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Press Box Dave Reardon |
UH’s chances hinge
on Kuebler’s touchCUPID, it seems, was replaced by stupid. By St. Valentine's Day, everyone in Rainbowland had fallen out of love with Carl English, or at least forgotten all about him. Hawaii beat Southern Methodist on Feb. 14 and owned a gaudy 17-5 record. Meanwhile, the former darling of Rainbow basketball was toiling for some minor league outfit called the Lowgators, out of Charleston, S.C. They might as well have been based in English's native Newfoundland.
The talk then was that the Rainbows were possibly better off without English, and that it was a good thing for UH that he had left to go pro a year early. The theory was the 'Bows didn't need his 15 or 20 points a game at the expense of possible disruption of team chemistry. Not that English was a troublemaker, far from it. But some (no one attached to the program, though) ventured to guess he might not have fit in on this squad, that there might not have been enough minutes and basketballs to keep everyone happy.
Looking back now, doesn't that seem silly? It was nothing but over-analysis from an over-reactive segment of the Manoa not-so-faithful ... including some who were ready to jump off a ledge when English announced his ill-fated intention to cash in last year.
But with Michael Kuebler filling up the basket from long range like English and Predrag Savovic before him -- albeit in much quieter fashion -- the Rainbows, (on the surface, anyway) seemed to be on their way to The Dance.
Then UH went and lost five of its last seven regular-season games and is now two days from the start of a Western Athletic Conference tournament it must win to avoid the NIT. Can Hawaii fans honestly say they wouldn't want English or Savovic out there leading the way now?
That's not meant as a knock on Kuebler. He's a fine player, with grit and brains to match his considerable shooting skill. But the difference between this team and those of the previous three years is the shooting star always had a capable wing man in case he was off target. Savo had English. English had Kuebler.
Kuebler has Julian Sensley. The sophomore forward with the developing inside-outside game scored 24 the other night in the regular-season-ending loss to Fresno State and gets better all the time. While often spectacular, he is not yet dependable. Sensley might be better than them all before he's done, but right now he's still an apprentice, growing into his talent.
Despite his menacing appearance, Sensley, like the rest of the Rainbows, is usually mild-mannered. Savovic's amusing braggadocio and English's subtle swagger -- backed up by sterling performances more often than not by both -- is nowhere to be seen on this team. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. The coach's dream is a team of gentlemen who turn into junkyard dogs (who can run an offense) on the court; that's what coach Riley Wallace likes to think he has going.
For better or worse, Kuebler is the man this year. If you don't think the Rainbows live or die by his shooting, consider this: UH is 14-5 when he is the leading scorer and 5-6 when he is not.
There's nothing wrong with a quiet leader, unless he goes 1-for-10 from 3-point land, like the Rainbows' ace did the other night.
He is about as flamboyant as vanilla ice cream, but Kuebler has the capability of shooting the Rainbows into the field of 65. He could also misfire his team right into the NIT.
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