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Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Thursday, November 16, 2000

Sports luau over
next few weeks

YOU wanna piece of me? OK, now that I got your attention. I wasn't trying to be belligerent, just funny. It's simply that there aren't enough pieces of me to go around for all of the sporting events locally the next two or three weeks.

It's a veritable cornucopia of sports. A sporting luau befitting Thanksgiving.

It all starts this weekend with Riley Wallace's University of Hawaii basketball Rainbows hosting the Louisville Cardinals at the Stan Sheriff Center tomorrow night.

Talk about killing two Redbirds with one stone. Coach Denny Crum signed on to play UH because his Cardinals are in the Maui Invitational the following week.

Vince Goo's Wahine also take the court in the two-day Hawaiian Regent Classic that will include Pepperdine, Western Kentucky and Northern Arizona starting tomorrow.

If that's not enough tomorrow, the state high school football championships begin with ILH champion St. Louis and OIA kingpin Kahuku featured in a first-round doubleheader at Aloha Stadium.

The Crusaders meet Castle, while the Red Raiders take on Kauai champion Waimea in the second game.

The UH football team tries to make it two in a row for the first time this season Saturday night against Louisiana Tech in the first-ever, but not last, football meeting between the two.

The Bulldogs join the Western Athletic Conference next year, expanding the WAC even further in terms of air miles.

The UH men's volleyball team is playing four matches in as many days against Brigham Young University. But they're just exhibitions and three of the "home" games are on the road -- Lihue tonight, Wailuku tomorrow and Hilo Saturday.

WAIT. You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait 'til next week.

That's when the world's greatest golfer shows up. Tiger Woods, winner of three majors, who else? He heads the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at the Poipu Bay Resort on Kauai.

Golf's first $9 million man (his official PGA earnings this year) will be joined by Vijay Singh, Paul Azinger and Tom Lehman in the 36-hole shoot-out Tuesday and Wednesday.

On those same two nights, Dave Shoji's unbeaten Wahine volleyball team plays Rice and then Texas-El Paso.

For college basketball buffs, you can't beat the field in the three-day Maui Invitational starting Monday at the Lahaina Civic Center.

Headlining the field will be the Arizona Wildcats, ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason poll. Also entered are No. 6 Maryland --Louisville's first-round opponent --and No. 13 Connecticut.

The No. 2 women's team in college basketball -- Pat Summitt's Tennessee Lady Volunteers -- is the marquee name in the first Maui Women's Invitational after the men leave town.

Also next weekend, the Rainbow Wahine host an eight-team tournament with a field that includes North Carolina State, Michigan, Arkansas and Arizona State.

Actually, the entire state next week will be wall-to-wall with basketball players as the Rainbow men, UH-Hilo and Hawaii Pacific University are also hosting early season tournaments.

Georgetown is the headliner in the HPU Thanksgiving Classic next Friday, while the Sea Warriors host Minnesota, a team which had more than its share of notoriety during the off-season.

Round Two of the state football playoffs is scheduled next Friday as well. Figure on St. Louis and Kahuku being there.

The Thanksgiving week's piece de resistance will be the UH-Wisconsin football game Saturday night.