Sidelines
Don’t stick a fork
in these ’Bows just yetTHIS is how they leave us. This is how we see them off, our last image before they departed into the cold, dark, cruel world, flying out in the middle of the night on another Rainbow road swing.
That. Staying alive. Escaping tragedy. That sound you heard when Carl English found the bottom of the net wasn't a swish. It was the sound of The Fork being turned aside for at least another night.
Let's not go overboard. Good finish. Nice end result. What they are today is Not Done. Not yet.
This was not a spectacular game, no spectacular win. This is no longer a spectacular team. You've known that for some time now.
The NCAA is farther off than a Cinderella dream again, the NIT not even a guarantee, the Bracket Buster has been rendered meaningless, these guys have been swept by San Jose State. It's been ugly, at times, and that included last night.
But no, they are Not Done. Somehow. Barely.
English took a jump shot, and it fell, and Hawaii won.
Fresher legs?
"My legs were fine the last time," he insisted. "The ball bounced wrong for me, that's all."
But he was rested. The nightmare was averted. And for the first half, this is the team we all expected, 10 deep with alley-oop dunks. Vaidotas Peciukas that same blank look on his face, but this time it was a disingenuous poker face, disguising expert passes. To JC Carter on that spectacular stuff, JC pumping his fists before he could hit the ground: This was what he had been waiting for. This was what this team was to have been about. Then, Peciukas snagging a wild rebound on his way out of bounds, zipping a Larry Bird look over his shoulder to a cutting Michael Kuebler for an easy layup.
Where has this been?
Oh, Riley Wallace has told us there was no depth, not the kind he wanted or needed or had expected before this season began.
And yet here was the on-paper lineup, delivering, giving Rainbow fans a feeling of what should have been, what just might be.
This season is why you push for contract extensions. This is why coaches want ink on paper, because you just never know what is going to happen. It's why we say we love sports. It's why Wallace often looks like his head is going to explode.
Carl English has proved to be a good scorer, a confident, likable star. But he can't carry a team. Not this one, not now. Mark Campbell has been the same steady, hard-working Mark Campbell. Last year, that was enough.
Could you have seen this year coming, out of this group?
Could you have seen this ending coming, out of this game?
"You have that fear in you, in your mind," Wallace said of the final minutes, "that something's going to happen to these kids that's going to destroy them."
It didn't.
Last night, Campbell went to the basket, took shots, made them. Last night, English made plays that mattered. Steals, rebounds, and at last, the last shot.
It was close, too close. But no fork. Not yet.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com