Sidelines
ESPN hopping onto
UH bandwagonT'S only August, and already I'm wrong about something.
UH guard Vince Manuwai is getting an amazing amount of preseason publicity. A lot of publicity. National publicity. Publicity at a very high level.
You may recall that on July 26 I wrote about Hawaii's "V-Man" campaign to promote Manuwai for postseason honors. Admirable, I said. Exactly what you need to do in this day and age, I said.
Too late, I said.
Too late to do much good.
Yet here we are a month later, and Manuwai's ability is being trumpeted everywhere.
Mel Kiper Jr. mentions him.
Kirk Herbstreit mentions him.
Gene Wojciechowski mentions his name.
Boo ya! It's working better than anyone could have hoped. ESPN is all over Manuwai. And once the Worldwide Leader in Sports Catch Phrases is on your bandwagon, the ride to fame becomes extremely smooth indeed.
BUT WE COULD spend all day talking about who was wrong about what, or marveling over how incredibly ubiquitous Manuwai is on ESPN.com, or talking about who was wrong about what. I think this latest chapter is merely symptomatic of a bigger point, one that comes with a mouthful of initials.
ESPN is in love with UH.
It started with Ashley Lelie's pre-draft diary, moved on to promises of more nationally televised football games, then came the rebirth of a bowl and now a multi-pronged push that could give Manuwai a shot at becoming an All-American.
I have been critical in the past about a lack of the big-time exposure that was promised with the hiring of June Jones and the marketing arm of his agent, Leigh Steinberg. No more. Jones' team is getting that exposure now. Thanks to what seems to be turning into a special relationship with ESPN, UH is getting it now.
Has Hawaii's national profile ever been higher?
There may have been teams that deserved it more or as much, but these teams at this time -- in this age of Internet and nonstop sports TV -- get coast to coast attention like the University of Hawaii has rarely seen.
If Riley Wallace gets a haircut -- and he keeps it close to the scalp these days -- Andy Katz takes it national. (A good reminder to always be nice to guys you work with along the way -- especially if they're on the basketball beat at the Fresno Bee. You never know.) If there is news about Jones, Len Pasquarelli is happy to launch it around the world and into cyberspace.
Contacts help -- and these coaches obviously have them. But this goes beyond that: ESPN built a bowl game around UH.
Bowls here were make-die-dead. Why would ESPN want to start one anew for Hawaii to play in?
>> Football on Christmas Day is a winner, a great TV time slot.
>> Hawaii is a nice backdrop to beam to the mainland on a dreary gray winter afternoon.
>> UH scored 10 touchdowns on BYU.
That last one, that's the exclamation point, 72-45, The Punt. Chad Owens galloping through the mist, Craig Stutzmann jumping into the stands. Since that day of explosive scores and big ratings and yellow flags filling the sky, ESPN has been smitten. And it was a mutual thing. At first, Jones seemed ambivalent about national television, but the phone calls and benefits that followed Dec. 8 won him over.
If you're a college program, having the 900-pound gorilla of sports media showing you to the world can be a good thing. Embrace it.
Jones said this summer: "I kind of became a believer after the BYU game."
So did ESPN.
And we've seen the results -- Lelie, the games, the bowl, Manuwai -- ever since. Everyone everywhere has.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com