Rainbow Warriors go for early sweep on the road

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

University of Hawai'i guard Carl English scored 17 points in a 64-52 victory at Texas-El Paso on Thursday. Associated Press

Cars entering Boise along the I-84 highway are greeted by a larger-than-life billboard of the Boise State football team under the words: "Congatulations, Broncos. WAC Champions."

In some ways, that's fine with University of Hawai'i men's basketball coach Riley Wallace. His Rainbow Warriors — who are the defending WAC basketball champs — drove past the billboard yesterday upon arriving in Boise for a Western Athletic Conference game today at Boise State.

"If they get the (basketball) program winning again, the people will come out," Wallace said. "But they've been down the past couple years and so the crowds are smaller. That's better for us."

Today's game will be played in The Pavilion, a facility that seats 12,380. Through eight home games this season — at the same time the football Broncos were becoming a top 20 team — the basketball Broncos went 5-3 while averaging 3,659 fans per game.

"I have no problem with the people supporting the football team the way they did this year," first-year Boise State head coach Greg Graham said. "It helps us, it helps the whole athletic department. But football season is over, so we're hoping people start to pay attention to us."

In what Graham describes as "an experiment" to try to lure more fans to The Pavilion, today's game will start at 1 p.m. (10 a.m. Hawai'i time). As an assistant at Oregon the past five seasons, he said some of the largest crowds came out for weekend afternoon games.

"Maybe more families will come out and we can draw more people," Graham said. "Because when this place gets rolling, it's like an engine."

Wallace figured his team was being sold a lemon. The only two games scheduled to start at 1 p.m. on Boise State's schedule are Hawai'i and Louisiana Tech. Those teams happen to have the farthest distance to travel to Boise from among the WAC opponents.

"This is already one of the hardest trips in the conference as far as flying time, and by playing in the afternoon, you don't really have time to rest," Wallace said. "I don't like it."

Today will be Hawai'i's fifth game in nine days.

Less than 10 hours after winning the Rainbow Classic championship on Monday, Hawai'i embarked on a day-long flight to El Paso, Texas. Yesterday, the 'Bows flew from El Paso to Phoenix and then to Boise, an itinerary that took more than eight hours, counting drive time and layovers.

Never mind that they left 30-degree weather in El Paso for 20-degree weather in Boise.

"That's why wins on the road in this conference are so hard to get," Wallace said.

However, Wallace said he made it a point not to make the travel and today's early starting time an issue with his players.

"We're already here and we have to play it, so why let it get to their heads?" he said. "We can't let it bother us."

What's more, Wallace is secretly hoping that the "experiment" fails, making the crowd a non-factor.

Last season, the 'Bows opened the WAC road season with victories at Texas-El Paso and Boise State. Wallace said those victories ignited UH to the WAC title.

A victory today would give UH another sweep of the UTEP-Boise State trip (the 'Bows beat UTEP, 64-52, on Thursday).

"This is a place we feel like we have to win," Wallace said. "We did it last year, and it really got our season rolling."

Four starters return from that team, including senior captain Mark Campbell.

"It's not so much about the starting time," Campbell said. "We just have to focus on the game itself. Boise State's got a good team, so if we worry about other things, we'll get beat."

The Broncos are 7-4 and riding high after a last-second home victory over San Jose State on Thursday. Graham, however, said his team has been plagued by inconsistency.

"We haven't had a game where four or five players play well," he said. "It's always one or two. We're going to need four or five (today) because Hawai'i has two things going for them — they're big and they're good."

UH is 8-1 and has won six consecutive games — a start even better than last season. However, the 'Bows struggled against a depleted UTEP team that suited up only eight players on Thursday.

"It was just tough to get fired up for that game," Campbell said. "But in a way, it got us fired up for this game because we don't want another performance like that."