---

Flying blind until
tourney time

WE couldn't see it. We have no idea what happened, really. It's like the old days, there was no television coverage. All we have is our mind's eye from the radio, those words in the paper, that great picture of UH's Jake Sottos denying a basket, crashing into Filiberto Rivera, his old friend.

All we have are the snippets from Hawaii's latest last-second loss. UTEP makes only three second-half field goals yet still wins? That doesn't sound good. Four losses by a combined seven points? Is that good or bad?

Late fouls at bad times?

Let's not even get into it.

And it's probably too early to say it, but four Western Athletic Conference losses really hurt -- Hawaii can't quite make out the conference leaders right now. That eight-ball is blocking the view.

But there was more. Highlights of Riley Wallace's postgame press conference made TV, and though you know how losses kill him, he didn't look like a man who was angry or depressed. Didn't sound like one.

He looked like a man who knows something.

Yeah, hopes for a regular-season WAC title may be as dim as sunset, but Wallace sees something, you can tell.

That's encouraging.

Hawaii has made its living in the WAC Tournament in the 2000s and this bunch might have the pieces for a run if it can just put them together at the right time.

That's what matters, and you have to think an effort like Thursday's shows signs it can happen again.

Losing by a point at UTEP is no shame, and everybody knows it. Coming that close, there, after so many mistakes, might have those who were in on it feeling a little better than those of us who only saw the score.

"We're close," Sottos told our Jason Kaneshiro that night by phone.

We'll have to take his word.

Back home, four WAC losses speak loudest of all.

But there is Sottos. Where did he come from? Twenty points. Perfect from the field.

Riley Wallace sees something in this team, you could tell.

With four games like this, the corner has to come. The worm has to turn eventually.

They're close. But as the snippets tell us, that's a two-edged sword.

Today they're at Boise State, no TV again. We won't see this one with our own eyes, either. We'll only have little clues to guide us, as we listen in for the radio broadcast and wait for the paper to tell us the score.

They're close. We know that much.

That can be a good thing.

But it isn't if it happens again today.