MINNEAPOLIS >> The college basketball experience is more than layups, rebounds and bounce passes. Rainbows’ intrigue
outweighs fatigueBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comFor Hawaii, the 2002-03 season has been marked by long stretches away from home and has given them a taste of Americana a lot of folks don't get in a lifetime.
"It's a cultural experience, there's no question about that," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "Especially the foreign kids, they really want to see those things.
"It's the travel, the people you meet, the education, the basketball, the competition, the fans, it all fits in."
The last month has been a grind for the team and coaches. Between trips to the Western Athletic Conference tournament and the National Invitation Tournament, the Rainbows slept in their own beds for one night out of the last 15. Since a road trip to Kent State in late February, they've been home for a total of seven days.
"Being together this long, it tells us more about each other," UH sophomore Nkeruwem Akpan said. "It's been a long road trip so the guys are there to hold it together.'"
Going into today's game against Minnesota, the team was 5-3 during that span, but the wins and losses are only part of what they'll remember about this late-season run.
There was the bitter cold of the Tulsa plains, a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the bright lights of Las Vegas.
Yesterday, the Rainbows visited the Mall of America in Minneapolis, the nation's largest shopping center.
"Seeing all the stuff you see on TV is kind of exciting," Akpan said. "You call all your friends and say, 'Remember this we saw on TV, now I'm there.' "
Wallace said the travel experience the players have had over their careers, particularly those from foreign countries, has helped alleviate some of the potential problems that might arise with keeping a team on the road.
"They've been away from home a long time ago so they're used to it," Wallace said. "We've had more trouble when we had a lot of U.S. kids who hadn't traveled and weren't used to doing it."
Of course, being away from home this long can take a toll on a squad's collective grade-point average. But the study habits of this year's squad have spared Wallace academic headaches for the most part.
"We've got good students, so they can make it up," Wallace said. "They just can't miss classes when they go home."
Same paths: Disappointment is often the precursor to playing in the NIT and finding motivation to play can be a team's biggest challenge.
Both Hawaii and Minnesota had designs on playing in the NCAA Tournament when the season began, but faltered during the season and found themselves in the NIT.
For UH, struggles on the road during the regular season kept them from their goal. For Minnesota, it was a five-game losing streak to end the Big Ten season.
Neither was favored to win their first-round games, but turned their disappointment into motivation. UH defeated a UNLV team that missed out on the NCAA by one point, while Minnesota won at St. Louis.
"They were disappointed they didn't go to the NCAA Tournament and a lot of teams use that as an attitude of, 'we don't care,' and don't play hard," Minnesota coach Dan Monson said. "Our guys didn't do that. They wanted to atone for how they ended in the Big Ten and prove that they were a better team than that."
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