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Thursday, February 22, 2001
Tubbs brings Texas Christian basketball coach Billy Tubbs interrupts himself while talking about changing conferences or some other such thing of worldly importance.
WAC farewell
tour to town
Rainbows will have their
hands full against the Horned
Frogs and their master
showman-coach tonightBy Dave Reardon
Star-BulletinHis serious face suddenly contorts into a cheesy grin as he turns his head.
Then, in his best Jack Nicholsonesque purr, he addresses a photographer.
"This is my better side. Get this side," he tells the shooter.
Most University of Hawaii basketball fans suspect he doesn't have a good one.
The Coach They Love To Hate makes his final Stan Sheriff Center appearance tonight heading Western Athletic Conference member TCU. (The Horned Frogs join Conference USA next season.)
You can't exactly call it his "aloha game," though, for two reasons:
GAME NIGHT
What: WAC men's basketball.
First, aloha implies farewell, not good riddance to a nemesis whose style includes running up the score at every opportunity.
Also, he plans to be back.
"I've always said Hawaii and Las Vegas are my two favorite places to play," said Tubbs, who has brought teams to the islands since he coached at Lamar in the 1970s. "We won't be playing Hawaii in conference, but I'd love to play in the Rainbow (Classic)."
That might not be such a bad idea -- whatever you think of Tubbs, the man can sell tickets. And win games.
The 1983 and 1985 national coach of the year is 577-279 in 27 seasons with 12 NCAA Tournament appearances, including the Final Four in 1988 with Oklahoma.
"He's colorful, he wins. He draws attention to basketball," said UH coach Riley Wallace, who has known Tubbs since Wallace was an assistant at Centenary and Tubbs one at Lamar in the early '70s.
There's a perceived feud between the two which is more a wink-wink deal to fill the seats than actual dislike.
"We jab at each other all the time, but he's fun to be around," Wallace said "It's like when he was in the Big 12. Everybody thought he and (Missouri's) Norm Stewart hated each other, but it was just showmanship."
Tubbs looks for every motivational opportunity, every perceived slight to get his guys going.
In 1998, he used comments by UH radio announcers Bobby Curran and Jeff Portnoy as inspiration.
After the game, he waved a transcript of their remarks in Wallace's face, claiming that was what spurred his team to victory.
"That's a ploy to try to get you to lose it and then he can keep it going by saying stuff afterwards. Two or three coaches called me and said 'He got you,' because that's what his game is," Wallace said.
"You've really got to watch out because he'll try to take you out of your game by distracting you by getting you mad. He's a showman, but he's also wise like an owl."
Tubbs always has talent to go with the gamesmanship.
Tonight, even without guard Greedy Daniels and forward Myron Anthony (who have been kicked off the team), Tubbs will be able to play a run-and-gun, pressing game -- which he won't change, regardless of the score.
"They still have a very skilled, very talented five out there," Wallace said.
Host TCU beat Hawaii, 103-64, on Jan. 4.
"We're a different team, but so are they," Tubbs said. "They were not healthy when they played us last time. We've adjusted as well as we can. That (the absence of Daniels and Anthony) will not be an excuse."
Wallace won't use the Rainbows' epidemic of ankle injuries as one either.
Starting posts Phil Martin and Troy Ostler did not practice yesterday because of them. Ostler is expected to play tonight, but Martin might not. Guard Jeep Hilton, who has been out two games with a sprain, practiced some yesterday but is not expected to see game action.
Guard Predrag Savovic tweaked his ankle in practice yesterday, but was OK shortly after.
Wallace didn't sound worried, and feels the Rainbows will handle the Horned Frogs' pressure better this time.
"We've worked on it. We're better now than we were then with it," he said.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
