While it remains to be seen if the University of Hawai‘i can win the Western Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament crown, the Rainbows have already clinched the title of Mr. Congeniality.
For the Rainbows were the life of the party and the toast of the WAC yesterday. More than a few longnecks were raised in their honor.
Funny what a 20-point quarterfinal round victory over Texas Christian will do.
Amazing what good cheer was engendered by sending Billy Tubbs out of the WAC with a swift 99-79 early-round kick in the shorts.
The Rainbows did the kicking but it was a victory that a lot of others vicariously shared in. From Houston to Honolulu this was the feel-good win of the year in the WAC.
After four years of Billyball, that run-up-the-score Tubbs trademark, few bothered to even try to stifle smiles of satisfaction when Billy the Bully got his. After TCU’s nose-in-the-air notice of departure, there was a palpable don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out feeling to this one.
The only disappointments among the Reynolds Center crowd were that the margin, in a game the Rainbows led by as much as 28, wasn’t more and the Rainbows didn’t break into the 100s doing it.
For the Rainbows, whose two most lopsided defeats in 22 years of WAC membership came at Tubbs’ hands, this was still satisfying payback. After six losses in eight previous games by an average of 22 points, this was the Rainbows’ idea of a most appropriate parting gift.
"It really is (sweet)," Riley Wallace, the UH coach, acknowledged afterward. "It is a good sendoff."
The Horned Frogs will go to Conference USA next year, though there has been speculation whether Tubbs will accompany them. A first-round tournament exit, nearly identical losses to UH, a team he had beaten by 39 points back in January, and discipline problems are enough to make you wonder.
But the Rainbows have other, more important, things on their mind at the moment. The No. 25-ranked Fresno State Bulldogs, for one.
Today’s semifinal with Fresno State reprises their WAC semifinal matchup of last year, which the Rainbows lost in double overtime.
To have a chance against FSU, it would help if the Rainbows could replicate what they did against TCU. History tells us that while the Bulldogs are the conference’s most talented team they are far from its most focused.
So if the Rainbows can manage to do what they did at home last month and get out to a quick lead and hold on for a while, they’ll have more than a puncher’s chance.
Do that and Mr. Congeniality might not be the only title they come home with.
