By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

How many times have we seen Carl English, as even he puts it, "take crazy shots" at the basket and break some team's heart by somehow making them?

How many times, while he seemingly relied more on nerve and instinct than common sense or percentages, have we gasped as English coolly fired up shots off balance or without much of a look at the basket?

So, maybe, after three years, we shouldn't be too surprised by English's latest long shot — declaring for the NBA Draft before he has even exhausted his University of Hawai'i eligibility.

Or, that he had dyed his hair a new shade of yellow for the occasion of announcing it.

Convention — and not a few second opinions — maintain that English would be better served sticking around for his fifth and final year at UH (he had a medical redshirt in 1999-'00) instead of boldly knocking on the NBA's door now.

Circumstances suggest UH, which would then welcome back four starters and a proven bench for a much-anticipated "payoff" year, would be the better for their leading scorer's return, too.

Maybe it was best that head coach Riley Wallace — visiting family in Florida on the way to the Final Four — was 4,377 miles away.

For this is a considerable leap of faith, this jump from the Western Athletic Conference to the NBA while bypassing a "senior" year. One that history tells us no UH player has ever attempted, and too few WAC players have successfully negotiated.

For all his skills, English is not the polished, can't-miss pro prospect for whom an early draft declaration is a minimal gamble. Whether English even becomes the "late first or early second (round)" draft choice he yesterday said he believes he might be, remains to be seen.

But after 1,259 points and a scrapbook of memorable moments, there is no doubt that English has earned the right to find out if he chooses.

You just hope the counsel he's getting now is as wise as that which had brought him from Patrick's Cove, Newfoundland, Canada, to Hawai'i in the first place.

He has been a prime figure in a Rainbow revival and three of the best, most exciting years UH basketball has seen. And, at a time when too few basketball players everywhere are leaving school without anything to show for it, English is on track to graduate next month.

As long as he doesn't take on an agent and pulls his name from the draft hopper by June 19, English would even be eligible to return to UH. But he made that sound like a distant and wholly unlikely option. "This is my time," English said. "I'm confident I will be drafted."

Once more, you hope his boldness will be rewarded.