"I’m really glad we’re not playing Hawai‘i ... they’re so dangerous right now.
— Jason Rabedeaux, UTEP basketball coach.
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
In his remarks the other day, Jason Rabedeaux could have been the valedictorian for the Western Athletic Conference men’s basketball coaches.
For as the conference tournament opens this week in Tulsa, the University of Hawai‘i is the team most everybody is wary of. Or, should be.
If this tournament were a parade, UH would be the hovering rain cloud. If this were a picnic, the Rainbows would be the marching ants.
While its record — 14-13 overall and 8-8 in the WAC — won’t scare anybody, the team that has made its way to Tulsa certainly should.
After injuries and ineligibility poked gaping holes in their lineup early on, the Rainbows are finally whole and playing together. They have won four of their last five games and even in the one loss, Saturday at UTEP, were playing like the team they were thought to be back in December. If not for lack of a point guard, the Rainbows might even be contenders.
All of which makes them the joker in this nine-card deck and the trap door in the tournament.
For, as Rabedeaux knows, it is in the Rainbows’ power to ruin a potentially good week for somebody by trashing postseason hopes.
The prize to the winner of this week’s tournament and, possibly to its runner-up, is an all-expenses paid trip to the NCAA Tournament. Consolation prize appearances in the National Invitation Tournament are also up for grabs.
Which makes this neither the time nor place to see the Rainbows warming up on the other end of the court.
The lone exception is the host Golden Hurricane. With 8,000 Reynolds Rowdies behind it, Tulsa is the one team capable of making UH feel every bit the visiting team 3,800 miles from home. Which, as a 1-9 road record this year tells us, is the Rainbows’ weak point.
But for everybody else, Reynolds Center is a neutral court. And with a week on the road already behind them, there are few adjustments for the Rainbows to make adapting to time or distance.
That can’t be a comforting thought for Texas Christian (20-10), the Rainbows’ opening-round opponent Thursday morning. It would be embarrassing for the Horned Frogs, of whom much was expected this season, to go out as a first-round victim of UH. TCU already absorbed one shellacking at the Rainbows’ hands last month.
Likewise Fresno State (24-5), which would find the Rainbows in its path if UH gets past TCU.
When the tournament opens, Fresno State will be the team to beat, Tulsa the team to watch and UH the one to avoid.
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