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Wallace is WAC’s TULSA, Okla. >> The Hawaii basketball team arrived here yesterday afternoon, greeted by 15-degree temperatures and six inches of snow.
top coach
Savovic is picked for the first team,
while English makes the second teamGabrielova named to All-WAC second team
By Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comIt aptly mirrored the awards handed out by the Western Athletic Conference yesterday, basically leaving the Rainbows out in the cold.
While Riley Wallace was named Coach of the Year for the third time, the only Hawaii players recognized were senior guard Predrag Savovic and sophomore guard Carl English. In the voting by the 10 coaches, Savovic finished second to Fresno State's Melvin Ely in Player of the Year balloting and was named to the first team for the second year in a row.
English picked up second-team honors. He also received the final WAC Player of the Week award for the regular season after scoring a career-high 33 points in the 82-79 win at Fresno State on Saturday. It was the first weekly honor for English and the fourth for a Rainbow this season. Savovic (twice) and senior guard Mike McIntyre were cited earlier.
English played the entire 40 minutes in the victory over the Bulldogs, which was Hawaii's second in nine visits to Selland Arena. The win secured a share of the WAC title for Hawaii, as well as the top seed in this week's tournament.
"I'm disappointed for our players," said Wallace, who was named Coach of the Year in 1989 and 1997. "I had hoped that Savo would be Player of the Year, but you can't argue with Ely as the choice. He's a great player, an NBA lottery pick. Both of them deserved it."
Wallace, who couldn't vote for his own players, was particularly disappointed that sophomore center Haim Shimonovich wasn't named to the all-defensive team and that junior guard Mark Campbell was left off the all-newcomer team. Shimonovich anchored the Rainbows' defense in the middle and was in the top three for blocked shots in the WAC all season.
Campbell was among the top three in steals and assists all year. No Hawaii player was on the all-defensive team even though the Rainbows led the WAC in defense all year. Hawaii was ranked 21st nationally going into last week, allowing 61.9 points per game. The Rainbows' average ballooned to 63 points per game following last week's two games where they gave up 79 points each to Nevada and Fresno State.
"It would be hard to see what Mark does for us by just looking at the stats," said Wallace. "You really have to watch the games to see it. The same with Haim."
The lack of conference recognition only reaffirmed what the Rainbows had been preaching all season: team first. Throughout the year, Hawaii had a number of different players lead them to victory.
As for the coaching award, Wallace said he was surprised.
"You don't expect it, especially when the league had a lot of good coaches and teams this year," he said. "Tulsa had a great season. So did Louisiana Tech in their first year in the WAC. And Nevada's coach (Trent Johnson) did a good job."
Hawaii, the defending tournament champion, comes into the Reynolds Center with a 24-5 record. Only the 1989-90 team (25-10) has won more games for Wallace in his 15 years.
The Rainbows open play Thursday against the winner of tomorrow's play-in game between San Jose State and Rice. Hawaii split with the Spartans (9-21) and swept the Owls (10-18) during the regular season.
"The awards are nice, but the goal all year has been to get to the NCAA tournament again," said Wallace. "Winning it all here is the best award."
Ely repeats: Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian was sad that his senior forward lost his last home game Saturday night. Tarkanian may feel a little better about Ely finishing with the WAC's top individual honor.
For the second year in a row, Ely was named Player of the Year. He is only the fourth player to win the top honor twice; the others were San Diego State's Michael Cage (1983 and '84), Utah's Josh Grant (1991 and '93) and Utah's Keith Van Horn (1995, '96 and '97).
In conference games only, Ely averaged 25.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.1 blocks, and he led the WAC in field goal percentage (.591).
Ely was named to the first team along with Savovic, who averaged 19.4 points a game and led the conference in free-throw shooting (.854). Also named were Louisiana Tech senior guard Gerrod Henderson, SMU senior guard Damon Hancock and Tulsa senior guard Greg Harrington.
Rice forward Michael Harris was named Freshman of the Year. Harris averaged 13.0 points, 8.9 rebounds, and he shot .536 from the field in conference games.
The secret is out: Pregame rituals are important to superstitious coaches. And Riley Wallace is no exception.
Going into Saturday's game at Fresno State, Hawaii was 0-4 away from Honolulu when not eating at the Golden Corral, a national buffet chain. The Rainbows traveled a few miles to find the restaurant for Saturday's pregame meal and, a few hours later, won a record sixth WAC road game.
Wallace let the cat out of the bag during a congratulatory call Saturday night from ESPN.com's Andy Katz, who used the story for his "Daily Word" yesterday on the web site.
Hawaii's losses away from the Stan Sheriff Center were in Hilo (to Colorado State), San Jose, Ruston, La., and Reno.
"But we found out there is one 20 miles from Ruston, La., so we'll go there next year," Wallace said of the next trip to play Louisiana Tech.
Back in uniform: After sitting out Saturday's win on the bench with a sore back, Predrag Savovic said he'll be ready to practice today. Saturday afternoon, Savovic received an hour-long shiatsu massage and is expected to have several more treatments this week to help alleviate his lower back spasms.
"It was a great game and I'm very happy we won," Savovic said after Saturday's victory.
Two too many: Hawaii has yet to lose two in a row this season, with the defeats seemingly helping the Rainbows refocus.
After the loss to Colorado State, Hawaii topped Wisconsin. After losing to San Diego State, Hawaii went out and won its next nine games, including the Rainbow Classic title over Georgia.
The Rainbows followed up the defeat at San Jose State with two big road wins at Rice and Tulsa. The slip at Louisiana Tech resulted in three wins at the Sheriff Center to finish 9-0 and unbeaten in WAC home play for the first time ever.
When Hawaii lost at Nevada last Thursday, Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian knew what was coming.
"The worst thing that could have happened was that Hawaii lost to Nevada on Thursday," Tarkanian said. "They were on a mission when they played us."
Coaches keep 'Bows at bay: Hawaii remained just outside the top 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, which was released yesterday. The Rainbows received 53 points in this week's poll, down from 59 last week and remained four points behind No. 25 California.
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The All-Western Athletic Conference women's basketball teams were announced yesterday and all five starters for regular-season champion Louisiana Tech were named to at least one of the squads. Gabrielova named to
All-WAC second teamBy Al Chase
achase@starbulletin.comHawaii's lone representative was senior point guard Janka Gabrielova, who was selected to the All-WAC second team.
The first team had center Cheryl Ford and forward Ayana Walker of Louisiana Tech; center Kate Smith of Nevada; guard Cricket Williams of San Jose State and Tulsa forward Leela Farr.
Aiea High School graduate Aritta Lane of Fresno State tied with Louisiana Tech's Erica Smith for freshman of the year honors.
The UH coaches didn't see any real surprises, although head coach Vince Goo thought Gabrielova should have been on the all-defensive team.
"I thought she deserved it," Goo said just before departing for the WAC tournament in Tulsa, Okla.
"We didn't have a conference player of the week all year, and no one put up big numbers."
Assistant coach Serenda Valdez said, "We've had first-team selections like Raylene Howard and Nani Cockett who put up a lot of points, but this year we got the same results (20-plus wins) with no standouts, just a good team. I thought we were a lot like Rice. We had a hard time picking a standout player for Rice."
The All-WAC teams are selected by a vote of the coaches. Goo takes input from his whole staff before sending in Hawaii's selections.
Janice Richard, who guided San Jose State back into the upper half of the WAC standings, was named coach of the year. Ford was selected player of the year.
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ALL-WAC TEAMS
Men
First Team
Melvin Ely, Fresno State, C, 6-10, 256, Sr.
Predrag Savovic, Hawaii, G/F, 6-6, 225, Sr.
Gerrod Henderson, Louisiana Tech, G, 6-4, 208, Sr.
Damon Hancock, SMU, G, 6-4, 195, Sr
Greg Harrington, Tulsa, G, 6-2, 185, Sr.Second Team
Abe Jackson, Boise State, F, 6-7, 230, Sr.
Carl English, Hawaii, G, 6-5, 205, So.
Quinton Ross, SMU, G/F, 6-6, 175, Jr.
Kevin Johnson, Tulsa, F, 6-7, 215, Jr
Dante Swanson, Tulsa, G, 5-10, 170, Jr.Player of the Year
Melvin Ely, Fresno StateFreshman of the Year
Michael Harris, RiceDon Haskins Coach of the Year
Riley Wallace, HawaiiAll-Newcomer Team
Darrian Brown, Louisiana Tech, G, 6-5, 205, Jr.
Kirk Snyder, Nevada, F, 6-6, 185, Fr.
Michael Harris, Rice, F, 6-6, 225, Fr.
Brandon Hawkins, San Jose State, G, 6-3, 191, Jr.
Patrick Simpson, SMU, F, 6-9, 210, Fr.All-Defensive Team
Melvin Ely, Fresno State, C, 6-10, 256, Sr.
Corey Jackson, Nevada, F, 6-7, 230, Sr.
Gerrod Henderson, Louisiana Tech, G, 6-4, 208, Sr.
Quinton Ross, SMU, G/F, 6-6, 175, Jr.
Dante Swanson, Tulsa, G, 5-10, 170, Jr.
Women
First Team
Cheryl Ford, Louisiana Tech, C
Ayana Walker, Louisiana Tech, F
Kate Smith,Nevada, C
Cricket Williams, San Jose State, G
Leela Farr, Tulsa, FSecond Team
Lindsay Logan, Fresno State, G
Janka Gabrielova, Hawaii,G
Amber Obaze, Louisiana Tech, G
Kimya Murray, UTEP, G
Carla Morrow, Tulsa, G/FPlayer of the Year
Cheryl Ford, Louisiana TechCoach of the Year
Janice Richard, San Jose StateCo-Freshmen of the Year
Erica Smith, Louisiana Tech and Aritta Lane, Fresno StateAll-Newcomer Team
Aritta Lane,Fresno State,F
Erica Smith, Louisiana Tech, G
Elisa Inman, Rice, F
Kimya Murray, UTEP, G
Alyssa Shriver, Tulsa, CAll-Defensive Team
Amber Obaze, Louisiana Tech, G
Essence Perry, Louisiana Tech, G
Ayana Walker, Louisiana Tech, F
Laura Ingham, Nevada, G
Cricket Williams, San Jose State, G
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