Sidelines
UH’s best move
would be to play nice
WHETHER it's due to reality or perception -- and perception by those who make the decisions that matter ends up being reality anyway -- the WAC is not a good conference. Fine. I agree. It's not.Its football is, for the most part, terrible. Its men's basketball is better but still underrated. It is geographically ludicrous, it has no tradition, it has members who, unfortunately yet understandably, constantly have one eye on the door looking for a way out.
The WAC gets little respect nationwide, especially when it counts, and there are many cases where that lack of respect is, sadly, regrettably, lamentably, perfectly justified.
I'm with you.
It is not a good conference.
But I can say that.
Perhaps UH should stop saying it. Maybe that is not the thing for Hawaii to do, not now. Not yet. After all, they still have to live with these people.
There's been a lot of tough talk out of Manoa recently regarding the WAC, from Vince Goo, even from as high up as Evan Dobelle. And that's fine. It's even fun. ("Geev 'um!")
But it's important to remember that you can't leave the WAC unless you have somewhere else to go.
(That could be the conference motto.)
UH feels pretty good about itself now, when it is winning in nearly every sport. But Hawaii is in the WAC because the party was over and UH was left scrambling to find a ride home. They, too, just like everyone else, are in the WAC because they have nowhere better to go.
It's better to ride the broken-down bus than to be hitchhiking on the side of the road.
That is the reality, at least as of this minute. The Pac-10 is not going to call. Really. It's not.
If UH can get a better deal, that's great, take it and run -- but until that day, until it really does have something signed, sealed, delivered, it might be a better idea to play nice.
If Hawaii thinks it is too good for the WAC, it needs to find someone else who agrees.
IF ALL OF the people who were up in arms going nuts about the basketball Wahine being left out of the NCAA Tournament actually attended Wahine basketball games -- and not a few of them just once, or twice, or sometimes, but all of them all at once and all the time, then the Wahine would be in the NCAA Tournament.
Or, to put it even more simply, if there was always this much interest in the program, UH would be a lock.
Many of us decry the fact that the men's NCAA Tournament is picked somewhat politically. But the women's brackets are almost all political. Women's basketball has to be. It doesn't have enough interest to be independent and so relies on home sites and traditional powers to make any money at all.
You might not like it, maybe it's not right, but women's basketball operates in its own little world. It does because it has to, and it does because it can.
Hawaii knew the rules. Hawaii was not a no-brainer. Hawaii left the committee with a choice. It made one.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com