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Sports Watch
A Life of Riley it hasn't been for the University of Hawaii men's basketball team this season. UH seniors deserving
of fond alohaSure, the Rainbows are 15-9 and still in the running for the NCAA turnaround team of the year.
And anything is better than last year's dismal 6-20 showing -- Riley Wallace's worst season since he took over as head coach in 1987-1988, when UH went 4-25.
"Coming off that 6-20 season with a good nucleus and two redshirts in (Bernard) McIntosh and Savo (Pedrag Savovic), I thought we were going to be better," Wallace said.
Better, but not what Rainbow fans expected. Maybe the success of the UH football team was too much for any of the other athletic teams to overcome in terms of great expectations.
The crowds for men's basketball have fallen -- roughly 2,000 no-shows a game -- and the team has looked dreadful at times, especially during the closing stretches of each half.
So were the Rainbows disappointing? Yes. Should fans give up on them? No.
Tonight, UH fans can give the three Rainbow seniors -- Marquette Alexander, Johnny White and Geremy Robinson -- a warm aloha in their final regular-season home game of the year against the Rice Owls.
Note how cautiously -- and optimistically -- worded that is. Regular season.
It leaves a window of opportunity open for Hawaii to host a postseason National Invitation Tournament game and yet another game at the Stan Sheriff Center for the departing seniors.
Despite losing Thursday to No. 13 Tulsa for their fourth straight loss, the Rainbows can still change their season from disappointing to satisfying.
It'll take some doing. The 'Bows have to beat Rice tonight and try to beat San Jose State and Fresno State on the road in their final two games.
Beating the Bulldogs is iffy, but the Owls and Spartans are very beatable, especially Rice because it's here.
"We have to take care of business first with Rice," said Wallace, who then will worry about the other two.
"That's what we're playing for now, seedings in the WAC tournament," he said.
"Everybody goes and anything can happen when it comes down to one game, as we've seen before."
Wallace obviously had in mind the 1993-94 season, when his 15-14 Rainbows ran the table to win the WAC tournament.
It would have been easy to give up on that team. It opened the season 0-4, losing the first three games by 53, 38 and 35 points.
WALLACE dismisses critics who say that a weak nonconference schedule contributed to the team's play during crunch time.
"Creighton, Bradley, Colorado, Oregon? What's wrong with that schedule?" Wallace asked, adding that it's tougher than Tulsa's.
"Our fans have been so used to seeing North Carolina and Kansas. But they can't always come. Part of it is the exemption (rule). Now they can be picky where they want to go."
Meanwhile, Wallace would just like to see Alexander, Robinson and White get their due -- a fond send-off by the fans tonight.
"It's fun to talk about him (Alexander) because he made a commitment this year. He lost weight, accepted the responsibility as captain and had a complete turnaround in attitude.
"Johnny's a great kid and is what college athletics is all about. Geremy is a gentleman, very coachable. Whatever we threw at him, he accepted it. That's hard to find in an athlete these days."
Bill Kwon has been writing about
sports for the Star-Bulletin since 1959.