[AT THE FINAL FOUR]

Scott Rigot

UH assistant Rigot
is a Final Four vet, but
he rarely sees a game

Editor's note: University of Hawaii basketball coaches Riley Wallace, Bob Nash and Scott Rigot are at the Final Four in Minneapolis this week. They have agreed to provide the Star-Bulletin with their insights from one of the biggest spectacles in all of sports.

Rigot, an assistant having just completed his second season with UH, is a relative newcomer to Hawaii. But he is a college coaching veteran, with stops at Alabama-Birmingham, South Carolina, and Spartanburg Methodist (S.C.)

He has been to the scene of the Final Four more than 10 times, but he rarely goes to the games:

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"I don't know if exciting is the word, but for a coach it is a place where a lot of things are happening. It's a great place to recruit because all kinds of basketball people are there, including high school coaches who show up with film of kids. There are a lot of people other than coaches, a lot of contact people.

"You find out where you stand on recruiting, you get a lot of background information. Very few assistants go to the actual games. For most, if their team's not playing it's not that big a deal.

"Who is going to win? To be honest with you I haven't really thought about it. I guess I'm one of those guys like (legendary coach) Frank McGuire. He used to say the team with the best five players wins. In this case, that would be Duke. They've got great guards and great big guys."

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[SMALL COLLEGES]

BYUH women’s
tennis team measures
win streak in years

By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin

The top-ranked Brigham Young-Hawaii women's tennis team is closing in on a winning streak of three.

Not three matches -- three years.

In terms of consecutive team dual matches won (NCAA Division II competition includes six singles matches and three doubles), the Lady Seasiders upped their total to 90 with yesterday's victory over Hawaii Pacific.

BYUH is the two-time defending Division II women's champion and has not lost a match since it began Div. II competition two seasons ago.

In fact, the last time the Seasiders lost a dual match was in April 1998, in the final regular-season match of their final season in the NAIA. BYUH went down 5-4 to Auburn-Montgomery in the finals of the Blue-Gray Tournament in Alabama, though the team recovered to win the NAIA national championship that year.

"We don't think about the streak much," said BYUH coach Dave Porter, who also runs the men's program. "We try only to think about our next match. It just turns out that we've been real fortunate and (the streak has) happened."

When winning becomes the rule, as it has for the Seasiders, maintaining focus and a competitive fire can be difficult.

One can hardly fault the BYUH players for perhaps expecting to win and "coasting" against some of the competition.

But Porter has attempted to keep the Seasider women sharp by routinely scheduling Division I competition and having them hit with the Seasider men.

According to Porter, BYUH has played at least 30 Div. I teams during the streak, and he and his players really aren't worried about the streak ending.

"To be at your best, you need competition that pushes you to your limits," Porter said. "I don't think a loss would devastate the team; it could actually help and motivate the girls to become even better."

The Seasiders are 23-0 this year, despite having five newcomers on the nine-player team. They leave today for a roadtrip that includes two matches in Mobile, Ala., and the West Florida Classic in Pensacola.

The Classic, on the campus of the University of West Florida, will likely involve BYUH's toughest tests yet this season, according to Porter. The host team is ranked No. 2 in the nation, and No. 3 Lynn (Fla.) will also be there.

And Porter not only wants the tournament for his players because of the competition, but because he wants his new players to get accustomed to the location as well. The national championship finals will be held there this year, as they were last season, May 10-13.

As for the streak, Porter acknowledges that a full appreciation of it by both him and his players likely will not come until it's over. For now, they're doing just fine being numb to it as long as the wins continue to pile up.

"(Full appreciation) will probably happen later when I look back and say, 'Wow, how in the heck did we do that?' " Porter said. "We've been real fortunate to have good players and it's not something you plan for. It doesn't happen very often and probably will never happen again."