told the Star-Bulletin's Paul Arnett that he was by no means going to quit work despite having two heart attacks in the previous six years.
The most eerie quote from Sheriff was this: "If it were retire or die, then I would retire."
Ten months later, Sheriff died.
This is not to say that Wallace's life is in imminent danger or that he should quit coaching today. But it might serve the coach well to think long and hard about where he has gone and where he'd like to go.
He has put the University of Hawaii basketball program back on the map.
One look at the happy faces as you walk through the Stan Sheriff Center will tell you that people love this team, and it is Riley's doing.
Even on tough nights, like Monday against Fresno State, there is a good feeling in that building. People are passionate. The entertainment is unsurpassed. It's a beautiful thing.
But the strain of building the program and the work that it will take to maintain it puts stress on a body that is not always detected until it's too late.
Six years ago at the WAC Tournament, Wallace collapsed after yelling at one of his players.
Early this year, just days after the Kansas victory, he was diagnosed with vertigo.
BEFORE enduring Hawaii's road trip to play Rice and Tulsa, Wallace experienced what he called tightness in his chest and tingling in his arms. He suspected something was amiss, and upon returning to the island, made an appointment to see the doctor.
Tests proved that something was indeed wrong. Last Friday, Wallace had an angioplasty.
To be sure, the experience has made Wallace contemplate his future.
"I've got some things to think through," Wallace said. "I've done it this way 32 years. Can I be effective with a team another way?"
I genuinely like Riley Wallace. I just hope, for his sake and the sake of his wife, Joan, and his two children, that he takes the time to really, really think about his career.
"When you go to bed at night, it's difficult to go to sleep," Wallace said. "I figure I slept maybe an hour last night. You worry about yourself and your team. You always worry about your team. But for the first time, you worry about yourself."
Clearly, Wallace loves this job, and it would be difficult for him to leave. But no one should love a job so much that it kills him.