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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
NIT has been good
to the Rainbows
You've GOT 2 have the kaho'ne's of you-know-who (hint: he climbed a very tall building in New York), 2 make a "Bald-faced" prediction (NIT-basketball) like you did. Predicting -- no, guaranteeing -- that UH would take-out the Aggies of Utah State was just laughable 2 me. Just laughable. (What are you, the "second-coming" of Joe Namath?) I'm on my knees begging your 4giveness, O Karnack.Since you're obviously on a roll ... might you indulge me?
Should I sell my InClone stock now?
Will we (as humans) ever inhabit Mars?
Will a meteorite the size of Dick Vitale's head hit our planet? ... & lastly ...
When will that voluptuous blonde answer my e-mail?
(signed) Star-Bulletin reader
UT I was wrong.
Oh, OK, I was right. (It's never going to happen again, so I'll take the credit when I can get it.)
But if you go back and read that column, what I was saying was that Utah State was put in an impossible situation, that Utah State would lose.
And instead, Hawaii won.
There's a difference.
And maybe this NIT thing isn't so bad after all.
It's easy to be cynical about the NIT, and I have been, many times.
And I've come to believe that the NIT is all about context. The team, the year, where a school is and how it got there and in which direction it is headed. Sometimes, going to the NIT is a great thing. Other times, as Paul Reiser would say, not so much. (Last year? Not so much.)
Riley Wallace will remind you that the "other" tournament has been very good to Hawaii through the years.
In 2004, the NIT was bad, very bad, for Utah State. But for Hawaii ...
It gave the Rainbows their 20th win (and their first on the road against a ranked team). It brought them home again one last time.
That Utah State game and this tournament have delivered what Wallace and his guys have been hoping for all year. It made the state fall in love with this team.
On Monday night, more than 9,000 people are going to be in the stands, and it's going to be insane.
That's my prediction for this week. In this game, insanity is a lock.
» Big move, by Oceanic's OC16, in beaming that Utah State game back to the state. I know I appreciated it. (But guys, for Monday, it's "Rainbows.")
I will be the first to tell you that Jim Leahey is the best in the business, and I love his broadcasts of UH games. His voice is a part of UH lore.
But the OC16 broadcast showed, if nothing else, that someone besides KFVE did a Hawaii game and the world didn't end.
As an OC16 guy told me, a little competition now and then can be a good thing.
And I guess a guy who works at the Star-Bulletin can't argue with that.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com