A lonely day at the
Sheriff Center

The Stan Sheriff Center is dark and everything is still. It's empty, and the air conditioning is off.

Hello?

Anybody?

Bueller?

I expected better attendance.

So much for the talk of Hawaii having the best college-volleyball atmosphere in the country. This place is dead.

You would think there isn't even a match here today.

I'm starting to think I have the wrong day. Let me read the NCAA volleyball bracket schedule here by the glow of my computer, and ... yes, there it is, first round, Dec. 2, 2 p.m., Hawaii time.

I'm here. I'm ready.

Turn on the lights.

Wait, I can't seem to shake the feeling that something is not quite right. I have done this before, come the wrong day, the wrong time. Happens all the time.

Let me check that schedule again.

Fort Collins, Colo.?

No, that's not right. Hawaii is the only undefeated team in the nation. Must be a typo.

I'll just stay here until the match starts.

Wait, I think I hear something ...

» Nah, nah, only joke. I did not write this column in an empty Stan Sheriff Center yesterday.

I would have, but I don't have a UH parking pass.

» The NCAA's head-scratching decision to send the only undefeated team on the road in a bracket based on home sites does bring to the surface a number of interesting questions.

"Are you people smoking crack?" for example.

» UH is doing everything short of giving away a toaster with each ticket purchased to fill the stands for Michigan State. Good that UH is making this kind of effort, sad that it has come to this. But after the last few home crowds, doing the discount thing is better than not doing it.

Gotta do something to raise this season's average attendance or that final number is going to be scary.

» Our friend Howard Schnellenberger is working under similar circumstances this week. His Florida Atlantic team has to attract more than 37,000 fans in its final home game in order to hit the average of 15,000 needed to move up from Division I-AA to Division I next season.

Schnellenberger has been in nonstop sell mode all week.

"To help fill the stands, FAU is offering students of any age and school free admission to Saturday's game with a school ID. There will be a million-dollar scramble, where five fans will be picked to grab as much money as they can in 60 seconds. The group Deep Side will sing the national anthem and perform at halftime," the South Florida Sun-Sentinel said.

Deep Side? If they're looking for people in the seats they should have gone with Jasmine Trias.

» Speaking of ticket sales, speaking of Jasmine, speaking of free-toaster offers, is Sheraton Hawaii Bowl executive director Jim Donovan giving the UH pregame locker room speech tomorrow night?

If Hawaii doesn't win the picture gets interesting. And not in a good way.

» Bold move by Boise State in accepting a Liberty Bowl bid to play Louisville. The Broncos could have been a little more cautious in going for an undefeated season. Instead they put everything in the pot, opting to face one of the most dangerous teams in the country. I don't know if it was the smartest course of action, but I admire their guts.

» Strange move by Fresno State in accepting an MPC Computers Bowl bid. Boise, Idaho, on Dec. 27. But it just goes to show I'm not the only one who thinks going to a guaranteed backyard bowl every year is not the best thing to do.

» A fan of Young Suk Ko's called yesterday with memories of the man who died on Thanksgiving Day. Young was athletic director at UH and a former director of the City and County's Department of Parks and Recreation. But he was remembered as a great athlete at McKinley in the late 1930s and for going off to play football at Minnesota in the Big Ten after the war. He had 16 grandchildren, and he was 83.

» No predictions on tonight's high school championship games. But with that green and yellow, Leilehua has the best uniforms in the state.

» One question left over from last week's state playoffs: If the Kamehameha Schools band runs its halftime show right up to the final second so the teams have to wait to take the field how is Lahainaluna penalized 5 yards for delay of game as the "home" team?

Not that I am still bitter.