Hawaii had it all
except ‘the’ man

So, it turns out, definitively, this is not the year for Rainbow Warriors basketball. I was wrong. There was no run.

"If you have to go out early and you have to go home, Hawaii is not a bad place to go!" -- Dave Bollwinkel, TV guy

It's over.

This season was a second half of frustration.

Home for March's biggest holiday. Pau early for the first time in five years.

(NIT? Not likely. It would be a March miracle. But at least this would certainly be a year where the NIT would be a cause for celebration, not dissatisfaction.)

This season ended in frustration. It ended with a game summed up by a stolen inbounds pass that led to an emphatic dunk.

Like so much of this season's skid it was baffling, foiling, thwarting, confounding, defeating.

After a second half with so much frustration, the season ended on a kick in the gut.

Maybe it's unfair to be disappointed in a winning season. Maybe we shouldn't grumble about a year that will feel good on banquet night, with more wins than losses, with big games against good teams that are still dancing as we speak. This is a team that gave us so many exciting nights at the Stan Sheriff Center. An 8-0 start that, improbably, made us all believe something special was going on.

On banquet night, this will have been a nice season -- so many memories, so much great effort.

On paper, as the years go by, this 16-13 mark will look pretty good.

Now, as Paul Reiser would say, not so much.

Today there is frustration foremost, disappointment first.

Maybe it's unfair to be disappointed after a year like this. Maybe this was just as good as these guys are.

In so many games, they were a whisker away.

And nobody expected that much from this bunch, before that 8-0 start, with so many spots to fill. So many question marks.

But Riley Wallace has raised the bar, making the postseason the past four years. He's raised it, and now anything less gives an entire state a case of the coughs.

Maybe that's unfair. Maybe this team was a year away the whole time.

But we expect more now.

Yesterday, Bollwinkel -- my favorite TV sportscaster, on name alone -- said the Rainbows needed to play within themselves. I don't know. I think maybe too many of them played a little too within themselves too many times all year long.

That's the grumbling and the mumbling -- that nobody is willing to bust out, to put the team on his back and grab the game by the throat and be the proverbial guy you want with you in that proverbial foxhole.

Julian Sensley is fond of saying he plays within the offense, that this is a team without stars. He's right. It was a team without a star. And that's probably what the difference was in losing games by 1, 3, 2, 1, 4, 1, 6 and 6 points.

Think about it. Who has dared to step beyond himself? Matt Gibson, who, yes, can be out of control and all over the place, but at least he provides a spark. His passion was probably part of what put UH over the top in a couple of those close wins. Jake Sottos, who could have been content as a spot-up outside shooter, but who went hard to the hoop, had all-around game, showed toughness. But his hot streak abandoned him as the season drew to a close.

And Bobby Nash, who stepped up and took big shots with the game on the line, and made them, and who always came glowering, seething with tough-guy fervor every time he was on the floor.

Wallace's system works best when he has a stallion, someone to run and set the team's pace. Carl English loved being the man, yeah, he was pretty good. And Michael Kuebler had a nice senior season in the role.

But UH hasn't had a true stallion since Savo.

And I think Nash has that in him. I really do.

I think Nash may be the next one.

He doesn't have to be the scorer. But he needs to be the stallion.

If he can do it, if they can find one -- next year the 'Bows might have another one of those runs. There are pieces coming back. Oh, how there are pieces, which is another reason why this season's disappointment was tough to take.

Yes, this is a "wait until next year" ending after all. It's only too bad that after the way this one ended there are people out there who won't mind the wait.