[ RAINBOW BASKETBALL ]
’Bows finally
get to restTired Hawaii players return
from their season-ending loss
The Hawaii basketball team returned to the Manoa campus yesterday just in time to catch the tail end of spring break, and Michael Kuebler already had plans for the few vacation hours he had left.
"I'm going to go to sleep right now," the UH guard said after the team bus pulled in behind the Stan Sheriff Center yesterday afternoon. "From here to when school starts I'll be in bed."
The Rainbow Warriors ended their whirlwind tour through the National Invitation Tournament on Wednesday with an 88-73 quarterfinal loss at Michigan.
So instead of hanging out on the East Coast a few more days before heading to New York for next week's NIT semifinals, the team left Detroit on an 8 a.m. flight to Atlanta yesterday, then spent nine more hours on a plane before finally landing in Honolulu at close to 5 p.m.
The lengthy return flight capped a season in which the team covered more than 45,000 air miles, the bulk coming in the last six weeks.
"This is the most traveling I think we've ever done," said senior forward Phil Martin, a veteran of more than a few prolonged road trips over his four years at UH. "It would just stack up and stack up. It's no excuse, but it can definitely wear a team out just hopping back and forth all the time."
Hawaii closed the season at 21-12 and went 7-9 in games away from the Sheriff Center this season.
The Rainbows opened NIT play by traveling to remote Logan, Utah, where they defeated No. 25 Utah State on March 17. They then flew back to Honolulu and ended a four-day stay at home with an 84-83 win over Nebraska. Less than 24 hours after defeating the Cornhuskers, the team was in Ann Arbor, Mich., for Wednesday's nationally televised quarterfinal game.
After one practice and a pregame shootaround, the Rainbows played the Wolverines close for a half, but couldn't answer when Michigan's running game kicked in after halftime.
"They just ran out of gas," UH coach Riley Wallace said. "The first half we competed, we were there, but mentally and physically we weren't as sharp as we've been. You had a tired team playing a rested team.
"They had a great crowd, a hostile environment and a fresh bunch of guys. We were exhausted, but I thought we played hard."
Kuebler, who scored a game-high 19 points against the Wolverines, said the short preparation time was an even bigger obstacle than the distance the team covered.
"More than anything only having a day to prepare was the thing that hurt us the most," he said. "The travel is going to take its toll on us, but we've learned to accept that. It's tough, but there's nothing you can do."
The loss ended the UH careers of five UH seniors -- Kuebler, Martin, Jason Carter, Paul Jesinskis and Haim Shimonovich.
Michigan, which played the first three rounds of the NIT at home, earned a spot in the semifinals by beating UH and will face Oregon on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. Iowa State plays Rutgers in the other semifinal.
Despite ending the season one win short of New York, the Rainbows returned home with a positive outlook on their postseason experience.
"It was a good run," Martin said. "We made it pretty far in the tournament, so everybody can keep their heads up and be happy about it. There's nothing to look down upon, we had a good season."
