UH leaves Vegas for bigger jackpot
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
That's because somebody else won $39.5 million on the Megabucks slot machine at the Excalibur Hotel on the Las Vegas strip yesterday afternoon.
The Rainbow Warriors weren't quite so lucky, but they're still leaving Las Vegas as winners — and with at least one more chance to play basketball.
The 'Bows departed Las Vegas early this morning for Minneapolis, where they will play Minnesota in a second- round game of the National Invitation Tournament on Monday. The game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. (Hawai'i time) at Williams Arena.
Along with some dirty clothes, the 'Bows have an 85-68 victory over Nevada-Las Vegas packed with them.
"Well, when you win, it's always a good trip," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "It would have been better to play at home, no question. But you could say this was as close to a home game as we could get."
The 'Bows spent four nights in the California Hotel, which is almost always occupied by Hawai'i residents.
"People we've never seen before were coming up to us and congratulating us, asking us for autographs," said junior forward Phil Martin. "That really helped to make us feel comfortable."
Wallace gave the team the entire day off on Thursday, and most of the players went sightseeing on the Las Vegas strip (although none of them played Megabucks at the Excalibur).
Hawai'i center Haim Shimonovich, who is from Israel and a first-time visitor to Las Vegas, is leaving in awe.
"I was excited when I first found out we were coming here," he said. "Now that I've seen it, I can say it's very impressive. I think, after Honolulu, this is the next best city I've been to."
Perhaps rejuvenated by the excitement of the city, the 'Bows returned to practice yesterday with a spirited fervor. UNLV was gracious enough to allow Hawai'i to practice in Cox Pavilion — the practice facility for UNLV's basketball and volleyball teams — and Wallace made sure to take advantage of it.
"We got after it hard, so I can tell these guys want to play some more," Wallace said. "We have motivation. We said we want to get to New York (for the NIT final four) and win the whole thing."
Several scrimmage drills were halted by physical fouls — and the resulting push-shove skirmishes — but Wallace called that "a good thing."
"As long as they leave it on the basketball court, which this team does, I like that kind of stuff," he said. "It seems to make everybody alert and they all play harder."
It was also the perfect preparation for a physical Minnesota team that features a starting frontline of 6-foot-11 Rick Rickert, 6-10 Jerry Holman and 6-8 Michael Bauer.
"If our big guys don't come out ready to play, we'll get beat down," Wallace said. "And it's not just (Minnesota's) big guys. They're guards are athletic. They're better than their record."
The Golden Gophers from the Big Ten Conference are 17-12, including a 62-52 victory over Saint Louis in the first round of the NIT. Hawai'i is 19-11.
"They lost five in a row at the end of the season, so that dropped them," Wallace said. "But they beat a real good Saint Louis team on the road."
Las Vegas casinos were listing Minnesota as an 8 1/2-point favorite last night (Hawai'i was an 8-point underdog to UNLV).
"We never get the respect," UH leading scorer Carl English said. "That's nothing new. We just have to go out and prove it again."
But enough about Las Vegas.
"It turned out to be a great trip, but we have to look at it as the first stop of a long trip," Martin said. "We're on a mission to get to New York. Las Vegas is a great place to visit, but you can't stay here too long for obvious reasons. It's time for us to move on."
Correction: The winner of Monday's game between Hawai'i and Minnesota will play the winner of a game between Temple and Rhode Island. Boston College, which was mentioned as a possible site in yesterday's Advertiser, was eliminated from the NIT by Temple yesterday.
