Friday, March 6, 1998
Wahine must sit
and wait
A selection committee
By Al Chase
will decide their fate
on Sunday
Star-BulletinLAS VEGAS -- There is a certain amount of anxiety permeating the thoughts of the University of Hawaii women's basketball players and coaches.
How much did Wednesday's loss to New Mexico in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament hurt UH's chances for an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament?
Without a WAC championship trophy in its travel bag, UH doesn't control its own destiny. There is nothing it can do about the future of its season.
Now it's up to the NCAA Women's Selection Committee, which makes its decisions Sunday.
However, Hawaii's chances of hosting NCAA first- and second-round games are slim, and probably lost.
In UH's favor is a 24-3 record, a WAC Pacific Division title and a consistently high ranking in the unofficial Rating Percentage Index (RPI) put out by the Collegiate Basketball News Company.
The aforementioned RPI is not the one used by the selection committee (it is not made public). But it attempts to duplicate the NCAA RPI by using the same components and percentages: Division I winning percentage (25 percent); strength of schedule (50 percent); and opponents' strength of schedule (25 percent).
The Collegiate Basketball News' RPI had Hawaii at No. 16 through the end of the regular season.
"We can't worry about it (a tournament bid) because it's out of our hands," UH head coach Vince Goo said.
Goo says four other teams from the WAC beside the Wahine deserve an NCAA Tournament berth -- Utah, Southern Methodist, Colorado State and Rice or New Mexico.
Utah is No. 17, SMU is No. 34, CSU is No. 36, UNM is No. 52 and Rice is No. 56 in the Collegiate Basketball News' RPI. Sixty-four teams will compete in the NCAA Tournament.
Upsets in conference tournaments make it more difficult for the selection committee to make at-large picks as the conference's automatic berth goes to a lower-rated team and increases the quandaries the committee must resolve.
Only the Ivy League and the Pacific-10 do not hold postseason tournaments (the regular-season champion gets the automatic NCAA berth).
GOO NOMINATED: The Wahine coach is one of 10 listed on the Associated Press ballot for national coach-of-the-year honors. The results will be announced March 27.
WOLFE UPDATE: Associate Wahine coach George Wolfe was surprised at the media attention surrounding his application for the head women's job at Nevada-Las Vegas.
"I've applied at every West Coast school that's had an opening for a head women's coach for the past three years," Wolfe said. "It's not a big thing. I guess this time it became public knowledge."
As of yesterday, Wolfe had not been interviewed by UNLV officials.
COCKETT UPDATE: Regarding Nani Cockett's sprained left ankle, Wahine trainer Tara Humphreys said, "It's pretty bad, but not the worst she's ever had. She didn't hear anything pop or crack."
NEXT ALIGNMENT: If the format of rotating quadrants continues in the WAC in 1998-99, Brigham Young, Utah, Wyoming and Texas-El Paso will rotate into the Pacific Division.
In 1990, the Wahine also went one-and-out in the conference tournament after a stellar regular season (25-2 overall, 16-2 conference). They earned an at-large berth and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament that year (both games were on the road). UH was eliminated in the first round in its other NCAA appearances, all on the road. UH's NCAA results: A difficult road
1995-96: loss to Auburn (73-53)
Despite their WAC loss to the Lobos, the Wahine ended the game with a flurry. Second-half stats of note: Not a total loss
1997-98 Wahine Basketball Schedule
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
