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From graduate assistant to the leading man, Nash puts preparation into practice

STORY SUMMARY »

For 26 years, Bob Nash has been a fixture on the sideline for the Hawaii basketball team while serving as an assistant under three head coaches. Now it's his turn to move to the head chair as he takes command of the Rainbow Warrior program. He makes his head coaching debut tonight when the Rainbows open the season against San Diego at the Stan Sheriff Center.

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Final in a series

BOB Nash's ascent to his new position may not be the start of a new era so much as the next step in a career devoted to the growth of the Hawaii basketball program.

Bob Nash Age 57 Birthplace Winterville, Ga. High School Hartford (Conn.) Public College San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College, AA, 1970; University of Hawaii, BA, 1984. Family Wife, Domelynne; daughter, Erika; son, Bobby. Playing career San Jacinto JC (1969-70), Hawaii (1971-72) Detroit Pistons (1972-74), San Diego Conquistadors (1974-75), Alvik Basketball, Sweden (1975-77), Kansas City Kings (1978). Coaching career Hawaii, graduate assistant (1981-83), assistant coach (1984-87), associate coach 1987-2007), head coach (present).

More than 26 years, Nash worked his way up from graduate assistant to assistant coach to associate coach, all the while preparing for that day when he might be in command of a program.

With some 766 games on the bench behind him, Nash finally gets to put that preparation to practice tonight when he enters the Stan Sheriff Center for his first game as the Rainbow Warriors head coach.

Although his debut against San Diego marks the program's first change in leadership in two decades, Nash hasn't allowed himself much time to dwell on the significance of the moment or the butterflies that might start fluttering as tip-off approaches.

"All I'm thinking about is trying to get these guys ready for them to go out and play," Nash said. "All I have to do is sit over there and try to game-manage and I think I'll be in pretty good shape with that. I want to make sure they're ready to go. If they're ready to go then they take a lot of stress off of me.

"The only thing I'm going to do is work my butt off and have our players work as hard as they can. ... We're going to be prepared. I think when you're not prepared you have stress and all that other stuff."

A walking time capsule of the program's history, Nash was introduced as the basketball team's 18th head coach and successor to Riley Wallace on April 13.

Nash's association with the school began in 1970 as a member of the Fabulous Five teams that produced the program's first NIT and NCAA appearances. He's been involved in all but one of UH's 12 postseason berths as a player and coach, experiencing the program's heights and depths along the way.

"It's a great honor to be a Division I coach and to be able to coach at my alma mater, to represent this state, to represent this program, that's a big deal and I take it very seriously and I'm honored to have this position," he said.

"I started out as a part-time guy making very little money at this game and worked my way through the ranks. ... It took a little bit longer, but I'm happy where I am. I've always loved Hawaii and the thing that's most important to me is doing something you love."

After playing professionally in the NBA, the ABA and Sweden, Nash returned to Hawaii to complete his degree in education and rejoined the basketball program as a graduate assistant under Larry Little in 1981.

Little eventually promoted him to assistant coach and Frank Arnold retained him on the staff when he took over in 1985.

UH Coaching Debuts How past UH coaches fared in their opening games and how they finished the season: Red Rocha, 1963 Opener Beat Alumni, 71-59 Final record 8-11 Bruce O'Neil, 1973 Opener Beat South Alabama, 82-69 Final record 19-9, NIT Larry Little, 1976 Opener Lost to Oregon State, 91-76 Final record 9-18 Frank Arnold, 1985 Opener Beat Cal State Fullerton, 79-76 Final record 4-24, 1-15 WAC Riley Wallace, 1987 Opener Lost at Vanderbilt, 91-62 Final record 4-25, 2-14 WAC

When Wallace was hired in 1987, his first act was to keep Nash on as associate coach -- a title he would hold for the next 20 years. As Wallace -- who will be in attendance at tonight's game -- watched Nash progress in his role, he began grooming him for a future in the top job.

"Especially the last three or four years," Wallace said. "I knew it wasn't going to be that much longer for me and I started to give him more responsibilities and he more than fulfilled those responsibilities. ... Bob did a lot more on-court coaching and I think he's more than prepared to do the job."

Nash's debut won't be quite as daunting as Wallace's back-to-back road games at Vanderbilt and Kentucky to open the 1987-88 campaign, and the former coach knows what his successor will likely going through in the hours leading up to tip-off.

"I'm sure everything's going through his mind for that opening game, 'Did I cover everything?' " Wallace said. "You don't want to forget anything and you want to make sure you have something prepared for anything they throw at you."

Although he spent the last four weeks of practice implementing his ideas, many of the Rainbows' halfcourt sets will be familiar to seasoned observers of the program as he's retained elements of Wallace's motion offense in the system.

"I think it would be doing a disservice to those seven guys returning because they've spent a lot of time in Coach Wallace's system. And to just abandon the whole thing just to have a new system probably wouldn't be fair," he said. "I think we need to keep what we think is good, tweak some things we like about it."

A staunch believer in the power of preparation, among Nash's first acts was to take the team on a four-day retreat to Schofield Barracks in August where the players got a glimpse of the attention to detail required in military life.

"It gave us a chance to realize how they don't leave anything to chance, they're prepared for every single facet," said Bobby Nash, a senior forward and the coach's son. "It carries on to how we approach the game and how we approach practice."

Bobby said the job change hasn't changed his father's off-court demeanor, outside of perhaps amplifying an already strong work ethic.

"He's a workaholic," he said. "He puts in the long hours, the long nights. Sometimes when I come home he'll be in the office and he'll just be looking at game films, looking at the other teams, or reading books."

As Nash prepares his team for tonight's game, he's also readying himself for his new game-night responsibilities. As an assistant, he would regularly whip energy into the arena when the Rainbows needed a defensive stand by waving his towel.

Now as the head coach, he knows he'll have more on his mind.

"I'm an excitable guy, but I also have to realize that things are going on on the floor that I have to maintain," Nash said.

"When you're sitting on the other side you can be emotional because you're just throwing ideas at the head coach and he's got to read into what you're saying to him. Now those are the things that are coming to me and I've got be able to make quick decisions."

So can fans still expect to see the towel?

"With the way the NCAA is mandating bench decorum, I may have to scale back," he said. "But you never know."

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UH Men's Basketball Roster No. Name Pos.   Ht.   Wt.   Cl.   Hometown 0 Kareem Nitoto G 6-2 185 Fr. San Leandro, Calif. 2 Matt Gibson G 6-5 180 Sr. Oklahoma City 3 Gary Satterwhite G 6-3 175 Fr. Honolulu 10 Conrad Fitzgerald G/F 6-5 210 Fr. Woodland Hills, Calif. 12 Ji Xiang* F 6-10 240 Fr. Zhengzhou, Henan, China 20 Jared Dillinger G/F 6-5 200 Sr. Littleton, Colo. 21 Paul Campbell F 6-10 215 So. Toronto 22 Riley Luettgerodt G/F 6-5 210 Sr. Gladstone, Ore. 24 Adhar Mayen F 6-8 195 So. Pflugerville, Texas 30 P.J. Owsley F 6-8 250 Sr. Bozeman, Mont. 32 Beau Albrechtson G 6-4 205 Fr. Honolulu 33 Bobby Nash G/F 6-6 200 Sr. Honolulu 35 Stephen Verwers C 6-11 250 Sr. Weatherford, Texas 41 Bill Amis F 6-9 220 So. Oklahoma City 50 Alex Veit F 6-8 225 Sr. Salem, Ore. * Injured, will redshirt Head coach: Bob Nash (first year) Associate coach: Jackson Wheeler (18th year) Assistant coaches: Larry Farmer (first year), Eran Ganot (first year) Director of Operations: Tim Shepherd Student Assistant: Tes Whitlock Team Managers: Dean Kramp, Vivian Lin, Olivia Schubert Trainer: Lyn Nakagawa Strength coach: Steve Englehart

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