Rainbows hope to rebound
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team visited Kings Canyon, Calif. — home to 200-foot tall sequoia trees — yesterday.
Perhaps now the Rainbow Warriors can see the forest for the trees.
"We didn't lose our whole season (last) Saturday," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "It's still early, we still have a lot of games to go. We're not done yet."
The 'Bows suffered a devastating 79-67 loss at lowly San Jose State last Saturday.
The road to recovery traveled to Fresno, Calif., on Sunday. The 'Bows are scheduled to play another Western Athletic Conference game on Thursday at Fresno State.
It was a somber three-hour ride between cities, so Wallace said he let the 'Bows "just have fun" the past two days.
Sunday night, they went to the movies. Yesterday, they had snowball fights in between the sequoias.
"I don't want them to forget (the loss at San Jose State)," Wallace said. "But I don't want it eating away at them, either. It was just one that got away and so we have to go get one back."
As UH leading scorer Carl English put it: "There really was nothing to say. We all knew we screwed up. It helped to get our minds off it, and now we're ready to go back to work."
Still, Wallace said he remains mystified — and frustrated — with his team's Jekyll and Hyde personalities at home and on the road. The 'Bows are 10-0 at home this season and have won 22 consecutive home games dating to last season. On the road, they are 1-3.
Saturday's loss dropped UH into second place in the WAC at 4-2.
"We work on it every day and talk to them about it every day," Wallace said. "It's an energy thing, a leadership thing. It just seems like they can't find that spark on the road."
Last year's record-setting team went 6-3 in WAC road games and 11-5 away from the Stan Sheriff Center overall.
"I can't tell you what's the problem this year because I don't know," English said. "But I wouldn't count us out as being a good road team yet. If we win these next two, it'll turn a lot of things around."
Today is the sixth day of an 11-day, three-game road trip. After Thursday's game at Fresno State, the 'Bows will travel to Nevada on Saturday.
The Bulldogs are 13-3 overall and 6-1 and in first place in the WAC. Like Hawai'i, Fresno State is 10-0 at home this season.
What's more, the Bulldogs are coming off road victories at Southern Methodist and Louisiana Tech last week.
"They'll be feeling good about themselves and we're not," Wallace said. "We have to spend the next couple days getting fired up. The only good thing is that we seem to always get fired up for Fresno."
The 'Bows have won four consecutive games against Fresno State, including an 88-77 victory at the Stan Sheriff Center last Monday.
English has averaged 28.3 points in UH's last three wins over Fresno State, including 30 last week.
"Carl English was off the other night," Fresno State head coach Ray Lopes said. "I think he always gets 30 in the big games, so I doubt that he'll be off on Thursday."
English scored a season-low six points in the loss at San Jose State.
"I feel like I let a lot of people down," he said. "Now I feel like I have to go out and prove myself all over again."
Snowed out: Freshman forward Ikaika Alama-Francis was in the wrong van at the wrong time yesterday.
Alama-Francis, a Kalaheo High graduate, was looking forward to his first snowball fight with his teammates yesterday. Only problem was, he was in the van that got lost along the route and never made it to Kings Canyon.
