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By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
Average 20 victories a year. Graduate all your players. Earn the national respect of your peers. Oh, and do it all with limited resources and a ready string of snappy one-liners.
No, the University of Hawai'i won't be asking much of a prospective replacement for soon-to-retire Rainbow Wahine basketball coach Vince Goo.
In 1987 UH offered Goo a job that had run through three coaches in six years, asking only that he please stick around long enough to give its revolving door of a basketball program a hint of stability. Seventeen years later, the 57-year-old Goo will leave at the conclusion of this season having set a near-impossible-to-match standard for the position.
That UH's winningest basketball coach (331-162) on any level leaves amid a so-far 5-16 (3-9 Western Athletic Conference) season, only his third losing campaign, hardly takes away from the impressive, larger body of work.
"I think of Vince as one of the top coaches in America," said Kurt Budke, coach of nationally-ranked Louisiana Tech. "Every time you play Hawai'i you know they will be up for you and they'll be well-prepared for you," Budke said. "They give everybody they play problems. Look what they do against Connecticut and North Carolina ... and Vince doesn't have Connecticut talent."
In many ways the struggles of this most rare of seasons, remind us of what a remarkable run it has been over the years: nine 20-win-plus seasons, 10 postseason appearances, 21 all-conference players and four conference coach of the year awards.
And, for all of that, his proudest achievements are found well outside the record book. They line the walls of his third-floor office where 41 pictures, each representing a player who has concluded her eligibility during his tenure and left with a diploma, offer testament to the depth and mission of the program. Soon, after three remaining players finish up their in-progress work, it will be 44 of 44.
"It shows you what a class act and a great coach he is," said Rhonda Rompola, Southern Methodist's head coach.
But it won't be only his players and coaching peers who will miss Goo.
A former referee once said : "You don't mind him getting on you too much from the sidelines because Vince, at least, is very funny."
Indeed, legend has it a female referee once told Goo: "'The next word outta you and you're gone.'"
Whereupon he retorted: "What if I said you were beautiful?"
"You think so?" the referee asked.
"No," Goo said. "I just said what if."
Clearly, you don't easily replace Goo, someone UH President Evan Dobelle calls "... a great coach but, more important, an extraordinary human being."
But if UH should somehow succeed in finding someone capable of continuing the standard, you'll know the winner instantly.
It will be the candidate who walks on water to get here.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
