No love lost between Hawai'i, Long Beach

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

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MOUNTAIN PACIFIC SPORTS FEDERATION PLAYOFFS Tonight No. 7 Long Beach State (13-7, 9-13) at No. 2 Hawai'i (20-7, 17-5) No. 8 Cal State-Northridge (13-15, 8-14) at No. 1 Pepperdine (25-4, 20-2) No. 6 UC Santa Barbara (17-10, 12-10) at No. 3 UCLA (25-6, 17-5) No. 5 Stanford (16-9. 15-7) at No. 4 Brigham Young (22-6, 16-6) Thursday (At highest remaining seed) 1 and 8 seed winner vs. 5 and 4 winner 3 and 6 winner vs. 2 and 7 winner April 27 Championship match

Tonight's playoff match between host Hawai'i and Long Beach State has two:

Yo' mama ... : Internet polls have shown the Warriors and the 49ers are the league's biggest trash talkers. There's a simple explanation: They don't like each other.

"They act like they've got something against us," said 49er middle blocker David Lee, who was shown on a K5 telecast making a throat-slashing gesture during the last meeting in February. "That sparked us."

"They talk trash really well," said UH middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic, of Serbia. "I really don't like them as a team. I don't think they have much manners."

UH outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, of Greece, predicted, "We're going to win."

But Lee, of California, responded: "They're going to definitely worry about us. We won't roll over."

In February, the 49ers won in four games on the first night, then the Warriors swept in the rematch. Both teams traded insults — in several languages — during the series.

"Costas and Miladinovic are the worst," Lee said. "The other guys are pretty cool. Costas says a few things in Greek, and I don't know what Miladinovic says half the time. We say stuff, and they're right back at us. It makes the game more interesting."

UH coach Mike Wilton said he was unaware of some of the public comments his players made against the 49ers. But Wilton noted: "We've shown if we lose interest it can be dangerous. Whatever piques our interest is good."

Not ready for pine time: In the last three weeks, UH middle blocker Brian Nordberg and outside hitter Jose Delgado have gone from being starters to reserves.

Wilton said both are valued. Delgado, a freshman from Puerto Rico, can play the three outside positions, and Nordberg, a transfer from UC Santa Barbara, is the top backup to Miladinovic and freshman Delano Thomas.

"We've been trying to get these guys to understand no matter what your role is, you have to be ready," Wilton said. "If you're a serving specialist like JoJo (Geronimo Chala) or Jake (Muise), you have to be ready. Right now Brian would be the guy to bring in to give us some fire. Jose is our wildcard. He can help us at several spots."

Wilton said the moves were forced because of the 6-foot-7 Thomas' emergence as an intimidating blocker and Delgado's prolonged hitting slump.