Sidelines
Rainbow fans should
just enjoy the rideWE'VE been patient long enough.
It's been days since the Rainbows completed a road-swing sweep, taking two straight on the road at UTEP and Boise State.
It's been weeks since they stopped Fresno State and Nevada. Even longer since they won the Rainbow Classic by beating an SEC team, Georgia.
The Rainbows are undefeated in the WAC.
They've won seven in a row.
It's the best start of the Riley Wallace era.
It might be time to think it.
It might be time to say it.
Or, instead, it might be time to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Forget the expectations, the prognosticating, the what-ifs, the demand for national rankings.
Sure, we could lose all sense of perspective and run around like crazy people, yelping out projected records and titles and tournaments.
But this team looks like too much fun for that.
Savo (I am Savo) Savovic is reaching his wacky state of basketball nirvana. He doesn't just get into a zone, he gets into the twilight zone. He's sauntering over to another team's bench to ask for a drink. He's bricking in long-distance game-changing bank shots that make you want to take a closer look at the bottom of his shoes.
As Sunday's paper said, Wallace called Savo, "the craziest smart man I've ever coached," which is one of the great quotes of all time.
These are guys you just want to watch. These are guys you just want to see, just to see what happens next.
Mark Campbell's hair flips and flops and flies, golden straw in the wind. He looks like he could star in a 1970s skateboard movie. He looks like he could play second base for the Bad News Bears.
He gets handcuffed with a gun to his head for driving his own car.
"I've been waiting for this guard my whole career," said Wallace earlier this season.
This is what you call a competitive man, when Anthony Carter just isn't enough.
But we know what Wallace means. And yes, Campbell has actually scored this season. Why, at Boise, he scored two points. In a two-point win.
Carl English plays like he's riding a pogo stick. Nobody knows where he'll land, or who he'll land on. Mike McIntyre's effort seems to flow to where it's needed, like water. He's quietly effective, like a young George (Sky Hook) Ariyoshi.
This team has a lot of guys like this, complementary characters.
These parts just might fit.
But the best part is watching it happen.
We forget there was a guy on last year's team named Troy Ostler, and he was pretty good. And he's gone, as is Nerijus Puida.
And magic is a tricky mixture.
This is not last year's WAC champion.
But this year's team is fusing and blending and playing defense, and now Savo is hitting impossible shots.
Yeah, you can fill in your brackets and get wrapped up in maybes if you want.
With this team, I'd sit back, smell the roses, and ride the ride.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com