Twenty-two wins. A conference championship game appearance. Goodwill from a significant portion of the Hawaii fan base.
Nope. Not good enough to lock down "a moving target," the football that Charlie Brown could never seem to kick. It was all never going to be satisfactory.
That’s what a disappointed Benjy Taylor concluded after the interim coach was passed over for the long-term Hawaii basketball job this week. Saint Mary’s assistant Eran Ganot will be introduced at a news conference at the Stan Sheriff Center at 9 a.m. Thursday.
In a 20-minute phone interview Wednesday, Taylor vented frustrations about behind-the-scenes campaigning and what he felt was unfair criticism of himself and his players.
"I could tell as the season played out, there was always a hidden agenda," he said. "So part of me always felt that this could happen."
Incoming athletic director David Matlin listed "integrity" and "character" as attributes he sought during the search process. Taylor maintained he represents those values despite the decision of Matlin and UH’s four-member search advisory committee.
He also wished Ganot, the program and his now-former players well and said he’d take the high road over "professional and personal attacks."
As fifth-seeded UH mounted its improbable Big West tournament run to the title game in mid-March, some speculated that if the Rainbows beat UC Irvine and made it to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002, the permanent job would have to go to Taylor, the associate head coach who replaced the fired Gib Arnold just before the season’s start. But UH fell behind the Anteaters in the final minutes and did not advance to a postseason tournament.
Taylor balked at the notion that his fortunes swung on that game.
"It wouldn’t have mattered," he said. "The target, I never knew what the target was, and every time I thought that’s where the target is, it was always moved. It was always moved. You know, I don’t think it would have mattered. I’m not sure Sweet 16 would have mattered.
"Imagine if our guys don’t get hurt in January and February and we win 25 games. It wouldn’t have made a difference. What are you going to say, we go to the NCAA Tournament, they keep me? If we go to the Sweet 16, they keep me? OK, well they (administration) didn’t think we were going to win eight to 10 games. ‘Just do the best you can, Coach. Just do the best you can.’ We win 10. We win 12 before we start conference. Then we guaranteed a winning season. … In the conference tournament, twice in 13 years, (UH) won a first-round game? We do that. Then we won a second-round game. Then we go all the way down to the wire in the finals. And so, what, because we didn’t win that game? We really want to tell the athletes that this is happening because you couldn’t finish off the Irvine game? That’s not the case. They wanted to go in a different direction."
UH sources indicated that the decision not to retain Taylor was factored by off-court concerns — although Taylor was still said to have finished in the top handful of search candidates.
Taylor was unable to shake a perception around the university that his team’s loose style on the court — which led to many of its victories — led to problems off the court. During a road trip to play UC Riverside in January, UH was charged $500 to have two players’ rooms, which smelled of marijuana smoke, cleaned.
Other off-court incidents late in the season were rumored, but not publicly substantiated.
Taylor bristled at the adjective "discipline" being attached to his team’s off-court problems. He said there was nothing more severe going on than an average Division I program, be it basketball or football. Furthermore, he contended he cleaned things up from Arnold’s often-turbulent four-year tenure.
Taylor lauded his players for resilience in the face of an NCAA investigation and noted that none of his players was arrested.
"There are also programs that have had kids get in trouble off the floor, whether it be arrested or (just) doing things off the floor. Programs go through that," he said. "And you know, I don’t see how we could have expected to be better than any other program in the country. All programs go through trials and tribulations dealing with 18- to 23-year-old young men. At the end of the day, what we did on the floor was self-explanatory. And for all that we went through, I just have to say this is a great group of young men. Period. And (UH) made a decision and decided to go in a different direction. But at the end of the day, it’s a great group of young guys, and nobody can take that away from them."
Another criticism, that his team lagged behind in academics, will be a non-issue, Taylor said.
"The kids are going to be fine academically," he said.
Taylor said he’d be fine as he pursues another Division I coaching job, though he said he regretted remaining loyal to the unfruitful UH search process to the end without pursuing other opportunities.
He offered a parting quote: "The people that most don’t imagine a lot of, are the same ones that do what those same people can’t imagine.’ So basically, no one thought a lot of us. But we were the only people who could do what happened this year."
To the UH fans, he said: "I love them. My players already know that because I’ve been in touch with them. And aloha, and thanks for everything."
