WIN and they will come, or at least take notice. UH baseball team
filling victory voidPerhaps it's the vacuum created by the dismal showing of both the football and men's basketball teams. But when the baseball Rainbows have already won more games than the football and basketball teams combined, you have to sit up and take notice.
Not that it matters too much at this time of the season, but even baseball pollsters have turned their lonely eyes to Hawaii, a program that hasn't drawn much attention since 1993. The latest Collegiate Baseball poll ranks the Rainbows No. 25.
More significantly, the Rainbows' impressive 10-2 start has muzzled any yammerings thus far by the many outspoken critics of Les Murakami, a baseball institution at UH. This is his 29th season as coach.
It's hard to say, "Les must go," when his team is winning and scoring runs like it was going out of style.
For now, the critics have to zip their collective lips, just waiting for the baseball 'Bows to collapse so they can come out of the woodwork to get on Murakami's case.
I can't see anyone rooting against the home team just because he doesn't like the coach. It's OK if you went to BYU and weren't from here.
Don't care for fired Rainbow football coach Fred vonAppen? That's your prerogative. But don't smirk because his team went 0-12. It wasn't just his team, you know. The players also represented Hawaii.
UH basketball coach Riley Wallace isn't to your liking now that this season's team is 5-18? Where were you when the Rainbows posted back-to-back 21-win seasons?
And so, while we all wait for June Jones to turn things around in football and Wallace to regroup his troops, we can only hope that Murakami's Rainbows can help to fill some of the victory vacuum in UH sports in the meantime.
That's why I'm glad there are no clamorings to get rid of Murakami. The silence is golden. It simply means that the Rainbows are winning, for which we should all be glad.
OF course, I haven't forgotten that the Rainbows started off last season 16-3, only to fizzle at the end. "Mainly, because we got hurt," Murakami said. He's knocking on wood that it won't happen again this year.
"It's premature," he admitted about getting too optimistic by the success of the baseball 'Bows so far. But he likes the way they're playing and thinks they can continue to do well if they remain healthy.
Murakami's also confident that his team will be better prepared and armed this time around as the Western Athletic Conference sports a new -- and last -- look in baseball this year with all 11 teams playing each other for a 30-game schedule. The top six will qualify for a double-elimination postseason tournament and an automatic bid to the NCAA regionals.
Murakami says the new format is "fantastic," and that he couldn't have asked for a more favorable home-and-away schedule. The 'Bows will host three-game series against WAC favorite Rice, Fresno State, New Mexico, UNLV and BYU. They will play three away at San Diego State, TCU, San Jose State, Air Force and Utah.
"Now, nobody can hide because you're playing everybody, not like last year," Murakami said.
Hawaii is picked to finish fourth in the WAC, which would be a great turnaround since the 'Bows haven't had a winning WAC season since 1992, finishing last in four of the last five years.
But even before the WAC season starts, a major test will come this weekend when the Rainbows host Wichita State, ranked No. 2 by Collegiate Baseball, in a three-game series starting Friday.