Hawaii quarterback Tim Chang practiced yesterday for the first time this week as he and his UH teammates went through a rare afternoon workout. Jones waits to name
Hawaii teams staying home
QB starterBy Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comAnd he looked sharp.
Coach June Jones agreed, but will wait to name his starting quarterback for the 24th-ranked Warriors' (9-2) game tomorrow against No. 14 Alabama (9-3).
"He looked like he's alright," Jones said. "We'll see how he is on game day."
Chang suffered a sprained left knee and bruised right thumb in last Saturday's 20-19 victory against Cincinnati.
He is listed as probable. All indicators are that Chang will start against the Crimson Tide.
Players are not allowed to be interviewed from Thursday of game weeks, but Chang said Wednesday he expects to be ready to play Saturday.
The outlook isn't as good for starting left guard Shayne Kajioka.
His sprained right knee kept him out of team drills again, and Derek Faavi will replace Kajioka in the starting lineup; Faavi will play center, with starting center Lui Fuata moving over to left guard.
"Kaj didn't take any snaps today," Jones said. "We'll see how he is tomorrow. Hopefully he'll be able to back up."
It will be the first career start for Faavi, a 6-0, 266-pound second-year freshman. It is also the first change in the starting lineup of Hawaii's offensive line this season.
Mouse in the house: Mouse Davis, who was Jones' coach at Portland State and is one of the most well-known practitioners of the run-and-shoot offense, is here for the game and has attended UH's practices this week.
He said he's proud of what his protege has done with the wide-open four-receiver offense.
"Absolutely. Every time Hawaii wins. I throw my chest out," Davis said. "I don't get to see them all, but I see most of their games. I'm proud of the kid and proud of the Hawaii team. I just hope they keep winning. It'd be great if they beat the Tide."
Davis likes how Jones has tinkered with the offense.
"He's changed some things with the splits and routes, added and improved," Davis said. "Most the concepts are similar, but it's not like he's running it exactly like we did. It keeps getting better and better."
Cal Lee, new coach of the Hawaiian Islanders arenafootball2 team, wants to hire Davis as his offensive coordinator.
"We're looking at that, it's very much a strong possibility," said Davis, 70, who helped create arena football 16 years ago.
Davis, who retired from the Detroit Fury of the arena league after last season, has been a head coach in the USFL and the World League and an offensive coordinator in the NFL and the CFL.
Tide is in: Alabama's charter flight arrived later than expected, so the Crimson Tide canceled a practice planned for Aloha Stadium yesterday afternoon. But the team was checked into its rooms at the Hilton Hawaiian Village by yesterday afternoon.
The team has a closed practice planned for today.
Airwaves: Former Tide and Oakland Raiders star quarterback Kenny Stabler will do radio for the Crimson Tide Sports Network. ... ESPN's "first string" is doing the game: Ron Franklin (play-by-play), Mike Gottfried (analyst) and Adrian Karsten (sidelines). ... Former Hawaii coach Dick Tomey will be the color analyst for Monarch Radio Sports, which has chosen Alabama-Hawaii as its national game of the week.
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With Montana State-Billings owning the second-longest basketball home winning streak in the nation, defending your home court is more important than ever to taking the Pacific West Conference title. Hawaii teams
staying homeBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comAnd the schedules of the four Hawaii schools prove it, as three of them will only go on one nonconference road trip while the other -- Hawaii Pacific -- will not play a single nonconference game out of the state.
Each school in the conference is required to make a trip to Billings, Mont., and Silver City, N.M. HPU figures that will be enough travel for its new group of guys.
The Sea Warriors will venture to Billings on Jan. 14 with 13 home games under their belt. According to HPU's schedule maker, it is all part of the plan.
"We wanted to stay home a lot," HPU coach and athletic director Russell Dung said. "With a new coach to get used to, we wanted to be successful early and hopefully build some momentum going into our conference trip. Plus we were fortunate to get all of these home games."
After the opening week it has certainly worked. Hawaii Pacific is 2-0 while BYUH and Hawaii-Hilo won their home openers. Only Chaminade got off to a bad start, losing to St. Mary's before heading off to Maui where it lost its usual three games to NCAA Div. I power houses.
Chaminade will make its road trip Dec. 19 for a pair of games in San Diego, Calif.
Hawaii-Hilo won't hit the road until Dec. 28, when it plays in the Cal State San Bernardino tournament. Chaminade spent the past week on Maui but will make its road trip Dec. 19 for a pair of games in San Diego.
Defending co-champion Brigham Young-Hawaii is the only program electing to test itself in a strange setting, heading to Bellingham, Wash., for the Chuck Randall Basketball Classic. The Seasiders will play Western Washington and St. Martin's before returning home for the month of December.
Even that has been pared down from last year, when the Seasiders made two nonconference trips to woo the regional selection committee.
BYUH coach Ken Wagner says he would prefer to go on the road more, but the 2-in-4 rule that was upheld last summer made scheduling harder. The Seasiders have only 22 games scheduled this season, eight fewer than the other three Hawaii schools.
"It may turn out to be a blessing," Wagner said. "Maybe we will be fresher in February and March."
Hawaii well represented: Brigham Young-Hawaii placed two players on the All-Pacific Region team this week, both of them freshmen.
Chun Yi Lin, the PacWest freshman of the year, made the team along with Yu Chuan Weng, who was voted the region's freshman of the year.
Susy Garbelotti of Hawaii Pacific and Kimberly Tano of Western New Mexico, who is from Kaneohe, also made the 12-member squad.
BYUH setter Kaala Lo made the list of honorable mentions.
Another honor for Kalabic: Although Chaminade and BYUH were ousted by Air Force in the Western Water Polo Association tournament last weekend, both were represented on the all-tournament team.
Vanja Kalabic made the first team despite being ejected from the deciding game after scoring a pair of goals. Freshman goalie Aleksandar Stankovic made honorable mention along with Jordan Brink despite also being ejected from the game.
Petar Samac made the second team for Chaminade.
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