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Saturday, January 20, 2001
THE road to a WAC Championship, to hear Riley Wallace tell it, will pass through the classroom first. Rainbows’ Wallace
stresses academicsBy Jack Danilewicz
Special to the Star-Bulletin"If you have a player who wants to get a degree, then you have something that he wants, and he'll work harder in basketball," said the Hawaii men's basketball coach. "You have fewer problems with a kid who wants to get an education."
Indeed, as Wallace and the Rainbows await the game against San Jose State at the Stan Sheriff Center tonight at 7, grade checks aren't among Wallace's main pre-game concerns. The team closed the fall semester with a cumulative grade-point average of 2.6 -- its highest in recent history.
"Coach wants us to do well, and he puts an emphasis on it," said redshirt freshman Carl English, a kinesiology major with a GPA of 3.5 (out of a possible 4.0).
"It's all about discipline. If you just want to play ball, you're probably just going to do that and forget about academics. If you focus on both, you're going to have to put in a lot of work."
Wallace's attempts to instill that discipline has gone to his head -- literally.
"We've had fun with it this year," he said. "I challenged them. I told them anybody gets a 4.0 and they could cut my hair. Some of them studied extra time, and it was worth it. There's no question they are one of our better groups (academically)."
Forward Lane O'Connor provided the grades that sealed Wallace's fate. A liberal arts major, he will graduate from UH next December.
"I've always had a 3.0 or higher, but this semester everything went right," he said.
At the basketball team's Christmas Eve dinner, three players took turns carving up Wallace's hair, trimming it to less than a quarter inch.
"I trimmed him up again yesterday, too, so he's going to keep the new look," English said.
When Wallace was a student-athlete at Centenary, he looked to his then girlfriend, Joan, when he needed academic support.
Later, as head coach at Centenary, it was Joan, now his wife, who stepped in to help again, taking on the role as unpaid tutor for his basketball team.
"She tutored all the players, including (former NBA star) Robert Parish," Wallace said.
Wallace can easily get his players' attention with anecdotes about Parish, who played for Wallace at Centenary.
Wallace can easily refer to Robert Parish the student, who dutifully went to class, met each academic challenge and graduated within four years.
"In the old days, it was just the coaches and the players," Wallace said.
"There's a lot of things in place for these kids right now."
One boost to all UH athletes has been the addition of the Nagatani Academic Center. Built at a cost of $5.6 million, the facility houses private tutoring offices, computer rooms and enough staff members to accommodate one-on-one instruction. Affixed to the wall of the facility's main hallway are the words, "The mind moves the mountain."
"We've beefed up (academic services for athletes) probably 500 percent over the past year, so it's a huge improvement," said Adam Lockwood, an academic advisor and former UH men's volleyball player. "It seems to be paying off. The kids are getting better service. We're at par now with most schools on the mainland."
Said Wallace: "With the academic center, the advisors, the dean, the athletic director (and) the coaches are behind it, so they have a lot of people who are watching them, and this team has responded -- as other teams here have."
Nerijus Puida, a senior from Lithuania, says good study habits can only help his game.
"Basketball is about smarts," said Puida, who has a dual major in international business and marketing. "If you're not smart on the court, you can't be a successful player. Academics are important to me so I try and study hard."
While Puida's 3.8 GPA is one of the highest on the team, he finds further inspiration at home. His wife, Dainora, who is a member of the Wahine basketball team, had a 4.0 GPA.
"She beat me this semester," he said with a smile. "We don't talk about that."
UH Athletics
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