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Sidelines
Kalani Simpson
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Alika gives the ’Bows something more to like
YOU should have seen them yesterday. So proud.
All of them, sitting together at the table, side by side.
"We've finally got an assistant coach," Riley Wallace said. "A good one."
So proud.
They sat at either side of him, Wallace, Jackson Wheeler, Bob Nash. A family photo, now complete.
The kid with them, made good. Grown up at last. A colleague now. Can you believe that?
It doesn't get any better than this.
"Enjoy that hair," Wheeler would throw in, to great laughter. "It ain't going to be that color after this year."
Yes, Alika (Smith -- but in Hawaii basketball lore, he's a one-name guy) had come home.
The Rainbows finally have their last assistant coach.
"Someone that we have a lot of love for and respect," Wallace would gush.
"One of the all-time great players in the history of this program," Wallace said.
That, he was.
The kid who beat Kansas. The man who -- along with his partner in crime, AC Carter -- lent his name to an era.
"This place was filled 13 times his senior year," Wallace said.
And here he is now, full circle.
It was a great moment, yesterday. This one was as big as any shot he hit.
Alika would talk about giving the news to his father, longtime Kalaheo High School coach Pete Smith. And how his father didn't say anything.
He just had a smile that said everything.
So did his son, yesterday.
This moment was huge, for everyone involved. Coaching was in his blood, and to do it here ...
"Probably the most nerve-racking thing would be I would want to be the one shooting the ball," he said of his first night on the bench, which comes Tuesday.
"He never hesitated," Wallace said, remembering with pride.
"These kids," Alika would later say, "from watching them" -- and then he stopped himself. "It's funny that I would use the word 'kids,' " he said.
It was, a little. And he talked over and over about all the things he would learn. Which might make you nervous, a little.
College basketball fans want to know what a new hire will do for the program. Not the other way around.
Not to worry, Wallace said. Smith, who besides playing for the 'Bows and growing up in his father's household, had been an assistant under Jeff Law at UH-Hilo. He earned this. He knows his stuff.
"That's why I hired him," Wallace said. End of sentence.
Still, it's no secret that Alika was Plan B. Wallace had hoped to bring in his brother, a retired mainland high school coach with 263 wins, 86 losses at Illinois' Quincy High.
Wallace saw his brother's defensive package as the final piece to a potentially great team.
That hiring got derailed by administrative difficulties. And the word on which you place emphasis -- administrative or difficulties -- probably depends on your side of the fence.
Wallace has been both pragmatic and diplomatic. But he hasn't hid his displeasure that UH athletic director Herman Frazier chose to veto his choice for assistant coach.
"I don't agree with it," Wallace said last month, "but he's the boss."
By Tuesday, all avenues of appeal had been exhausted. Fine. Wallace made the call, dropped the other shoe. It wasn't unexpected by any means. But it was still huge.
"Now I can sleep," Smith said. "It's been a nerve-racking time this week."
"All I know is when I was hired Stan Sheriff told me I was about the seventh guy on his list," Wallace said. "Alika was No. 2. A lot better."
So here he is now, on staff, a coach, here. It means so much.
You should have seen them, Hawaii's coaches, so proud, four abreast.
Alika will be the young guy, of course. The former player, the first for Wallace, to come back and coach. His mere presence tells the guys that Wallace really does love them, deep down.
"He's been one of 'em," Wallace said. "He's been hammered by me, by Bob, by Jackson. And he knows what we're trying to do."
Will he be the confidant, the conduit, the good cop?
"That's very possible," Alika said.
It was a great moment, yesterday. Alika had come home, a coach. He'll be there, working at the side of his mentor, Wallace.
Wheeler had another question for the new guy before he headed out for his first day on the job.
"Are you CPR certified?" he asked.