By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
DAYTON, Ohio — The stage for the Big Dance isn’t always what it seems.
The University of Hawai‘i men’s basketball team left the cold, drab land of Tulsa, Okla., only to arrive in the cold, drab land of Ohio yesterday.
The Rainbows are here for the NCAA Tournament, where they will play Syracuse in a first-round game on Friday around 5 p.m. (HST). Hawai‘i was the first team to arrive among the eight in the Midwest sub-regional to be played at the University of Dayton Arena this week.
"It’s kind of dry and kind of lame, to be honest," Hawai‘i freshman forward Phil Martin said. "Actually, it’s kind of like Tulsa."
Which would be perfect, as far as Rainbows’ coach Riley Wallace is concerned.
Last week, Hawai‘i also arrived in Tulsa early to get acclimated to the time zone and surroundings. As a result, the Rainbows went on to win three games in three days to take the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship and the automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
"I want to try and get (the schedule) as close as we can (to last week)," Wallace said. "Just to stay focused."
There seem to be few distractions here, or at least none the Rainbows could find yesterday. Not that they had the time.
Minutes after checking in to a Holiday Inn yesterday afternoon after a four-hour flight, Wallace instructed the team to prepare for practice. The Rainbows took a 45-minute drive in 40-degree weather to Wright State University, where they went through an "intense" two-hour workout at Nutter Arena.
"That just shows we came to work," guard Carl English said. "I think it’s good that we worked hard even though we were all tired from the flight and everything."
On the rides to and from the arena, the team scanned the horizon with seemingly nothing to obstruct their upset-minded sights.
"This is the NCAA Tournament, (so) I was thinking big-time cities, bright lights, sightseeing," Martin said. "But man, this is like, nothing. I feel like we’re secluded."
He and his teammates will have to get used to the feeling.
Full-court press
Wallace said yesterday he will have all incoming calls to the players’ rooms blocked by hotel operators. Yesterday alone, Wallace received 15 telephone requests for player interviews, which he turned down.
"I warned them about all these distractions from the press," Wallace said. "I want to try and keep them away from it."
Wallace said he would allow the players to be interviewed before and after practices this week, but not through telephone calls to the hotel.
"That’s perfect for me," said English, who was the Most Valuable Player of the WAC Tournament. "It’ll be nice and quiet and we can focus on basketball."
Instead, Wallace is dealing with most of the media inquiries himself. During yesterday’s bus rides, he spent the entire time on his cellular phone. By midnight, he realized he had not eaten all day and ordered a pizza delivered to his room.
"The Holiday Inn’s fine," he said when asked about his opening impressions of Dayton. "That’s all I’ve seen."
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