After 11 days on the road, the Hawaii basketball team got a rare day off yesterday before starting preparations for this week's homestand. 'Bows happy to be home
By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comThe Rainbows lost three games on the trip and are 11-5 overall and 4-4 in the Western Athletic Conference going into games with Rice on Thursday and Tulsa on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Despite the losses, with the way teams are beating up on each other in conference play, UH coach said his team still has a shot at a high finish in the WAC.
"There's a lot more parity," Wallace said. "We still have a chance. Normally you lose three in a row on the road you're out."
The Rainbows are sixth in the WAC standings. Fresno State has pulled away a bit at 8-1 and is the only team in the conference with fewer than three losses. Nevada is second at 5-3, followed by Rice, Tulsa and SMU at 4-3.
Although the Rainbows are in the midst of their first three-game skid in two seasons, Wallace expects them to recover emotionally for this week's games.
"They'll be OK," Wallace said. "They love it at home, they'll be back."
The UH athletic department is asking fans to wear white for Saturday's game against Tulsa.
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Hawaii's Haim Shimonovich grabbed a rebound in front of Nevada's Matt Ochs in Reno, Nev., on Saturday.
The department last held a "white-out" for last year's Tulsa game, which the Rainbows won 86-85 before a sellout crowd at the Stan Sheriff Center.
While the Rainbows slipped in the conference standings last week, they saw their home-court winning streak rise to fourth in the country.
Hawaii has won 22 consecutive home games dating back to December 2001 and trails only Oklahoma (32 games), Western Kentucky (25) and Marquette (25). The Rainbows have also won 19 straight WAC games at home.
Brigham Young (44), Alabama (25) and Kansas (25) had their home winning streaks snapped Saturday.
Writers from Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine are in town to research feature stories on UH guard Carl English.
The Sports Illustrated feature is slated to run in early February. It is believed to be the first SI feature on a UH athlete since was spotlighted in 1979.
The Rainbows did appear in the magazine last season for a short story on the team's international flavor.
SMU swingman Quinton Ross was named the WAC Player of the Week yesterday.
Ross claimed the honor for the second time this season after averaging 26 points and 6.5 rebounds in the Mustangs' road wins over Rice and Tulsa. The senior scored 27 points in the win over Rice and hit for 25 against Tulsa.
English was UH's nominee for the award.
The matchups for the Feb. 22 Bracket Busters event will be announced Sunday on ESPN2.
The pairings for the 18-team event will be revealed on College Hoops Tonight at 6:30 p.m. Hawaii has been designated a road team for its game. UC Santa Barbara and No. 16 Creighton have been rumored to be possible opponents for the Rainbows.
Arnold Martinez is Moanalua's new football coach, school principal Darrel Galera said yesterday. Martinez to coach Moanalua football
By Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.comMartinez is an athletic director and teacher at James Hogan High School in Vallejo, Calif., and he and his family had plans to move to Hawaii before he was hired.
"We had a number of applicants and he was the one who best met our criteria," Galera said. "We were looking for someone with a sound philosophy, someone who takes a student-centered approach.
"He uses a thoughtful process to organize a program and we believe he has the necessary leadership qualities."
Martinez, 32, replaces Jose Guevera at the helm. The Menehunes went 1-6 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference last fall.
"The previous coaching staff was committed and dedicated," Galera said. "We evaluate all of our programs each year and we thought it was time to take a new direction."
In 2000, the Menehunes football team went through a controversy involving varsity players who allegedly took personal belongings from junior varsity players and then made the JV players pay to get the items back.
"That was three years ago and we addressed it immediately," Galera said. "Some of the parents thought the coaches were telling the varsity players to extort money from the JV players. But of course not.
"It's hard to be a coach in high school sports today. They work seven days a week, don't get paid much, and to say they're not appreciated is just not appropriate."
Martinez also teaches physical education at Solano Community College, and he has held head football coaching jobs for Solano and Hogan.
"He has had many and varied experiences in football and athletics and a strong background as a defensive coordinator," Galera said.
