IN a scene from the old movie "On the Waterfront," Rod Steiger is in the back seat of a car with Marlon Brando. Penny-pinching dooms
UH’s athletic teamsPlaying the older brother, Steiger's character is trying to convince Brando's not to go up against a powerful dock foreman controlled by the mob.
Brando's character reminds Steiger's that he had a chance to be a great boxer had those mobsters not convinced Steiger's character to tell him to take a dive in the most important fight of his short-lived career.
"You were my older brother, Charlie," Brando said. "You should have watched out for me a little bit. I could have been a contender."
The two University of Hawaii basketball programs also could have been contenders had somebody been watching out for them.
Decisions reached last year by the UH athletic department cost the teams dearly at this week's Western Athletic Conference tournaments in Las Vegas.
The Wahine should have been heading home after their Feb. 21 game at Rice University to properly prepare for the annual conference postseason event.
The women had a crossover game with Nevada-Las Vegas on Feb. 26. But once it was determined last year by WAC officials that the crossover games would not count in the league standings, the game should have been dropped like a bad habit.
INSTEAD, the Wahine were involved in a meaningless game with the Lady Rebels that kept them in Las Vegas longer than even the most hardened gambler.
Considering the UH football team's four-day fiasco in Las Vegas last year, you have to wonder what wizard figured a dozen days in Glitter Gulch wouldn't affect the women.
Against New Mexico, the Wahine came out looking like a broke tourist at the craps table -- dazed and confused. By the time they figured out what was wrong, the Lobos were celebrating their stunning victory.
That's what happens when bean counters allow the bottom line to rule instead of what's best for the team. It was determined it would be cheaper to stay in Las Vegas for nearly two weeks than to return home for several days, then go back. Penny-wise, pound-foolish, especially considering the decision might keep the Wahine from hosting a first-round NCAA game.
The same kind of cost-cutting measures also hurt the men's program. Instead of playing every nonconference game at home to help fatten that bottom line, the men should have dropped the meaningless home game with Norfolk State and gone on the road to face anybody in the Pac-10 looking for a game.
Perhaps then the 'Bows would have been better prepared for the hostile environment of the Thomas & Mack Center in their play-in game with UNLV.
THE irony of this situation is UH is apparently willing to pay $250,000 for the right to host the first two NIT games. But that money could have been better spent for both programs.
First of all, who cares about the NIT? It's a shabby tournament for losers. The only way the athletic department can pocket a little change from those two games is if both are sellouts. It would serve UH right if nobody showed up.
And let's not limit this cost-cutting trend to basketball. Hawaii doesn't play nonconference games in baseball or football. The result? Hawaii is ill-prepared for the rigors of the WAC road.
The football team has lost 20 league games in a row dating back to 1992, and the baseball team, which also plays nearly every nonconference game at home, is 6-16 in its opening league road series over the last seven years.
Believe it or not, there is money to be made in the off-season. But the UH teams need somebody in the athletic department to watch out for them so they can be contenders, too.
Paul Arnett has been covering sports
for the Star-Bulletin since 1990.
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