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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, March 11, 2002

Wahine not happy with WNIT again

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Essentially, what the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship committee told the Western Athletic Conference yesterday was winning is everything. Unless you're playing against a WAC team, when it means almost nothing.

The players were all disappointed, said coach Vince Goo.

Advertiser library photo • Jan. 26, 2002

The University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine were left off the committee's at-large invitation list for the fourth consecutive year. They will play in the Women's NIT for the third straight year, opening at Oregon State (16-14) Thursday in Corvallis, Ore.

"The players are very disappointed," UH coach Vince Goo said. "For me, this is probably the most disappointing non-selection ever.

"This team, more than the 28-4 team (1993) even, accomplished more with what they had. They exceeded expectations more than any other team ... When I told them Saturday they needed to battle Louisiana Tech close, they looked at me and said we're going to battle to win. That's why it's so disappointing to me."

Eighth-ranked Louisiana Tech, which earned the WAC's automatic berth with a 53-50 victory over UH Saturday in the tournament championship, is the only WAC entry in the 64-team tournament. Even the Lady Techsters (25-4), who have been in every NCAA Tournament and eight national championship games, couldn't rise above the poor perception of the WAC.

Karena Greeny said she wants to take out the frustration.

Advertiser library photo • Feb. 28, 2002

They were seeded fifth in the East and will not play host to first- and second-round games for the first time in a decade, and only the third time overall, a slight the analysts on yesterday's selection show blamed on their "weak conference."

"They are calling us one of the worst conferences in the nation," said Lisa Vad Thorner, the WAC's Senior Woman Administrator. "It was a total slap in the face.

"I think it's a travesty. We all thought bringing in Louisiana Tech would benefit the league. They listed Hawai'i as a bubble team, but what more can a team do? It finished tied for second, lost by three in the conference championship and blew out Rice. What more can anybody do?"

Win, and play more winning teams.

The Rainbow Wahine (23-7) did not defeat a team in the NCAA Tournament. Two of their losses came against Rice, which was No. 47 in CollegeRPI.com's power rating yesterday and also was not among the 33 at-large teams. The other five losses came against Stanford (7 RPI), Baylor (8) and — three times — Tech (18).

Hawai'i was No. 45 yesterday, falling four after taking Tech to the final minute in Tulsa Saturday. The women's committee, unlike the men's, does not make its power ratings public. For the third straight year, UH was named as a bubble team during the selection show, along with Georgia (24), Syracuse (42), Miami (79) and Washington (84). Georgia and Syracuse got in.

"If Louisiana Tech was going to go regardless, why did we even bother to have a tournament," said senior Karena Greeny, who was particularly upset the West Coast Conference got two teams in. "We're just disappointed. All I can think about now is going to the NIT and beating the crap out of somebody to take the frustration out. For myself, this is it. Hopefully in the next three years my teammates will get a chance to go."

During the show and a conference call, "strength of schedule" was the most widely repeated phrase. In that area the WAC apparently failed. Tech and Rice had a strength of schedule rated in the 70s and Hawai'i was 109, according to CollegeRPI.com yesterday. Those ratings plummeted as the conference season went on, with no other WAC team having an RPI that rated double digits. In December, UH's strength of schedule was top 20.

"That part has nothing to do with us," said Goo, who predicted his team's exclusion Saturday night on an "expect-the-worst" hunch. "When it comes to conference, we gotta play who we gotta play. We beat everybody we were supposed to. Maybe we should have split with Rice, but we had no control over how good the other teams in our conference were."

A series of conference tournament upsets, most notably in the Pac-10, Big Ten and Mountain West, clearly hurt Hawai'i's chances. Ironically the Mountain West — which split from the WAC three years ago — placed four teams in the NCAA Tournament.

But upsets and surprises happen every year. Lately, leaving out the Rainbow Wahine has also become a pattern. This year, they were coming off their finest weekend, blasting Rice, 59-36, in Friday's semifinal and going to the buzzer with Louisiana Tech. They were 8-2 in their last 10 games, one of the criteria the committee said it uses.

"All the conference can do is get better," Vad said. "Our lower tier has to raise its RPI and compete at a higher level.

"I feel bad for the kids and for Vince. Hopefully it's something that can be addressed, but I don't know what more we can do. We send stuff to the committee every week, inundate them with paper."

Hawai'i has been to five NCAA tournaments, the last in 1998. It advanced to the final four of the WNIT last year. Oregon State lost to Brigham Young in the first round. The Cougars then came to Hawai'i and lost in overtime.

Connecticut and Oklahoma, who received No. 1 NCAA seeds yesterday, will both play in Hawai'i next season.