Volleyball slammed by penny pinchers

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

Fly to Seattle, connect to Spokane, then ... Or, fly to Portland, then connect to Moscow/Pullman ...

University of Hawai'i volleyball coach Dave Shoji was mulling the question of how best to get to Pullman, Wash., the site of the Wahine's opening-round NCAA tournament match Friday.

But a bigger question should be: Why?

As in why are the Wahine headed to Pullman in the first place?

UH (27-5), a No. 9 seed, the 11th-ranked team in the country, traveling to play on the home floor of an unseeded, unranked, not even also-receiving-votes, Washington State (17-11) team?

Has Hawai'i's 32-match regular season and 35,000 miles of travel already meant next to nothing for playoff purposes?

Similarly, some of the other pairings announced yesterday would seem to further underline the curiosity of it all: National champion and No. 2-ranked Nebraska playing at the home of 18th-ranked Kansas State; fifth-ranked Southern Cal traveling to unranked Duke.

And, yes, we heard, the NCAA, which is throwing this 64-team party, says it is due to "safety concerns" stemming from the events of Sept. 11th. The NCAA says it has instituted new travel guidelines and it is safer to have UH and teams like it hit the road rather than send three schools to the Stan Sheriff Center or other points this week.

But, when the NCAA says it is looking out for the concerns of the athletes, there are natural grounds for suspicion, if not outright disbelief.

"Safety," as Pacific coach Jayne McHugh flatly declared before yesterday's pairings were announced, "is not the issue."

You could, as Shoji said speculation among his fraternity has it, "see this as a policy to minimize financial losses."

Dealing with the NCAA has taught coaches to read between the lines and inspect the margins. The one they are pointing their finger at is the profit margin. Volleyball doesn't bring in much so the theory is the folks in Indianapolis are using the opportunity to save a few shekels.

For as Shoji puts it, "where is all this concern about football and basketball teams traveling?" Indeed, the next football team that doesn't want to travel a couple time zones to a bowl because of safety concerns will be the first one.

Between the tournaments in Hilo, Lahaina and Honolulu last week, there were almost 20 visiting basketball teams here. If there was a widespread concern about travel, it sure didn't keep many people close to home.

If the NCAA had been honest and said, look, times are tough and we have more pressing needs like enriching the director's bonus and maintaining first-class travel for committee members, well, those reasons we could have understood.