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Thursday, March 1, 2001
UH’s solution Can mind games lead to victory in road games?
to road void?
Freud
Team psychologists help plan
the Rainbows' itinerary with the
emphasis on keeping the men's
basketball players freshBy Dave Reardon
Star-BulletinUniversity of Hawaii men's basketball coach Riley Wallace has allowed team psychologists Michael D'Andrea and Judy Daniels to help plan the team's itinerary for the season's final road trip.
UH (13-12) is 0-7 away from the Stan Sheriff Center this season and 1-15 when playing on an opponent's court the past two seasons.
"I've had teams that struggled on the road before, but not with as much energy and excitement at home and so flat on the road," Wallace said.
The Rainbows learn if the plan works beginning tonight at San Jose State and Saturday at Texas-El Paso.
Any momentum Hawaii can generate with a road win or two to end the regular season could carry over to the WAC Tournament in Tulsa, Okla., next week.
Rules of the road
Never be late
"We want to give it a try, see what's up. The doctors have worked out a plan, and why not? Let's give it a try," Wallace said. "Some of it's physical, some of it's mental."
Some of it's new rules.
No late night television. Sleep regular hours. Watch what you eat and drink.
Tough guidelines for any college students to follow -- not to mention athletes on the road. But the Rainbows are willing to try anything at this point.
"We all have to buy into this. Everything's going to be different," junior guard Mike McIntyre said. "We're going to be practicing earlier, going to bed at the right time and eating right. Coach wants us to jell on this trip. I think that's what it's going to take us as a team to win the WAC Tournament and these two road games."
D'Andrea and Daniels both hold doctorates in psychology and teach and counsel at UH. The husband and wife are Rainbow fans, and have been the team psychologists the past three years.
Both have developed rapport with the team through counseling and friendship.
"They're a mature group that respects expertise," D'Andrea said of the team.
"The players are being asked for small sacrifices. They're small factors. But when you take them all into consideration, it could help."
When players are on the road, they tend to watch a lot of television, especially late at night.
"I think part of it is because we don't have cable in the dorms," redshirt freshman guard Carl English said. "We're not used to having so many channels."
Excessive TV watching has been proven to drain humans of physical energy, D'Andrea said.
"Guys like to watch ESPN, watch a movie. But that's going to change. Everybody's got to have their mind set on the same thing," McIntyre said.
Grades haven't been much of a problem for this UH team, but Wallace said doing more things together and focusing on tasks together will also help them with the books -- especially on a long trip where the players miss lots of classes.
"They've always had study hall, but (previously) they got a choice in what they eat and where they eat and who wants to go where," Wallace said.
"Now we're going to try to do more stuff as a team. Everything's going to be positive, uplifting stuff, trying to get as many good thoughts in their heads going into the game as they can."
McIntyre is glad D'Andrea and Daniels will be with the team, helping to keep them focused -- for games, as well as spiritually and academically.
"We appreciate that. Being out of school two weeks in a row, I have a lot of reading to do," he said. "They're going to keep on top of me to do that work, too."
Some of the other little things the team hopes add up to wins on the road include not sleeping on planes, drinking water instead of caffeine, and visualizing victory by watching tapes of previous wins.
"The message is 'We may be away, in a different environment, but spiritually and mentally we are in our home,' " D'Andrea said.
"We're just trying to make a small contribution," he said.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
