Posted on: Tuesday, March 12, 2002

UH can find solace in Xavier

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

DALLAS — Aretha Franklin, have we got a game for you.

For Hawai'i and Xavier, first-round opponents here Friday, this NCAA Tournament is, indeed, all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t.

Here are two teams that figure they have been overlooked, under-valued and just plain ignored by mainstream college men's basketball this season.

Though they exist nearly 4,500 miles apart, many of their frustrations are similar. And, so is the solution: Make some noise in the NCAA Tournament.

For here are two teams for whom the national rankings finally came with both great difficulty and tardiness. They are two schools whose network television appearances, despite their records, come as often as Dick Vitale loses his voice.

Hawai'i (27-5) is geographically challenged, 2,500 miles from its nearest Division I competition, shouting to be heard.

Xavier (25-5) only wishes it was that far from the shadow cast by perennial championship contender Cincinnati.

While UH and its league, the Western Athletic Conference, labor on the doorstep of the prestigious Pacific-10, Xavier also knows full well the uphill battle for attention languishing as it does in the Atlantic-10, which takes a backseat to the Big East.

UH, a No. 10 seed, had hoped for maybe a No. 7 seed like Xavier got. The Musketeers believed they should have been a No. 6. Instead both find themselves in the toughest regional, the West where few but their faithful give them much chance of getting very far.

One national oddsmaker has established UH's chances of winning the tournament at 5,000-to-1. It is 25-to-1 just to win the West.

UH, if it is known at all beyond the WAC, is noted for the curiosity of having a predominantly international team, not for how well this mini United Nations plays.

Xavier has its own frustrations. "Since Sept. 1, no one gave us a shot," Xavier center David West told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "We had a new coach. We lost too many players. We're not big enough. All that garbage. Even after the regular season, we heard from people who said we didn't have a shot in this tournament."

All of which serves to underline what their appearances here this week are really about.

For UH and Xavier, this NCAA Tournament is an opportunity to begin grabbing a piece of the national limelight once the CBS cameras go on.

Xavier was once on the verge of doing just that, getting as far as the Sweet 16 in 1990 under former UH assistant Pete Gillen.

But that was a long time ago and the Musketeers want back in. The Rainbows, tired of first-round losses, want to make their mark.

If only one of them can hang around long enough for Billy Packer to learn their names.

These are the eyes of March, where better to make a reputation?