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Wednesday, January 10, 2001
Hawaii faces a Taking over for a legend can be tough, but Jason Rabedeaux is starting to make it look easy.
loaded UTEP team
The Miners come to the islands
with the nation's second
leading scorerBy Dave Reardon
Star-BulletinRabedeaux, in his second season as the UTEP basketball coach, follows in the huge paw-prints of Don "The Bear" Haskins.
Haskins coached the Miners for 38 years and led them to a national championship in 1966. Haskins, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, retired before last season.
UTEP is here to play Hawaii tomorrow. The Miners are 12-1, and won their conference opener against Nevada last Thursday.
"I think I'm a bit surprised, considering we've got a lot of new kids," Rabedeaux said. "Obviously, when we recruited we knew we got good kids and good players. But you never know how they're going to mesh. It turns out they get along on and off the court."
GAME TIME
Who: Hawaii vs. UTEP
Three junior college transfers joined what could be one of the best forward tandems in the nation -- 6-foot-9 Brandon Wolfram (second in the NCAA in scoring) and 6-6 Roy Smallwood (last year's WAC Newcomer of the Year).
Wolfram averages 24.4 points and 8.4 rebounds a game. Smallwood's numbers are 12.1 and 7.2.
"You've got to be careful with them," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "You can double down on Wolfram, but Smallwood's a slasher. And you can't back off on Wolfram at the top of the circle."
Point guard Eugene Costello, at 5-10, scores 16.4 an outing, deals 4.2 assists and gets 4.1 rebounds.
Junior 6-10 center Brian Stewart set a school record with eight blocks. Stewart averages 11.3 points and 4.3 boards in the eight games he's played.
Guard Chris Neal, a 6-2 junior, improves game by game. He is a 43.1 percent shooter from 3-point country, and averages 8.8 points per game.
Hawaii (6-7, 0-2) counters with a short and injury-riddled lineup that may or may not have starting post Troy Ostler and key guard sub Mike McIntyre back at full speed. Both have lingering ankle sprains.
UH has lost three straight, and UTEP is coming off an 88-80 victory over San Diego, a team Hawaii lost to earlier this season.
But despite their gaudy record and 10 voting points in this week's AP Top 25 poll, the Miners are still chasing at least one ghost from their 13-15 season of 1999-2000.
UTEP did not win a road conference game all season in finishing 4-10 for seventh place in the WAC.
"We're not patting ourselves on the back," Rabedeaux said. "We realize how important this home stand is for Hawaii. We've still got a lot to prove as a team."
Rabedeaux, an assistant at Oklahoma five years before taking over at UTEP, has proven some of what he's had to as a head coach.
And "The Bear" is still around to help as much as he can.
"We go out and have coffee and talk basketball two or three times a week," Rabedeaux said. "He's a good ally, friend and resource."
TIP-INS:
Ostler sat out yesterday's practice. "It's day-by-day," he said. "They'll run some tests on Thursday and let me know if I can play." ... Former UH guard Jarinn Akana is an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks' development squad, not working in the the team's front office as reported yesterday. ... There was no new word yesterday on the eligibility of freshman post Haim Shimonovic.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
