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Press Box Dave Reardon |
Is UH bigger and
badder than road?ACCORDING to conventional wisdom, the road will tell all when it comes to this season's edition of the University of Hawaii basketball team. That unfolds tonight, with the Rainbow Warriors playing at pesky San Jose State.
But shouldn't we have some kind of read on this team by now, considering coach Riley Wallace's crew is 12 games and nearly two months into its season?
What we saw last Saturday and Monday at the Sheriff Center doesn't help. It has us scratching our collective heads.
Not since Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in "48 Hrs." has a team gone from this terrible to this terrific in two days.
Nobody even pretends to know what to expect next.
"This team will fool you," Wallace said during the Rainbow Classic.
On Saturday, Fresno State pounded Hawaii to a pulp with two starters tied behind its back. It's one thing to lose. It's much worse to be totally dominated by a visiting team at barely half strength (not to mention by a program the hometown fans love to hate).
The Rainbows are billed as "Bigger and Badder" this season. On this night, they were indeed badder than at any time at home we can remember over the past four years.
Any five of the Rainbow Dancers could've retrieved more rebounds than the "Bigger and Badder" guys did.
But then came the inexplicable turnaround on Monday when UH thumped Nevada, the favorite to win the conference championship. The 'Bows did it with hustle, scraping themselves with so many floor burns they're talking about replacing the court with FieldTurf.
The Rainbows looked again like the team that won 24 games in a row at the Sheriff Center from 2001 to 2003.
But can they keep the magic going on the road?
ONE TOO-EASY answer is this team will go as far as Michael Kuebler's 3-point shooting will take it. The offense is indeed overly dependent on the baby-faced assassin. Against Fresno he was miserable. Against Nevada he was unstoppable.
But UH has to be able to weather a bad night once in a while from Kuebler (and there will be some on the road, where unfamiliar shooting backgrounds are often a gunner's nemesis).
In past years, the Rainbows won many games in which Savo's salvos were off target or Carl used the wrong English.
The two-headed point-guard situation is also less than ideal, but don't forget UH got to The Dance in 2001 without a licensed chauffeur to drive the limo. Remember David Hilton and Ricky Terrell? Mike McIntyre and English had to take over the point.
Rebounding and defense from the frontline are the constants that got UH to the postseason the last three years in a row.
Seniors Phil Martin and Haim Shimonovich have been there every time, and talented sophomore Julian Sensley has done everything to show he's willing to follow the right path.
Fans are losing their patience with Shimonovich's foul trouble. The Rainbows need Haim, and will lose games without his big body in the middle.
"This team's got the physical ability to go out and be tough on a given night with anybody," Wallace said.
Real toughness is consistency, and this bunch of Rainbows hasn't developed that yet.
UH showed in its first two WAC home games that it must be ready to play if it expects to win. Wherever the game is.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii from 1977 to 1998,
moved to the the Gainesville Sun, then returned to
the Star-Bulletin in Jan. 2000.
E-mail him at dreardon@starbulletin.com