NCAA bid all cinched up for UH
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
Afterward, when all the final high fives had been exchanged, University of Hawai'i forward Carl English termed yesterday's 71-56 quarterfinal round Western Athletic Conference Tournament victory over San Jose State "another step on the road to victory."
Actually, it was a lot more than that.
This one was the big step, one that had the look of an NCAA clincher for the Rainbows, no matter what happens the rest of the way in the conference tournament.
Now, even if the Rainbows don't repeat as WAC champions by winning the tournament title and the automatic berth that goes with it, this was the win that should have put them over the top and into next week's NCAA Tournament.
As sure as guard Mark Campbell's scoring yesterday — and who would have ever thought we'd be saying that about somebody who belied his 3.7 points per game average with a career-high 17-point performance — the Rainbows should be NCAA Tournament-bound.
The only questions should be: Where and at what seed?
If there is a magic number to the machinations that go into the NCAA selection process, then the Rainbows hit it with their 25th victory against five losses. In 39 previous seasons of WAC men's basketball, no conference team that has won 25 games or more by Selection Sunday has failed to find a way into the Big Dance.
Most have done it by winning the conference. But lacking that, the NCAA selection committee has not turned its back on a WAC team with 25 victories that didn't get the automatic qualifier.
And it would be hard to see how they could do otherwise with these Rainbows. Key criteria, we're told, are a team's record over the final 10 games and their showing against Top 50 and Top 100 teams in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). All of which paint a bright picture for UH.
At this point, the Rainbows are 8-2 and assured of no worse than 7-3. What's more, they have followed the only perfect conference home season in their history with a 9-4 record away from the Stan Sheriff Center. They are 4-0 against Top 50 RPI teams and 6-2 against Top 100 opponents
Those are the kind of results, including "quality" wins over Wisconsin, Georgia and Tulsa, that even buff up what was an otherwise drooping non-conference schedule and an otherwise shaky RPI figure of 34 that go with it.
All of which could have given the committee a reason to take a more skeptical look if San Jose had somehow sprung another upset yesterday.
The Spartans, aka Team Airball, at 10-22 clearly aren't anything to write home about. But getting this victory was important because the Spartans were the last "trap door" to be avoided on the path to the tournament, the final team that could have derailed the Rainbows.
