ok, so i was right about the bracketbuster game. not a good thing for Hawaii. Frankly, it wasn't close. Montana could have won by 20. Zane continues to struggle from the line, too many turnovers, and poor free throw shooting, not to mention Joston's ejection.

But its time to look ahead to the most critical week of the year for Hawaii with games at New Mexico State on Thursday and La Tech on Saturday. Hawaii is currently in 4th place. They are a game behind the Aggies with four to play. They are a half game behind Idaho who has three left. Hawaii beat both New Mexico State ( at home) and Idaho( on the road), so it has the advantage over both, assuming the Rainbow Warriors don't slip up this week. A loss Thursday to New Mexico State will probably end any real chance for a second place finish as Hawaii would drop two games behind the Aggies. The Aggies still have last place San Jose at home, and then Fresno and Nevada on the road so its possible that even with a loss, Hawaii could end up in a tie with New Mexico State, but Hawaii would have to win out ( at La Tech and at home against Utah State and Idaho). Idaho's last three games are at Utah State, Hawaii, and San Jose, so it will be a battle for third regardless.

Why is all this important. Well, for one, nobody wants to face Nevada before the Conference finals, and in order to accomplish this, you cant finish 4th or 5th. Right now all of the teams i mentioned above, and  add Utah State to the picture, are in the 2 thru 5 battle.

By the way, a computer siteIi subscribe to says that the favorite to win the Conference Tournament is New Mexico State, with Nevada a strong second favorite. Nobody else is given much of a chance.  Hawaii is picked as the 5th favorite. But that's why they play the game on the court and not on a computer.

One thing is clear, however. Zane is a real shooting slump, and without him, Hawaii has a tough road ahead. He must regain his shot soon. You can expect the Aggies to press all over the court for most of the game. If you recall, after they fell behind in the game here, they put on a furious finish by employing a very effective full court press. They were down two players because of suspensions, and that may have been the reason they waited too long to press. They wont make that mistake again. Hawaii will need to break the press and look for easy baskets in the paint.

Listen to Hoopstalk tomorrow night at 8 pn on ESPN 142.> We will have Marvin Menzies, the Aggie coach, as our guest

well tomorrow is the long awaited bracketbuster game against the Grizzlies of Montana. What a waste. Instead of staying home, getting some rest, and practicing to take on New Mexico State next thursday on the road in Las Cruces, followed by the team's favorite trip to Ruston, the Rainbows had to leave Thursday and travel all the way to Montana to play a meaningless game against a solid opponent on its home court.

Maybe in the old days when UH had an outside chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and the game was on National TV, the bracketbuster made sense. Not now. UH has nothing to gain from this game except bragging rights over the team leading the Big Sky Conference. Montana is 19-6 and 12-1 in the Conference. It has won its last 8 games. It has a win against Long Beach State, but lost at home to Nevada in December. It will not be an easy game for UH. Winnable, yes, but so what.

I guess a win is a win, but the next two WAC Conference games maybe the most important of the year, after the Nevada game two weeks ago. Missoula maybe be really pretty in the summer ( i have been there), but not in the middle of February.

The word is out that UH will get the opportunity to play in the post season if it winds up winning 17 or 18 games, something I think is quite likely. Apparently they will be " invited" to play in the CIT, or I refer to it, the Riley Wallace Invitational. Its a buy-in Tournament with teams paying tens of thousands of dollars to play, and even more to get a home game. The Bows still have a legitimate shot of winning the Conference Tournament and the automatic NCAA bid that goes with it, but no chance for an NIT bid because of its unimpressive RPI. In any event, any chance to keep the season going has some merit, although I know most of us are looking to be invited to play in the post season for free ( if you know what i mean).

As Hawaii gets ready for its " scrimmage" against Div 2 New Orleans tomorrow, two items are on my mind. The first is the Bracket Buster game on Saturday against Montana in Missoula. Not a good thing. Why? Let me count the reasons. First, UH has to fly to Montana to play the Big Sky leaders in a meaningless game. And then the team has to stay on the road for another week to play a huge game against New Mexico State and another important WAC game at La Tech. That trip would have been tough enough without having to play at Montana on Saturday. There is no upside. The game is not on TV, and frankly neither of these teams is playing for a signature win that might put them in the Big Dance.  Hawaii would have been much better off staying home for a week, getting some rest for the stretch drive, and preparing for the Aggies. And by the way, Montana is a tough opponent and doesn't lose very often at home.

The next item is the announced merger between the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA. I wont comment on how strong that new league will be in football. But it makes no sense to leave the UH basketball team out of the new league. Unless something changes, UH Basketball will remain in the Big West next year. Why? if its money, then someone needs to come up with a plan that will allow the basketball team to play in the same league as its football brother. UH is not Notre Dame where its football program and its other sports can be separated. I know there are a few others like Boise  who play in two conferences,  but UH sports need to stand united in a single conference to get the exposure , crowds and rivalries the basketball team needs to prosper.

If you want to have a big time basketball program, the administration has to stand behind it. Playing no name schools in high school gyms with no TV contract is not the way to do it ( yes, i know Long Beach State is good, and maybe San Diego State will join the Big West for basketball). 

The win against Fresno Saturday night wasn't pretty, but its a win. Teams in the WAC have figured out that they will not allow Zane to beat them, but he has to get his offense going if UH is going to have a legitimate shot at winning the conference tournament. Its pretty clear as you look at the remaining WAC schedules that Nevada will come in first, and Fresno, La Tech, and San Jose will finish at the bottom ( and probably in that order). UH is fighting New Mexico State, Idaho, and Utah State for seeds 2 thru 5. You dont want to face Nevada in the semis if you can help it, so ending up in 2nd or 3rd is the goal.

Well, Hawaii's chance to make a race out of the regular season went by the wayside last night. Now, instead of looking a shot to finish first, the Rainbows are in the middle of the pack with Utah State, Idaho, and New Mexico State. It was a disappointing performance by the Bows, not so much because they lost, but because, , they were out-hustled and seemed not to grasp the importance of the game. All you have do is look at the rebounding discrepancy for proof.

Hawaii had no answer for Dario Hunt who almost out-rounded the entire Hawaii team by himself. He dominated Vander last night, something of a payback for the Vander handled him in Reno. Joston played well in the second half, but only had 4 boards and made three bad mistakes in a row late in the game, including a 20 foot jumper early in the clock that missed badly and an unforced turnover while Hawaii was still within reach. And once again, Zane had a miserable shooting night against Nevada. In the two games this year, he shot under 25 percent from the filed.

On the positive end, Miah had his best shooting night of the year. before last night, he had made 2 of 16 threes and Nevada decided there was no need to guard him. Well he made three threes and scored in double figures. Hopefully he is regaining confidence in his shot. Hans had a solid game offensively as well. As a team, nobody can get much of a passing grade defensively, although Miah did a solid job on Burton in the first half. By the way, Burton is clearly the best player in the WAC, and Nevada has the best starting five. Nevada's problems are the inability to make free throws, and once they start to play in tournaments, it will hurt them badly.

So all is not lost. Hawaii has a solid chance to win against Fresno tomorrow, Fresno comes off a double overtime loss at San Jose, the Spartans first league win. Gib and the coaches have a job ahead of them to get this team " up" for the game as Hawaii's chance to win the league is gone. But we have seen the team come back from tough losses before this season, and I think we will see that again tomorrow. I know, i also picked us to beat Nevada last night.

I am back. Interesting few weeks since the last blog. I had predicted the Rainbows would go 2-1 on the road trip and I was right. It wasnt easy, but they got it done. The loss at Utah State was no surprise even with the Aggies struggles this year. The win at Idaho was solid, but the win at San Jose, who hasnt won yet in the conference, was a bigger struggle than expected. But hey, a win is a win..

If you read this blog regularly or listen to the radio show, you know that i said at the beginning of the season that the key to Hawaii's success this year rested with Joston Thomas. I think that was right on. Joston has played within himself most of the season and has turned in some monster games ( witness Saturday night's performance against the Spartans). Yes, Miah, Vander and Johnson are important, but we expected them to play well. Joston, to me, was a question mark.

On the negative side of things, the suspension of Trevor Wiseman for " insubordination" is a disappointment. In the early part of the season, Gib  was singing his praises, but as the season wore on, the play of Thomas had diminished Wiseman's playing time and it came to head in San Jose when Wiseman refused to go back into the game and an argument in front of the team and fans took place ( i am told). Will he back. Dont know, but i wont be shocked if his season is over. You just cant do that as player.

Stokes minutes continue to decrease. It will be interesting to see what happens to his UH career.

Nevada comes into town tomorrow night off of a shocking home loss to Idah.> After not having lost since Nov 14th, they lose to an Idaho team that was coming off a home loss to you know who. Nevada has been struggling the last few weeks, even though they were winning. Before the loss to Idaho, they had a 1 point home win against Utah State, and a 2 point road win at La Tech. Still they come here leading the league, and ft UH has any chance of winning the league, they must win tomorrow night.  Remember UH lost by only 3 in Reno, and I am going to predict a UH win tomorrow. Yes Nevada has the best overall talent in the league, and at least one early NBA draft pick, but they are not playing all that well right now, and the Rainbows are. UH needs to do a better job defending  Burton and Czyz ( 49 points in the last game), but i like our chances at home. It should be fun and I expect the biggest home crowd of the year.

Hoopstalk will be on this Friday at 6 ESPN 1420.

what can you say about last night's bad loss to La Tech at home?  Without Miah and Zane, the Rainbows were in for a tough night. And losing Vander to fouls with 5 minutes to play effectively ended the team's hope for a win.  Coach Arnold knew they would not have Miah, but Zane's " flu" was unexpected. When you lose your best pointguard and your only legitimate outside scorer, even against a team like La Tech that had started the WAC season with three straight home losses and hadn't won a WAC away game in 12 straight tries, you know its not going to be easy. When your most effective scorer and re bounder causes a offensive charge call when he dribbles into the paint from 20 feet away, and then picks up a foolish 4th foul trying to guard someone 25 feet from the basketball, you compound the problem. And finally, when you make only 60 percent of your free-throws in a game where no one can hit a shot from 10 feet away, you will lose to an inferior opponent.

Having said all that, lets not take too much away from last night. A Hawaii team at full strength, or even a Hawaii team with a healthy Miah, would have won easily in my opinion. The way Hawaii had played the last few weeks makes that an easy conclusion for me. Unfortunately, a loss to La Tech at home hurts, and it is not easily made-up.

I think last night , however, was disappointing for another reason. It just looked like after Vander fouled out, nobody was able or willing to step up, except Joston, and La Tech figured it pretty quickly in the last 5 minutes that if they kept 2 or 3 guys around Joston,  Hawaii had no answers. Even the Coach in our post game lamented the lack of poise and leadership down the stretch.

If anyone doubted how much Miah means to this team, watch last night's tape. Bobby Miles had a solid second half, but he and Shaq just dont run the team like Miah does. If  anybody thinks there is another consistent outside shooter other than Zane,  watch last night' tape.

Anyway, that game is history, and tomorrow is another day and a very important game against New Mexico State. These Aggies are undefeated in the WAC, just beat San Jose on the road by 16, and has one of the best players in the WAC in Wendell McKineswho leads the WAC both in scoring and rebounding.  Not sure who get the task of defending him, but it wont be easy. I look for Hawaii to bounce back in a big way. They better, as their next three games are on the road , and if the Rainbows are going to compete for the top of the conference, another home loss wont help

What can you say about the Rainbow Warriors after their extraordinary effort against Neveda last night. You can say they lost, but that would be missing the real conclusion to be drawn after their heartbreaking loss. The real conclusion is that this team is for real and will be a force all season in the WAC.

Hawaii had a 7 point lead with 4 minutes to play against a team that had won 10 in a row and in a place they have never won. Credit Nevada with a solid comeback to win, but credit Hawaii for giving the Wolfpack all they could handle.

Vander and Thomas once again dominated inside, and Miah continues to be the prototype pass first point guard with 9 assists to only 3 turnovers. Unfortunately, Zane had just an average game with 13 points on 3-10 from three, or Hawaii might have had its most important road win in years.

Coming after the overtime win against Fresno, Hawaii's game last night has to send a message to the rest of the WAC that this team will be in the hunt for the league championship. They do trail undefeated Nevada and New Mexico State, but both still have to come here, the Aggies this Saturday night.

Its clear that Gib has basically settled on a 6 man rotation with Jefferson and Wiseman sharing that spot. Not much off the bench last night( only 9 points), and hopefully no injuries will pop up to distrupt what has become a very effective starting 5.

La Tech begins the homestand on Thursday and they are really struggling. Shouldnt be able to keep up with the Rainbows. Saturday night's game against New Mexico State should be much more competitive, and could go a long way towards Hawaii's march to the upper two or three teams in the WAC.  Nobody ever likes to celebrate a loss. But last night's loss against Nevada comes about as close as you can get

The Rainbow Warriors remained undefeated in the early WAC season with its overtime victory over Fresno State last night. After  Hawai1 jumped out to a 16-3 lead, Hawaii led the entire game until Fresno and took the lead with under 15 seconds to play, but Vander tied it at the 5 second mark and the Bows took it to Fresno in the overtime. It was Hawaii's first road win of the season and only the second time in 9 tries Hawaii has won at the Save-Mart Center. Hawaii is one of three undefeated teams in the WAC along with its next opponent, Nevada, and New Mexico State.

Hawaii was led by Zane and Vander who had great games, and by Miah's 11 assists. On the other side of the ledger, they didnt get much from Thomas, Hans, or Stokes. Jefferson did a great job defensively on Fresno's leading scorer and chipped in with a solid offensive game as well, and Wiseman had his usual steady game on both ends of the court.

Two negative stats do need to be addressed. Hawaii allowed Fresno to take 20 plus more shots , primarily because Fresno had 20 offensive rebounds and Hawaii turned the ball over 20 times. It is not often that a team wins a game with those negative stats, but good Hawaii defensive pressure and 50 percent shooting compensated for these issues.

Lat year Hawaii began the WAC season with 5 straight losses, so this year's solid start is a real plus. Hawaii now travels to Reno to play at a place they have never won against the best and hottest team in the WAC. Nevada has won 10 straight and is 3-0 in the WAC with wins at Idaho and Utah State. Can Hawaii win Saturday night. Yes. Will they?. It will take almost a perfect performance. But after getting last night's road win, the team will go into tomorrow night's game with confidence. I think Hawaii will give Neveda a game, but dont think they will win. However, looking at the league results early in the conference season, I do think Hawaii is the third best team right now in the Conference behind Nevada and New Mexico State. Utah State is really struggling ( they got killed last night at New Mexico State), and Idaho is up and down ( a win last night in Ruston). I think Fresno, La Tech, and San Jose are the likeliest teams to fill out the bottom of the league.

well, as expected UH defeated San Jose State for its first season opening WAC win in 6 years. Uh controlled the game from the opening tap, although it twice let huge leads get away before winning. Strong games from the UH front line of Thomas and Joaquin, and a solid defensive effort on the Spartans guards were the keys to the win.

But now, things get real for the Rainbow Warriors. They go on the road where they have yet to win this year and play at Fresno and Reno. Uh has never won in Reno, and this year's Nevada team looks like the class of the league, having just come off the road with impressive wins at Idaho and especially in Logan where they beat Utah State. The Bows have won a few in Fresno, and after winning its last three non conference games, Fresno lost its first two WAC road games and will be looking to try to hold form at home.

 Speaking of Nevada, that win at Utah State is huge in determining how the conference leadership will look come March. Nevada has put together quite an impressive winning streak, and was my preseason pick to finish first in the WAC. New Mexico had a solid win at La Tech who had not lost at home before Sat night, and they are playing ellhough they lost one of their better players for the season. Idaho is struggling although it did get a home win against Fresno. San Jose will struggle to get many wins, and I expect Utah State, although not the Utah State team we have seen in years past, to be right in the mix .

So, what do i think will happen this week . I think it will be very difficult for Hawaii to win at Reno. sorry, but there is not enough Kool Aid out there to make that pick. On the other hand, I think Hawaii can give Fresno a game. If it was here, no issue, but on the road, this team has played poorly, although those games predated Miah's return and the team's siginificantly improved play. But you have to prove to me that you can win on the road. I give Hawaii a reasonable chance to come home from this trip with a 2-1 Conference record. Hope I am right

The WAC opened conference play last night with two significant games. First Utah State showed that once again it will compete for the league title by destroying Fresno Sate by 19. Utah State has had an up and down non conference slate and Fresno had won three in a row. It didnt make much difference.  And at Idaho, Nevada won its 8th in a row beating the Vandels by 18. If anybody had any question as to whether Nevada is a legitimate choice to win the conference, look no further. But wait, Saturday night, in what will be one of the  most important games of the year in the WAC, Nevada travels to Logan to face Utah State. The winner of that game will have a leg up on the conference championship even after only two games.

The rest of the league gets started tomorrow night, including Hawaii opening at home against San Jose State. It should be a fairly easy w for the Rainbow Warriors. Hawaii is playing well right now, and the Spartans are not. San Jose always seems to struggle on the road, and they come in here with a losing record despite playing a very easy schedule. Then UH goes on the road to two places they seldom win, Fresno and Nevada, where they have never won. So getting a win tomorrow is very important.

How about Duke losing to Temple. First time Duke has lost to Temple in a decade, and Duke's first loss after 45 plus consecutive wins against non BCS schools. And a shout out to my Orange. Syracuse remains undefeated. Two teams that  are struggling are Xavier and Pitt. Pitt has lost 4 in a row for the first time in Jamie Dixon's tenure and Xavier followed their losses to Hawaii and Gonzaga with a loss at LaSalle.