The first round of intrastate games has taken on added significance this year. Hawaii hoop wars
for more than pride
By Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comIn recent years, it was just a fight for local pride. Few coaches outside of Hawaii knew or cared because their biggest obstacles in becoming regional champions were on the West Coast.
But they will be highly interested tonight, when Hawaii-Hilo travels to Brigham Young-Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific entertains Chaminade at Mid-Pacific Institute gymnasium. They will be quick to check the result because three of Hawaii's four teams are ranked in the region and are just outside of the national top 25 rankings.
Hawaii-Hilo was voted the 30th best team in the nation by the NABC on Wednesday and is ranked fourth in the region.
Brigham Young-Hawaii had done them one better, coming into January ahead of the Vulcans at fourth, but have since dropped to sixth. Hawaii Pacific debuted in the regional rankings at eighth this week.
"That's good to know," Hilo coach Jeff Law said when told his team is ranked. "It doesn't mean jack, but it's good to know. Honestly, I didn't think we would be where we are, but I didn't think we would be far off. A lot of it was a creation of chemistry. We don't have a lot of guys that will scare people, but everyone has come together and played together real well."
As well as the Vulcans have played, there is a big question mark hanging over their heads. Hilo earned its ranking by going through the entire preseason without losing to a Division II team. But they also did it without leaving their Big Island home.
"We have been at home, I'm not going to even try to dance around that. But you have got to win your home games without letting someone steal one. We have done that so far."
Because the conference was whittled down to six teams before this season, each school has to play its rivals three times instead of two. That means Chaminade gets an extra home game against Hilo and BYUH, and Hawaii Pacific gets the home edge over BYUH but has to travel to Hilo twice. Put simply, to win the conference, they will have to win on the road. So Law looks to Laie for his team's first road test, which should not be as easy as it was last year.
The Vulcans swept the Seasiders in three games a year ago (one was a nonconference matchup), beating BYUH in their only trip to the North Shore. And that one came the hard way, with Kyle Bartholomew hitting a shot with 2.2 seconds left to win 86-84.
With HPU being just as impressive as its conference rivals but failing to get as many votes, the conference title probably will not be decided until the final games of the regular season on Feb. 28 when BYUH visits Chaminade and March 2 when Hawaii Pacific travels to Hilo.
But it all starts tonight, when two of Hawaii's teams might learn that they are not as far along as they thought they were.
"That (the Cannon Center during a big game) is going to be a very fragile environment," Law said. "One of us will come out bruised. I hope it is not us."
Dung still just a candidate: Hawaii Pacific basketball coach Tony Sellitto hopes and expects longtime assistant Russell Dung to take his place after he retires at the end of the year.
But no official announcement has come from the school and won't until the end of the season. "Russell (Dung) is certainly the leading candidate," Vice President Rick Stepien said. "But we will wait until the end of the basketball season to make an announcement. There are other candidates, and we have time to look at all of them."