FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii guard Logan Lee drove against Nebraska's Charles Richardson during Monday night's game.
Rainbows in elite
company among
NIT’s final 8Hawaii takes on Michigan today
in the tourney semifinals with a trip
to New York on the line
The Hawaii basketball team can take a look around today and find itself among some of the elite names in the college basketball world.
The Rainbow Warriors face Michigan of the Big Ten in a National Invitation Tournament quarterfinal game today with a trip to New York at stake. Big East power Notre Dame is on the same side of the bracket while Marquette, a Final Four participant last year, also remains alive in the tournament.
Schools that had already been bounced from the field entering today's play include Virginia, Purdue, Oklahoma and Colorado.
"If you look at the NIT field this year it's unbelievable," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "(There are) just some really great college basketball teams that are in the NIT this year. So it's really nice to be in the final eight."
The Rainbows, one of 24 teams still playing this week, left Honolulu late Monday night bound for Michigan but with their sights fixed on extending the trip another week and heading to New York for the final rounds of the tournament.
But before they can start thinking about playing at New York's famed Madison Square Garden, the Rainbows (21-11) must first get through Michigan's storied Crisler Arena today.
The game is set for 4:05 p.m. (Hawaii time) and will be televised on ESPN2. The winner of today's game advances to an NIT semifinal game on March 30 at MSG.
"I think for all of us it's a childhood dream to play at Michigan," UH forward Julian Sensley said. "We'll all be excited and it's just a step away from New York."
Hawaii last made it to New York in 1974 when the NIT was a 16-team tournament. Since becoming a 32-team affair in 1980, UH has advanced to the quarterfinals twice, 1990 and 1998, and lost both times. The field was expanded to 40 in 2002.
Wallace said the Rainbows, who arrived in Ann Arbor yesterday afternoon, will have to avoid letting the travel take the spring out of their legs heading into just the second basketball game between the schools and UH's first in the state of Michigan.
"I think we're used to it," UH forward Jeff Blackett said of the travel. "We've traveled so much already, it doesn't make a difference."
The Wolverines (20-11) drew 11,241 fans to Crisler Arena for its 63-52 second-round win over Oklahoma on Monday. But the UH players have grown accustomed to performing before packed houses during their travels this season.
The Rainbows nearly knocked off nationally ranked Southern Illinois in front of a roaring crowd in Carbondale, Ill., earlier this season and opened their NIT run by silencing 8,976 Utah State fans with an 85-74 win in Logan, Utah, last week.
UH then rode the energy of a sell-out crowd at the Stan Sheriff Center on Monday in winning an 84-83 thriller over Nebraska, which earned them a ticket to Ann Arbor.
"We're looking forward to it," Blackett said of dealing with the Michigan crowd. "Any energy is good energy."
The Rainbows enter today's game shooting 62 percent from the field in their two NIT wins. Blackett and point guard Jason Carter have led the surge by combining to make 27 of 34 field-goal attempts in UH's last two games. Carter is 9-for-11 from 3-point range.
The fans have returned to Crisler Arena in Tommy Amaker's third season as head coach as the Wolverines earned a postseason invitation for the first time since 2000 after a period of scandals and sanctions that included the school vacating its 1997 NIT title.
Michigan is 15-3 at home this season and will have played at home in all three NIT games. The Wolverines are 9-0 all-time in home games in the NIT.
"It is really a nice atmosphere," Amaker said after Michigan's win over Oklahoma. "Our players are talking about it. I am hoping that maybe this can be a springboard for the program in the future. If we can continue to do our job on the floor, I think good things will happen for us in that regard."
The Wolverines reached the late rounds of the NIT led by the play of senior Bernard Robinson Jr. (12.1 points per game) and sophomore Dion Harris (12 ppg).
With Boise State losing to Marquette 66-53 in an NIT second-round game yesterday, UH is one of two Western Athletic Conference teams still in action entering today's play. WAC champion Nevada faces Georgia Tech in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 tomorrow in St. Louis.
