McIntyre has got 'em doing the hop

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

They've got this new dance at the University of Hawai'i, call it the McIntyre Hop.

It goes like this: guard Mike McIntyre comes off the bench, pops in a 3-point shot — or several — and his teammates on the Rainbow basketball team start hopping up and down.

The way McIntyre is going — and he's made good on 14 of the last 22 from the 3-point arc — he might soon have the Stan Sheriff Center doing it, too.

For sure last night the way he came off the bench to hit four of seven 3-point shots, including four of his first five and inspire the Rainbows past Boise State, 67-56, he had the 6,014 on hand rockin' and the Broncos rolling to a fifth consecutive loss.

"When he does that, when he hits those shots, it gets me real excited and I just start jumping," said Phil Martin. "It just kinda happens. A few of us do it."

"I looked around and Phil, Haim (Shimonovich) and those guys are all hopping," said McIntyre of his 14-point night.

Until McIntyre entered the game with 12:04 left in the first half and UH trailing 12-11, the Rainbows would have struggled to hit the broad side of Diamond Head.

Through 5-of-17 shooting, including three muffed lay-ins, it sounded like a day at the Honolulu Iron Works and the Rainbows' exasperated body language didn't portend a turnaround anytime soon.

Enter McIntyre, who looked like he just stepped off the plane from Tulsa and the road trip where he had zeroed in from 3-point range.

"During warmups and the (announcement) of the starting lineups, people were telling me, 'congratulations' and 'way to go (WAC player of the week),'" McIntyre said. "It was hard, but I just tried to put my head down and concentrate on the game."

Not that it was easy when coach Riley Wallace summoned him into the game and the crowd's ringing applause hinted at the expectations awaiting him.

When McIntyre missed his first shot, Boise State coach Rod Jensen said, "The little voice in the back of your head goes, 'Maybe he's not going to shoot it like he's been shooting it.'

"Well," Jensen admitted afterward, "that was the wrong thing to think because the next couple of minutes he shot it as well as anybody in the conference could shoot it."

Boise forward Kenney Gainous said, "We had just talked about him and what he did to us back in Boise and, 'Oh, my God, he makes like four straight. The next thing you know the crowd and their whole team are emotionally into it."

Doing the McIntyre Hop.