On the Rebound
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Brandi Ashby, left, was Miss Kentucky Basketball in 1993.

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Brandi Ashby has found new life - and a ton of boards - with the Wahine

By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin

"So how small is my hometown?" Brandi Ashby asks rhetorically, with an accent so thick you could cut it with a chopstick. "Sebree, Kentucky, has one stoplight and a Dairy Queen that isn't even part of the national chain. And, if you want to buy Kentucky Fried Chicken - that's Kentucky Fried Chicken, not KFC - you have to go to the next biggest town of Henderson, about 25,000 people. They had a movie thee-ay-ter AND a Wal-Mart.

"And Colonel Sanders does not wear a lei in Kentucky!"

Kentucky has given Hawaii more than just great chicken. Ashby, Miss Kentucky Basketball, 1993, is rebounding proof.

The 6-foot-2 junior has become the board maniac for the 9-3 Wahine, who host WAC rival Air Force at 7 tonight. Ashby, who has earned a starting spot, is second in the conference in rebounding with a 13.0 average, helped by a career-high 15 at Fresno State last Thursday.

That Ashby is even at Manoa is a drawl of a story that turns "transfer" into a four-syllable word. Recruited out of high school by Hawaii coach Vince Goo, Ashby narrowed her choices down to the Wahine and Western Kentucky.

Closeness to her family - about a two-hour drive away - and the closeness of her family led her to choose the Hilltoppers.

"I didn't think I was ready to leave home," Ashby said. "I went to Western for two years and was unhappy. I grew up a lot, learned a lot, and was ready to get out of there.

"After I got my release, I was hoping to find somewhere I could play, even if it meant going to Division III. I was going to finish my career playing for somebody. I just wasn't sure anyone would want me."

Ashby could have called collect. Goo and the Wahine coaching staff had not forgotten the slender but tenacious rebounder who had visited Manoa as a high school senior.

"I was a little surprised by the phone call," said Goo, who brought Ashby in last year as a redshirt. "But she wasn't happy there and you hate to see anyone go to a program and not enjoy herself.

"She plays awfully hard. She can be one of the nicest people off the court but when she gets on the floor there's this button that gets pushed. We saw it coming when she practiced with us last year. She gave us problems defensively and rebounded really well. She's been away basically for three years from real competition. Now, it's just a matter of getting her some game experience and confidence."

Ashby hit the winning free throw in the overtime win at Fresno State. Being in that critical situation seemed light-years removed from riding the bench at Western Kentucky.

"The hardest part of not playing at Western was that my parents would drive over for every game and I'd be sitting there," Ashby said. "Then, when I did get in, I was so nervous and so uptight, so afraid of making mistakes.

"It's so different here. The program I came from, the coach was on you from the time you walked in the gym, screaming, cussing, kicking you out of the gym. When I first got here, Vince wasn't saying anything and I wondered what I was doing wrong. I wanted him to say something, anything. But I like his style. He believes in me, even when I'm screwing up. He doesn't have to say anything because he knows I know."

Ashby knows what's expected of her: consistency. She has had moments of brilliance - 17 points against West Virginia last month - and moments where she has disappeared in games.

"I know I need to slow down on my shots," Ashby said. "I'm so pumped up, getting to play, that I'm shooting before I get the ball.

"I don't know what's happening with rebounding. It feels like it did in high school, where the ball was always coming to me. I'm just so happy being able to play again. It's a great second chance."

Her family had a chance to see her transformation, spending six weeks in Hawaii over the holidays. Her 10-year-old brother, Ty, camped out in the baseline stands, cheering his sister.

"He's my biggest fan," Ashby said. "But I finally had to tell him to cut it out, his yelling 'Brandi! Brandi!' It was only the warm-ups."

Her heartwarming tales seem straight out of The Waltons. Oldest sister Meredith transferred from Western Kentucky to be with Brandi at UH.

Rather than see their Nos. 1 and 2 daughters spend Christmas alone for the first time, Milton and Deanna Ashby brought their two youngest children to Hawaii for an extended family reunion.

"It's tough, now that they're all gone," Ashby said. "But we had a great time together. Hawaii

doesn't seem that far away from Kentucky now. They're only a phone call away."

Her only disappointment is in the small crowds home games.

In the 10,225-seat Special Events Arena, women's basketball draws less than 1,000 a game.

"Coming from Kentucky, where basketball is the state sport, it is disappointing," Ashby said. "At Western, we'd have 5-6,000. And that was on bad days.

"When you're used to feeding off the crowd for your energy, it's really hard to get up for games. That's one of the things I loved about Fresno State, the packed gym and the loud crowd. I know that once people come see us, they'll come back again."

Crowd or no crowd, Ashby is just happy to be playing again. Back home, in Sebree, Kentucky, they still talk about "their" first - and only - Miss Basketball.

At the Dairy Queen, near the one stoplight, the talk has started again.