If you prefer reality-series-quality drama to the repetitive instruction of basketball fundamentals, practice is a little boring now. Not a whole lot of yelling and screaming, no talking back at all. No one getting kicked out, no one earning the bad-boy badge of a suspension—not yet, anyway.

This coach doesn't shove his star shooter away from the water cups, telling him team refreshments are for “;guys who played defense today.”; But you know effort and lack of it is duly noted and will be reflected in minutes played when Hawaii opens tonight against USF.

Watchful eyes abound, and not just those of the official coaches. Who wants to be found wanting by The Alumni Board—professors of hoopology emeritus Shepherd, White and Whitlock?

And assistants Larry Farmer, Eran Ganot and Jackson Wheeler relay the orders from the top, so Bob Nash doesn't have to say much. But his presence is felt. This is undeniably his room.

Even more than the three recent former players, Nash—the fabbest of the Fabulous Five nearly 40 years ago—represents the heart and soul of UH basketball.

And in case you were wondering, it's still Rainbows. I will always remember what Nash told me when they changed the name of the football team and a few other squads nearly a decade ago, to Warriors.

“;I'll die a Rainbow.”;

That simple line captured two of the man's dominant characteristics: wry sense of humor and unabashed loyalty.

Yes, Riley Wallace's longtime No. 2 could have tired of waiting for this job and probably become a head coach somewhere else by now. But he knew this is where he wanted to live and raise his family.

He wants to help this batch of 'Bows spawn the same magic he, Davis, Freeman, Holiday and Penebacker generated in the '70s with more game and flavor in Hawaii jerseys than ever before—and some might even say since.

“;A community adopted us. We're trying to bring that feeling back for these guys, that pride that was brought to this state, love for the people here and the university,”; Nash says.

These days, winning one game in the NIT and then a first-round loss in the NCAAs the next year might be considered failure. But it was landing on the moon and then Mars for the 'Bows of '71 and '72, because it was unprecedented, just like going to the Sugar Bowl. And it was the journey that mattered most, not what happened at the destination.

It's what Nash wants to duplicate.

“;We're taking steps with higher profile coaches and recruits and reconnecting with former players,”; he says. “;When you win at the University of Hawaii, you win for the entire state. There aren't too many places where you can say that.

“;I know the reward if you get there.”;

Nash, the coach, has had his mulligan year. And the way college basketball is now you don't get much more time, even if you are the program's iconic figure.

But for Nash, the man, the Hawaii honeymoon will never end.