Wednesday, December 15, 1999
Rainbows’ McIntosh
By Pat Bigold
quits team
Star-BulletinJunior forward Bernard McIntosh, who has been the first big man off the benchfor the Hawaii men's basketball team, has left the team for good, according to head coach Riley Wallace.
Wallace said the 6-foot-8 McIntosh, whose thunder-dunks off the break had excited the Stan Sheriff Center crowds in early season, had twice before planned to leave the team but had been talked into staying by Wallace or teammates.
Wallace said McIntosh, who was signed out of Northland Pioneer Community College in Arizona last year and redshirted through spring, has returned to his home in Lexington, N.C.
McIntosh, who was valuable as a big man who could run the break, had helped Hawaii to 5-2 nonconference record this year. He sometimes also provided muscle under the glass when the Rainbows needed it.
Athough he didn't start, he averaged the second most minutes of any big man on the Rainbows' roster (20.1).McIntosh scored 7.4 points per game (shooting 47 percent from the floor) and pulled down an average of 4.6 rebounds. He was second to center Marquette Alexander in blocks with eight, and third in steals with eight. He averaged two turnovers per game.
"I think he's made up his mind," said Wallace. "I told him to at least stay until the end of the semester and that's what he did. I think he's a good kid and that he's making a mistake. But at this point, I don't think we'd take him back."
That leaves Wallace with nine scholarship players.
Freshman guard Carl English is out for the season as a redshirt after undergoing ankle surgery last weekend, and 6-7 freshman forward Phil Martin remains ineligible though he works out with the team.
Wallace said McIntosh's departure makes Martin that much more desirable. He is being held back by a letter of intent technicality.
Wallace said he will move 6-7 junior Lane O'Connor into the "4" spot McIntosh was filling. Wallace said he's confident O'Connor, who has been averaging only 12.6 minutes per game, can play the position. Although he was a 51 percent 3-point shooter at Santa Rosa Junior College, O'Connor has been scoring only 2.7 points per game.
"Troy Ostler will have to play more minutes now and Todd Fields will see a lot more time," Wallace said.
Ostler,a 6-9 junior, has been averaging 23 minutes. Fields, a 7-foot junior, bothered by tendinitis in both knees and a stress fracture that Wallace said has healed, has played only 7.5 minutes per game.
McIntosh had often expressed a desire to be near to his girlfriend, Elisa Tsosie, and small daughter, NI'Asia Dion, who live in New Mexico.
"At least, we still have our starting five intact (Alexander, Ostler, point guard Johnny White, small forward Nerijus Puida and shooting guard Predrag savovic)," said Wallace.
Hawaii, which suffered an 85-56 rout at USC on Dec. 8, will open play in the three-day Nike Festival on Monday with a game against Florida-Atlantic (1-4).
On Tuesday, the Rainbows will face Western illinois (4-6) and next Wednesday they finish with Creighton (7-0).
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
Ka Leo O Hawaii
