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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, January 14, 2003

UH guard making name for himself

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

T he jig is up and the cat is out of the bag and Michael Kuebler, the University of Hawai'i basketball team's best-kept secret, is a secret no longer.

Not around the Western Athletic Conference, anyway. Not after what he's done this week in helping shoot the Rainbows Warriors to a share of the conference lead with a 29-point performance in last night's resounding 88-77 victory over Fresno State.

If teams didn't get the message before WAC play started — and the available evidence suggests they didn't — then the word figures to be out now, from Honolulu to Houston and Ruston, La., to Reno.

"He can light it up," marveled Ray Lopes, the Fresno State coach.

Let us count the ways:

10-of-15 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 behind the 3-point line. Nine points in the final 2 minutes, 48 seconds of the first half and four more in the first 53 seconds of the second half.

This knowledge was learned the hard way by the Bulldogs last night. "For whatever reason, we left him open too much," Lopes said. "Him getting six 3s was not something that was expected. Not at all," Lopes said.

Another night, another Rainbow victory. And another convert made.

UH coach Riley Wallace knows what they were probably thinking, because he wondered some of the same things himself early on.

"He (Kuebler) can be easy to overlook," Wallace acknowledged. "Michael looks like the All-American kid. He doesn't look that special or that tough when you first look at him. But when you've been around him a while you understand how tough he is, how smart he is and just how much he wants to win."

So when the Bulldogs first laid unsuspecting eyes on the unassuming Kuebler, somebody with the unbeknownst eye of a sharpshooter and instinct of an assassin, and compared him with the known threat that two years in the conference has made Carl English, the WAC scoring leader, the line of thinking was clear, however flawed.

"They were probably saying, 'Just switch and cover Carl English and don't let him have any good looks; Kuebler won't work as hard to get open and hurt us,' " Wallace suggested.

Said English: "I'm there and (Travis) DeManby is following me around. I'm like, 'the guy (Kuebler) just hit like five in a row, what are you doing?' "

What, indeed.

"They were probably thinking, 'OK, we can sag off this guy and go help on (English)," Kuebler said. "Carl's a great player and that's OK with me. I don't mind it at all. If they want to think that way. Let me stay in the shadows and surprise some more people."