DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM The University of Hawaii Wahine volleyball team celebrates after winning its Nov. 13 senior night match against University of Nevada-Reno. UH begins play in the NCAA tournament at 2 p.m. tomorrow against Colorado at Fort Collins, Colo.

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Wahine fans give
NCAA an earful
after tourney snub

The Hawaii volleyball team skipped several stages of grief after learning its NCAA tournament fate Sunday. The Rainbow Wahine quickly went from shock and denial to acceptance as they prepared for tomorrow's match against Colorado at Fort Collins, Colo.

NCAA VOLLEYBALL At Fort Collins, Colo.: Tomorrow: No. 2 Hawaii (28-0) vs. Colorado (14-13), 2 p.m. HST; Purdue (16-14) at No. 9 Colorado State (26-3), 4:30 p.m. HST. Friday: Tomorrow's winners, 4 p.m. HST. TV: Both of tomorrow's matches and Friday's match live if Hawaii plays, KFVE (Ch. 5). Radio: Hawaii matches live, KKEA 1420-AM. Series: Hawaii leads Colorado 3-0; leads Colorado State 6-0; leads Purdue 2-0.

The ardent fans that make up Wahine Volleyball Nation have not moved on as quickly and seem content to remain in the anger stage after Hawaii was passed over as a host site for the tournament.

The NCAA selection committee members continue to receive e-mails, faxes and phone calls over what has been called everything from an injustice to grounds for a Title IX lawsuit over unequal travel treatment when compared to the men's Division I basketball tournament. The mass e-mailing was further fueled by the VolleyTalk.com Web site and a message on the board giving out the e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of the committee members.

The NCAA said it won't specifically address why Hawaii was not selected as a host site, but Sharon K. Cessna, the NCAA director of championships, began sending out a blanket statement to the "passionate volleyball fans" who have contacted the NCAA and committee members over their displeasure:

"The Division I Women's Volleyball committee has a set of guidelines and policies that must be observed when establishing the bracket and selecting the sites. There are also policies that have been established by the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet, which comprises representatives from a wide range of universities and athletic conferences, which must be applied to all Division I Championships.

"These policies include 1) that conference opponents will be separated in the first and second rounds; 2) the committee can only seed the top 16 teams and the remaining 48 teams must be placed in the bracket according to geographic location; and 3) the teams are placed in the bracket in a manner that creates the least number of flights and a team should not travel more than four time zones if possible."

"The make up of the (64 teams) and their geographic location impact the site selection. The degree of this impact will vary from year to year."

The impact, according to Hawaii coach Dave Shoji, will be devastating if what happened this year continues.

"I think they hurt our sport," Shoji, in his 30th year at UH, said. "They're treating our sport like they don't care. It would never happen in women's basketball what happened to us.

"It defies any kind of logic. They weren't consistent. There's no reason for a conspiracy theory (against Hawaii), but I'm not sure if there's enough volleyball people on that committee that have a clue."

The nine-member committee, which met at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis to determine the field, includes representatives from Nevada, Louisville, Toledo, Hartford, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Eastern Washington, Missouri and Appalachian State. With the exception of No. 19 Louisville and No. 24 Missouri, no school affiliated with a committee member is ranked; none of the nine schools has ever reached the final four.

Hawaii's bid to host the sub-regional guaranteed a profit of more than $100,000 for the NCAA. The Wahine have led the country in attendance the past 10 seasons, this year averaging 7,662.

Should Hawaii win this week, the team will return home Saturday and would fly back to Green Bay, Wis., on Tuesday night. The NCAA would then have spent more money on travel for UH than for any other team in the country.

"They could have made money here," Shoji said. "How many people are they going to get at Moby (Colorado State's arena)? How many will be at Yale?"

Ninth-ranked Colorado State has averaged 1,762 fans at home. Yale, making its first-ever tournament appearance, will host the sub-regional that includes fourth-seeded Minnesota, Rhode Island and Albany; the Bulldogs averaged 203 this year.

Ironically, the NCAASports.org Web site has chosen Hawaii sophomore setter Kanoe Kamana'o as its poster child, using the picture of the 2003 Freshman of the Year for its tournament selection story.

While Hawaii's sub-regional draw is arguably the toughest in the tournament, other coaches have complained as well. Before leaving for Colorado on Monday, Shoji said one of his phone calls came from Penn State coach Russ Rose, whose second-seeded Nittany Lions are in the Seattle region hosted by seventh-seeded Washington.

Shoji's daughter Cobey, an assistant at Stanford, is headed to Florida A&M, where the 11th-seeded Cardinal have potential match-ups with unseeded Florida and sixth-seeded Texas. The winner of that sub-regional will join that of Hawaii's sub-regional in Green Bay next week.

The AVCA Coaches Convention will be held in conjunction with the Dec. 16 and 18 final four in Long Beach. The hottest topic, which supposedly was decided last year in Dallas, will be the push to allow seeded teams to host the first and second rounds.

Shoji said that while his players have moved on, his anger likely would last a few more weeks. Just in time for the coaches convention.