Turning magic into madness

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

Until this year you could have counted on one hand — and still had a digit left over — the number of times both of this state's Division I college basketball teams have waded into the postseason in the same year.

Which is what makes all that has transpired on the court this month even more remarkable for the University of Hawai'i.

Given where the Rainbows and Wahine were just three weeks ago, who could have foreseen the madness of this March would be unlike any other on record here? Or, that it would last past St. Patrick's Day and well into the month?

Yet there was UH pulling surprises out of its pockets and wins out of nowhere on a regular basis. The only thing predictable about the Rainbows and Wahine, a Western Athletic Conference official observed, was their unpredictability when the postseason lights went on.

It is a run made more memorable by the way the teams went about it. Not with an abundance of stars or an overwhelming amount of talent, but with a triumph of teamwork and spirit.

It was almost a tag team effort, the Rainbows' roll seeming to inspire the Wahine to their own heights.

The last time the Rainbows and Wahine did a double-team on the postseason, 1997-'98, there were stars everywhere: Anthony Carter and Alika Smith for the Rainbows, and Nani Cockett for the Wahine.

This time, they found different ones to suit the occasions. The most memorable basket of the season, the shot heard 'round the WAC was, in fact, one by a redshirt freshman, Carl English, during the WAC Tournament in Tulsa. Another freshman, April Atuaia, hit some of the biggest free throws in the Women's National Invitation Tournament under the gun against Oklahoma State.

The Rainbows, their lineup in transition almost to the end of the regular season, were underdogs in their final four games and won three of them. Thanks to a late departure from its roster, the Wahine entered the postseason with more questions than when they ended the regular season.

But little seemed to bother them in the forging of collective wills that made it possible for the Rainbows to go dancing in the NCAA and the Wahine to advance so deep into the WNIT.

As good as this postseason has been, there were hints along the way that the future won't be bad, either. That what we warmed to late in this season could become the rule rather than the exception.

Both teams return most of their starting lineups along with a good portion of their reserves. Both have started to fill in the pukas with a promising start toward recruiting.

Hopefully, come this point next year, a doubling up of March success by UH basketball teams will be a given rather than a surprise.