Posted on: Sunday, March 7, 2004

Goo was perfect fit for UH

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

The avalanche of lei that threatened to suffocate him. The heartfelt tributes from players past and present that tested his composure. The plaques and gifts that will fill his living room. A series of rousing standing ovations.

And, to think if Vince Goo had listened to his father nearly 20 years ago, all he would have missed out on before 1,932 last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

And, perhaps more important, what University of Hawai'i women's basketball would have done without.

Watching Goo's home and regular season finale to a 20-year UH coaching career — 17 as head coach — last night it is easy to see the natural fit that Goo and Rainbow Wahine basketball have become together over time.

Even in a 63-54 loss to Fresno State in his 499th game, this most trying of 8-19 seasons, there is no doubting the institution Goo has become.

Through 11 20-win seasons, 10 postseason appearances, 21 all-conference players and remarkable graduation rate, theirs has become a made-in-Manoa fairy tale.

Regardless of what the Rainbow Wahine might do in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament this coming week, Goo will walk away as the winningest college basketball coach (334-165) in Hawai'i history. That's men's, women's, large school or small.

Not only was none of it assured when Goo was first approached about joining the Rainbow Wahine in 1984, it hardly seemed within the realm of possibility.

So much, so that that it took some thought for Goo to walk away from where he had been, coaching boys basketball at Kaiser High, to become an assistant at UH.

Three years later, the questions were harder and the doubts deeper when UH offered Goo the head coaching job. He went to his father, Ah Chew Goo, a former UH men's coach and man who was renown in his own day as a premier ballhandler, for career advice.

"I asked him what he thought," Vince recalled last night. "And, he told me to forget it. He said there was no future in it for me."

Indeed, Ah Chew did not mince words. "I said, 'Nah, don't waste your time.' "

Give up the hard-earned security of the Department of Education, where he already had a 10-year stake, for the uncertainties of a struggling program at UH that had worn out three previous head coaches in barely six years?

"They were playing at Klum (Gym) and nobody cared," Ah Chew said. "I told him he'd end up shining shoes."

Seventeen years later, reflecting on a rare instance when father didn't know best, Vince said, "you go with your heart. Sometimes, when it comes to a career, you can make a big mistake. I didn't. I was fortunate."

Last night it was not only the lei, and gifts, but the testimonies of the lives he touched that said a lot of people turned out to be winners in the deal.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.