UH teams are double trouble in Tulsa
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Sports Columnist
The thermometer was on the way to a frosty 34 degrees and the forecast was for thunderstorms last night.
In Tulsa, Okla., 3,836 miles — and more than 35 degrees — from their Manoa campus, the University of Hawai'i basketball teams were making themselves comfortable in what has become their postseason home away from home, thank you.
If this is early March, then the UH teams have standing reservations in the finals of the Williams Western Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament. For the second consecutive year, championship Saturday in the Reynolds Center will be a UH doubleheader.
After only one previous season (1994) in which both teams were in conference championship games at the same time, albeit at different sites since the men were in the WAC and women in the Big West at the time, they have found synergy in the self-described "Oil Capital of the World."
In Tulsa, it is again two for the show: the Wahine in the women's championship game against Louisiana Tech at 9 a.m. (Hawai'i time) and the Rainbows in the men's title game at 4 p.m.
"In the end of the first week of March, this is where you want to be," said Wahine coach Vince Goo. "Because if you're still here, it means you've done something right."
And, through the sixth night for the women and seventh for the men, the fact they are still in Tulsa suggests they both have done a lot right.
The men, at 26-5 are, for all intents and purposes, in next week's NCAA Tournament no matter what happens against the host Golden Hurricane. The Wahine, at 23-6, deserve to be there, too, regardless of what happens against the eighth-ranked Techsters.
These are two teams on a roll, the Wahine winners of six in a row and the men having won six of their past seven. It isn't just that these are two teams putting it together at the most opportune of times, but the impressive manner in which they are putting their opponents away.
Indeed, yesterday's games were all but over at halftime, the Wahine up by 18; the Rainbows by 12 after leading by as much as 16.
There were the Wahine winning their game, 59-36, over nemesis Rice with suffocating defense, the likes of which the Owls had not seen this season. Rice, which had twice beaten UH this season, was held to 21.7 percent shooting — and just 5.6 percent from 3-point range. Not until the final 50 seconds did Rice land a 3-pointer.
Meanwhile, the men blew Nevada away, 90-68, with their most accomplished 3-point shooting (12-of-21 for 57 percent) of the season.
Deeper into March Madness we go, these two teams are adding exclamation points to what has become a banner school year in UH sports.
