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Tuesday, March 6, 2001
Rainbows stay TULSA, Okla. -- The University of Hawaii men's basketball team held its first practice yesterday afternoon at nearby Nathan Hale High School in preparation for its Western Athletic Conference Tournament opener against Texas Christian.
focused for WAC
Tournament
UH coach Riley Wallace
will keep the team busy with
practice, study hallsRealAudio: 'Net broadcast Click Here
By Dave Reardon
Star-BulletinFifth-seeded UH (14-13, 8-8 WAC) meets fourth-seeded TCU (20-10, 9-7) on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. HST. The teams split their two games in the regular season by lopsided scores.
The Rainbows were among the first teams to arrive in Tulsa, flying in Sunday night after their 85-77 regular-season-ending loss to Texas-El Paso on Saturday.
UH secured use of the Hale gym through coach Riley Wallace's connection with Raiders coach Brent Mackey. Mackey played for Wallace at Seminole Junior College (Okla.) from 1985 to 1987. Also, Mackey's brother, Blake, was one of Wallace's first graduate assistants at Hawaii.
"I think Coach has gotten a little mellow," Brent Mackey said with a wink after Wallace put the Rainbows through a moderately intense two-hour practice.
UH spent much of the practice working on handling TCU's pressure defense, and looked crisp most the time.
Wallace said he isn't worried about his players having too much time to prepare.
"I love it," he said. "We can still be a little loose and get the work done. The players won't lose focus sitting around because they have study halls to keep them busy.
"And the shrinks will be here Wednesday," Wallace added, referring to team psychologists Judy Daniels and Michael D'Andrea. Wallace gave them much of the credit for UH's first road victory of the season (last Thursday at San Jose State), as input from the two helped the team focus on game preparation.
PLAYERS' CHOICES:
In today's editions of the Tulsa World, an informal survey of 46 WAC players came up with a slightly different all-conference team than the official voting of the coaches -- Hawaii guard Predrag Savovic, voted first team by the coaches, did not make the players' cut, according to the survey.SMU's Jeryl Sasser got the players' nod over Savovic. The others were the same as the coaches': top vote-getter Melvin Ely (Fresno State center), Chris Jefferies (Fresno State forward), Mike Wilks (Rice guard) and Brandon Wolfram (UTEP center).
BURNEIKA HOT AGAIN:
The role of junior post player Mindaugas Burneika has changed since the addition of Haim Shimonovich to the frontcourt rotation. While the playing time for the star of the Rainbow Classic has become erratic, his shooting touch remains anything but.Burneika played only seven minutes, all in the second half, in the victory over San Jose State. But Saturday he scored 14 points in 16 minutes on 4-of-5 shooting, including 2-of-3 on 3-pointers.
In UH's 102-87 win over TCU on Feb. 22, Burneika scored 17 points on 7-of-8 from the floor. He also dished a career-high five assists and could be the key player on Thursday.
"Against TCU, the way they play offense they lay off him thinking he can't shoot and he floats around the holes, and Nerijus (Puida) knows he can shoot and he finds him," Wallace said.
Burneika leads the Rainbows in 3-point shooting percentage at 45.7 (21-of-45).
"We went with a bigger lineup against San Jose State," Wallace said of his decision not to use the 6-foot-6 Burneika more against the Spartans. "But against UTEP we felt we needed more offense."
Burneika said a slow-healing bruise of his right elbow from earlier in the season doesn't bother him much anymore, hence the hot shooting of late.
Obviously, he'd like to see more consistent playing time.
"It's hard. Coach puts me in when he needs me. I want to be in there all the time, I know I can help," Burneika said. "But it's a team game."
Said Wallace: "He knows what he needs to do, and he can handle that role."
STATS AND STUFF:
TCU has scored 100 or more points 12 times this season (including a 103-64 victory over visiting Hawaii on Jan. 4), but only once in the five games since the dismissal from the team of guard Greedy Daniels and forward Myron Anthony. The Horned Frogs still lead the nation at 94.1 ppg -- and they give up a WAC-high 81.7. The numbers for Hawaii? The Rainbows score 71.6 ppg (seventh in WAC) and yield 72.9 (sixth). ... Ryan Carroll leads TCU in scoring with 17.6 ppg. He is fourth in the WAC, behind No. 3 Savovic, at 17.7.
TIP-INS:
Junior point guard Rickey Terrell, who has not played in UH's last seven games, did not make the trip, by Wallace's decision. The coach said Terrell is still a member of the team. ... Junior guard Mike McIntyre scored a career-high 21 points in UH's victory over TCU on Feb. 22. ... The Rainbows were scheduled to practice at Hale again today, then in the evening on Wednesday at Maybee Gym on the Tulsa University campus. They are scheduled for a pre-game shootaround at Reynolds Center on Thursday morning.
UH Athletics
Ka Leo O Hawaii
