The distance from room No. 346 in the University of Hawai'i athletic department to No. 347, the offices of the associate head men's basketball coach and head coach, respectively, is about the width of, well, one of Bob Nash's size-15 shoes.

Yet, in the journey we are likely to witness a remarkable transformation in public perception of the man making it.

For in taking responsibility of the program he has served in one capacity or another for the last 28 years, it will be interesting to see the emergence of the "real" Nash and the slam-dunk debunking of myths about who he is — and who he isn't.

Not that there has been anything less than genuine about the man since he first set foot on campus as a junior college transfer in 1970. It is just that he's always faithfully played a role ascribed to the positions he's held, player, assistant coach, etc.

But in taking over the whole show, lock, stock and jocks, Nash gets to be himself. He has to be to make this work. Or, as Nash put it several times in the introductory press conference Friday, "Hey, I gotta be me."

Which is to say he is not Riley Wallace, the man he succeeds. Not even close as we have already begun to see. Wallace will be the first to underline the point. "Bob will be his own man," Wallace said. "Anybody that knows Bob will tell you that."

Indeed, "Bob is his own guy, always has been," said Red Rocha, the coach who plucked him out of San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College and saw him become a hard-scrabble mainstay of UH's most celebrated team, the Fabulous Five.

The knock on Nash as a head coaching candidate, at least by those who haven't been around him, was that he might be a continuation of Wallace, whom he served alongside more than a quarter-century. But there is about as much chance of that as there was of Wallace being a carbon copy of his former boss, Larry Little.

Nash already is promising a more up-tempo pace to Rainbow Warrior, oops, make that Rainbow basketball. "We're the 'Bows," maintains Nash. He is pledging to give the players a longer leash on the court, something Wallace was hesitant to do. He is vowing to ask more of players academically and get the athletic department to provide them with more. Yet to be articulated is how recruiting might be modified.

It remains to be seen how successful of a head coach Nash will become. But however it goes over the next three — and hopefully, more — years, bet on him doing it his way. Expect him to be true to himself. Nash has too much invested in this to go about it in any other manner.

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