Some kind of misfortune had struck the Brigham Young basketball team a long time ago. The Cougars lost a game they shouldn’t have, or one of their missionaries decided religion was more important than sports and didn’t return to Provo, Utah. I don’t remember exactly.
But I do recall with precision the reaction of Riley Wallace, the University of Hawaii hoops coach at the time.
"It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of people," Wallace told the Honolulu Quarterback Club. "No, I really mean that, they are very, very nice people."
And that’s one of my takeaways from the events that leave us with no football team from the all-mighty SEC in the national championship game, ending a streak that started when Florida beat Ohio State in 2007. That’s a span of eight games — and an SEC team won the first seven of them, before Florida State took down Auburn last year.
Oh, my, how sad.
I’ve lived in the south, so I know how genuinely hospitable the folks there can be and usually are.
But when it comes to football, their default mode is arrogant.
The SEC is still the best conference in college football — but obviously not by much at this point.
It never was as far ahead of the rest of the country as it wanted us to believe. The difference is other regions have other things going on besides football.
North and west of the SEC’s footprint, the game is not life and death for as high a percentage of otherwise grown men and women.
Interestingly, ESPN radio was still airing its commercial promoting its SEC show Saturday, two days after Ohio State had beaten Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to advance to the Jan. 12 championship game.
You know, the one with the tagline, "Because football’s just better down south."
Our assistant sports editor Sjarif Goldstein quipped, "Maybe they mean Hawaii."
Ka Lae, on the Big Island, is the southernmost point of the United States. And American Samoa is even farther south.
I’d say at least the mainland south still has the best BBQ, but that’s always been debatable, depending on your taste.
» With the death of Mike Vasconcellos last week, I was reminded of how accomplished many members of the fraternity of Saint Louis School quarterbacks was, even before Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy and led Oregon to victory in Thursday’s Rose Bowl.
Off the field there’s Vasconcellos (Chaminade athletic director when the Silverswords beat Virginia in basketball), Richard Mamiya (world-renowned heart surgeon), Duke Aiona (Hawaii lieutenant governor).
More known for on the field and coaching: Vinny Passas, Kaipo Spencer, John Hao, Joel Lane, Jason Gesser, Darnell Arceneaux, Timmy Chang and now, of course, Mariota.
Hao and Arceneaux were Mariota’s high school coaches at Saint Louis, and prior to the Rose Bowl he credited them with teaching him how to play quarterback at an up-tempo style, which prepared him for Oregon.
And that Rose Bowl win was a nice gift for Hao, whose birthday is Jan. 1.
» Local sports coverage is losing one of the good guys, as Mike Cherry takes his talents to KITV’s morning news show. The Hawaii News Now sports anchor from Maui completed 14 years at HNN/KGMB last week.
Cherry declined comment when reached today, and a KITV exec did not return a call and text. But Cherry’s destination has been no secret, and a job posting on the KITV website for the opening recently disappeared.
Meanwhile, former Kealakehe track star Fran Weems has emerged as a candidate to fill the opening created by Cherry’s departure at HNN, where Mark Carpenter will assume No. 1 duties. Also, KITV still lists an opening for a sports anchor where Brandi Higa has held down the fort since Jahmai Webster’s departure last September.
Weems is a sports anchor/reporter at WLBT/FOX 40 in Jackson, Miss.
