Hawai'i will try to corral UTEP

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

In an effort to turn the fortunes of his University of Hawai'i men's basketball team, head coach Riley Wallace turned to an old reliable this week.

"We have to try anything," he said.

The all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant was discovered during the 2000-01 season, and became somewhat of a good luck destination for Hawai'i teams ever since.

The Rainbow Warriors could use the luck today when they play a Western Athletic Conference game at Texas-El Paso in the Don Haskins Center. More than 10,000 UTEP fans are expected to attend today's game, which will not be televised in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i is 10-3 overall and 2-3 in the WAC after a disappointing 61-59 home loss to Louisiana Tech last Saturday. UTEP, which was the preseason pick to win the conference, is 14-3 overall and 4-1 in the WAC.

"They lost their last game at Fresno State, but you still have to look at them as one of the top teams in the league right now, if not the top team," Wallace said of the Miners. "They can really score, I know that. They're probably the highest-scoring team we'll see all year."

UTEP leads the WAC in several offensive statistics, including scoring at 76.9 points per game.

"I think we're playing as well as we can," said first-year UTEP head coach Doc Sadler. "We're going to take our opportunities to run on offense, but a lot of that is because of our defense."

Hawai'i leads the WAC in scoring defense, allowing an average of 60.4 points per game; UTEP is second, allowing 61.4 points per game.

For the last two weeks, Wallace has been concerned about Hawai'i's inconsistent play against zone defenses. LaTech used various zones for the entire game in its upset of the 'Bows last week.

However, UTEP is primarily a man-to-man defensive team, and Sadler said he does not expect to change that today.

"We don't like to change much unless we have to," he said. "I know Riley likes to play man-to-man, and so do we."

Sadler was an assistant coach under Billy Gillispie at UTEP last season, and said he kept many of the same philosophies. Gillispie is now head coach at Texas A&M.

It also helped that the four top scorers from last season's 24-8 team returned.

Leading the way this season is Omar Thomas, a 6-foot-5 forward who leads the WAC in scoring with 20.8 points per game. He scored 55 points in two games last week to earn the WAC Player of the Week award.

But UTEP's most valuable player is point guard Filiberto Rivera. The 6-2 senior is averaging 12.4 points per game and leads the WAC with 6.5 assists per game.

"It starts with Fili," Sadler said. "He complements everybody else. He just knows how to play the game and he's a winner."

Rivera and Hawai'i 3-point specialist Jake Sottos were the starting guards on the Southeastern Community College (Iowa) team that won the junior college national championship in 2003.

"Rivera is the key to everything for them," Wallace said. "He knows how to lead that team, that's what makes him so good."

But Sadler is equally concerned about some of Hawai'i's top players.

"You have to look at Julian Sensley first because he does so many things for them," Sadler said. "But Hawai'i has several different players that could have a good night. You can't focus on any one guy, that's what makes them so dangerous."

A key statistic today could be free throws. UTEP leads the WAC with 400 free-throw attempts. More important, the Miners lead the conference with a 78.0 percentage from the free-throw line.

In contrast, Hawai'i is last in the WAC with 230 free-throw attempts, and next-to-last with a percentage of 63.0.

"They're aggressive, and Rivera and Thomas have a lot to do with that," Wallace said. "They drive through the defense and force you to scramble and reach."

In any case, today's game could also be the last for Hawai'i in El Paso. The Miners will join Conference USA next season.

The 'Bows and Miners have met 49 previous times as WAC rivals since 1980, with UTEP winning 32.

"I'm not going to miss it — it's tough to win here," Wallace said. "But they have good fans, so it's a great atmosphere."

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.