LAS VEGAS >> In the wake of a messy separation with Hawaii women’s basketball coach Jim Bolla in the spring of 2009, UH athletic director Jim Donovan placed an emphasis on off-the-court appeal in his first major hire.
He got that in the immediate sense with Dana Takahara-Dias, but not the eventual
on-court results he hoped would come with it.
Immediately after a season that featured both encouraging benchmarks and head-scratching low points, Takahara-Dias was dismissed as head coach of the Rainbow Wahine on Wednesday.
Donovan notified her soon after sixth seeded UH lost to third-seeded Louisiana Tech, 63-54, in the WAC tournament quarterfinals.
Donovan lauded her for her high character and leadership, which included consistent community service projects by the Rainbow Wahine. But ultimately, he said he could not ignore a second straight 11-19 season, another losing WAC record (6-8, good for a fifth-place tie) and UH’s habitual first-round exit in the tournament.
"Dana is a great person. As an individual, I couldn’t ask for a better person," Donovan said. "She’s done everything I expected off the court. It’s just the on-the-court performance wasn’t there."
Takahara-Dias went 32-58 in her first tenure as a Division I coach, including 15-31 in WAC play. Her original three-year contract was allowed to expire.
Takahara-Dias stoically took to the WAC postgame press conference podium moments after being notified by Donovan. She answered a few questions about the loss to LaTech, but didn’t go into her conversation with Donovan or her future right away.
"First of all, we’d like to thank the WAC," she started off. "I know this is our last year in the Western Athletic Conference, but we enjoyed being part of the membership. More importantly, we really grew as a program in being in the WAC. So, thank you very much to the conference for having us."
Later, Takahara-Dias talked about her dismissal.
"The only place for me to coach was at my alma mater," she said. "I honestly feel we left this place better than the way we found it. I’m grateful for the opportunity."
Senior forward Breanna Arbuckle stood up for her coach — who was not the one who recruited her —with her words in the conference.
"We came in with the intention of always trying to improve on the year before," Arbuckle said. "And I think we improved from the year before, so we came out there, the coaches told us what to do, and that’s what we did."
Now begins the search for the eighth coach in program history. Donovan said he’d try to find a balance between weighing candidates carefully over the next few weeks and giving the new coach enough time to recruit before the April 11 national letter of intent signing day.
"We’ll try to find the best person out there to lead the program from where Dana’s taken it," Donovan said. "Our goal would be to do it as soon as we can without rushing it to make sure we got the right person. But to (also) give that person as much time as possible."
There will be a search committee, he said.
Last time around, Takahara-Dias — a former UH point guard in the 1980s, and a University High graduate — emerged from a pool of eight finalists.
Among the current UH staff, first-year associate head coach Gavin Petersen is a possible candidate. He was a finalist for the job that went to Takahara-Dias and two years later came in from Idaho and was entrusted with the team’s offense and recruiting.
That didn’t help the Wahine much early on this season, as they faced a gauntlet of nationally ranked teams. Compounding matters, several key players — Shawna Kuehu, Ashleigh Karaitiana, and Malia Cravens — shut it down for personal reasons, were declared ineligible, or got injured.
Donovan said he weighed these factors in his decision.
"The fact of the matter is, I believe we can have a competitive women’s basketball team here," he said. "And that’s what we want to see on the court."
Even going into this tournament, it was believed that Takahara-Dias could have earned a contract extension by moving her team on to the WAC semifinals, which would have been the first time since 2003, when her mentor, Vince Goo, coached the team.
"I really don’t answer hypotheticals," Donovan said of that scenario. "I gave her goals when I first hired her. Her first year she met those goals, the second year she didn’t. And this year she definitely
didn’t."
One of the high points for the staff and the program came this season, when UH swept Louisiana Tech in home-and-home meetings for the first time. UH earned regular-season sweeps of three teams, a first since 2006. But UH also faltered at inopportune moments, most memorably giving up an 18-point second-half lead against Idaho at home.
LaTech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon — who like Takahara-Dias,
came back to coach at her alma mater — paid her respects to UH after the Lady Techsters’ win.
"Hat’s off to Hawaii," the women’s hoops legend said. "Very good basketball team, very well-coached basketball team. They’ve had our number all season long. It was a difficult battle for us even to get going."
