Rainbows hitting Two days or two weeks or somewhere in between.
the road again
UH has one goal as it heads
to Las Vegas --a trip to
Madison Square GardenBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comThe Hawaii men's basketball team hasn't a clue how long this, its final road trip of the season, will last. The Rainbows (18-11) could be one-and-done by midnight tomorrow if they lose to host UNLV (21-10) in the first-round game of the National Invitation Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center (7 p.m. HST).
They also could be looking at their first trip to Madison Square Garden since the 1974 NIT semifinal loss to Purdue. This year's NIT semifinals are scheduled for April 1 with the championship the next day.
When: Tomorrow, 7 p.m. Hawaii time Hawaii at UNLV
Where: Thomas & Mack Center
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 1420-AM
"New York City, baby!" UH junior Phil Martin shouted to assistant coach Bob Burke before the pair boarded the team bus early yesterday afternoon.
"It's annoying that we just got off the plane (Sunday) and have to turn around and go back," Martin said. "It would have made things a lot easier if we could have stayed (on the mainland).
"But we're packed and ready to go. We have a plan and the plan is Madison Square Garden."
Burke, a native New Yorker, said he already had the restaurant picked out for the team's first meal.
"Nunzio's on Staten Island, we'll take the ferry," said Burke, who played in the Garden once during his high school career.
Hawaii will be taking a lot of plane rides before that can happen. First was the trip to Las Vegas yesterday afternoon, some 22 hours after coming back from Tulsa and the Western Athletic Conference tournament.
Should the Rainbows win, the next game would be either March 24 or 25 at the home site of tomorrow's Minnesota-Saint Louis first-round winner. The quarterfinals are scheduled for March 26-28.
The way UH coach Riley Wallace sees it, the NIT selection committee set up the schedule with the scenario that UNLV would beat Hawaii and Saint Louis would beat Minnesota. That would send the Runnin' Rebels, with second-year coach Charlie Spoonhour, back to face Spoonhour's former team in St. Louis.
The NIT is famous for scheduling so that the tournament continues to move east and closer to New York. Had Hawaii won its NIT game in 1997, the Rainbows would have played at Arkansas.
Instead, Hawaii lost at UNLV, 89-80 in overtime, after Anthony Carter went out with an injury.
"We were ahead when AC got hurt," Wallace recalled. "They were ahead when he came back and we couldn't do it.
"I am disappointed that we aren't at home. If I had known that, we would have stayed on the mainland (Sunday) and saved a lot of wear and tear. But I'm happy that we're playing somewhere."
By coming back to Oahu, the Rainbows had a chance to do laundry, repack and make some classes yesterday morning. But Hawaii hasn't had a chance to practice since its shoot-around prior to Friday's game with Tulsa and won't have a practice until today.
"I don't know how good the rest will be," said junior Haim Shimonovich, whose right ankle is still sore from a sprain suffered on Feb. 27. "Traveling back and forth is hard, but it's what we have to do. Who knows when we'll be back."
Senior guard Mark Campbell walked out of the Stan Sheriff Center locker room for the last time as a Rainbow player. This will be the final road trip of his collegiate career, as well as that of senior walk-ons Lance Takaki and Ryne Holliday.
"We've had our farewells and now we're moving on to postseason," said Campbell. "Going to the WAC tournament could have easily been our last trip. It's kind of cool, not knowing when you'll be back. Like last year, when we could have been gone for a month.
"Hopefully, we won't be back to the islands for a long time."
There has been much discussion that this could be junior Carl English's last road trip as well. The guard, who needs just four 3-pointers to set a single-season UH record of 87, has spoken about going pro if the situation is right.
"We'll talk about it later," English said yesterday. "Right now, the plan is to be gone for a couple of weeks. At this time of the season, you strive to be playing for as long as you can because, once you're done, the season is over."
Besides ending the season against UNLV in 1997, Hawaii also was upset by the Runnin' Rebels in the 1998 WAC tournament, resulting in the Rainbows going to the NIT for a second straight year.
But at least Hawaii is still playing, which is more than can be said for WAC member Rice. Despite a 19-10 record, the Owls are sitting home in Houston.
"From what I was first told, Rice was supposed to go to Texas Tech and we and Nevada were supposed to host," said Wallace. "Instead, they dumped Rice and dumped on the WAC completely. It's too bad because the WAC has been very good to the NIT. Rice deserved to be in.
"We would have sold out if they had brought Vegas here. I think Vegas' crowd will be down and a lot of the crowd will be Hawaii fans."
Wallace said he didn't know much about the Runnin' Rebels other than they lost the Mountain West title game to Colorado State 63-62, and they have two good guards in Marcus Banks and Jermaine Lewis, and an excellent center in JK Edwards.
"Everybody says we can beat them if we're on, if we come to play and if we have our legs," said Wallace. "I told the team that the Garden is where we want to go. It's not good to go to the NIT (over the NCAAs), but it's good to win."
This is Wallace's first trip to Las Vegas since he underwent a craniotomy there in September to remove two subdural hematomas. The 61-year-old coach said he's feeling better than he has in years and that he has been taken off his heart medications.
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