As I write this—or, perhaps a few hours later as you read it—Jim Donovan should be talking to his bosses, getting them to sign off on the toughest move he may ever have to make as University of Hawaii athletic director. “;Move,”; not “;decision”; because the decision itself is easy.

How do you tell a legend he's no longer wanted?

Well, if I'm Donovan, and it's obvious I have to relieve UH basketball icon Bob Nash of his duties as coach, I get my superiors on board. Call it chicken-bleep if you want, but it's smart. Yes, it's Donovan's job to hold the closed-door meeting that ends with a man who gave 31 years to the program getting his walking papers. But that doesn't mean he can't do the opposite of delegate and elevate a bit.

Now, when Donovan talks to Virginia Hinshaw and M.R.C. Greenwood about Nash, he may have to convince the Manoa chancellor and UH president that it makes sense to swallow some or all of Nash's $240,000 salary for his final contracted year—without Nash running the Rainbows.

And that might not be easy. If there's anything college administrators don't like more than three losing seasons in a row, it's paying two coaches at the same time.

With the athletic department already cash-strapped, the obvious question from Hinshaw and Greenwood to Donovan is, “;How can you afford to do it?”;

Donovan's answer is a simple question. “;How can we afford NOT to do it?”;

If UH were to keep Nash on, attendance revenue would not get better. It would get worse.

Forget about no wins on the road in his third season as head coach, which was bad enough. The Rainbows often appeared listless and underachieving at home, too, frittering away one of the biggest homecourt advantages in college basketball. Maybe opponents shot so well at the Sheriff Center because they felt at home with the lack of warm bodies creating a meat-locker chill.

Or maybe because UH just refused to defend the perimeter.

There's a common misconception about 3-pointers, especially in college ... and that is that you have to be a great shooter to make them. It's actually not difficult, especially when you're open. UH left all kinds of guys open all season. Once again, it was the difference in yesterday's season-ending loss at Idaho that was probably Nash's last game.

The way teams move the ball inside-out, it takes effort to defend against the 3-pointer—effort the Rainbows apparently didn't feel like expending. Kind of like how they often failed to get back on defense.

Sometimes this year they were like a pickup team without a coach, playing hard when they felt like it. Too often, they looked like a bunch of guys at the park, except stuck in a stale offense.

Some might say they exhibited class by consistently ignoring mounting criticism. Maybe it didn't get to them that Artie Wilson, a former UH player who loves the program, basically called them a bunch of wimps on the radio Friday. But if the Rainbows did hear about it (and a good coach would make sure they did), their reaction was the same as always.

Nothing. Just another loss.

If he's done, as most of us expect, I'll miss Bob Nash the man and the legend. I won't miss the college head coach.

Reach Star-Bulletin sports columnist Dave Reardon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), his “;Quick Reads”; blog at starbulletin.com, and twitter.com/davereardon.