LAS VEGAS » Eventually, visitors lose their sharpness here, if they had any to begin with. That’s what the hosts count on.
Casinos are designed to suck the normalcy out of you, and eventually drain your discipline and positive energy as well as empty your wallet.
Yes, if you walk directly from your room to your meals and whatever else you’re going to do and back without sitting down at a table or slot machine, that last part can be avoided.
And, we’re told, after its day off the University of Hawaii football team obeyed orders and not one player dropped one quarter into a slot machine, not one snuck in one hand of blackjack after curfew. OK, so let’s pretend to believe that — and living in a casino/hotel for a week had nothing to do with UH getting severely spanked by UNLV, which it was favored to beat according to oddsmakers by nearly 20 points.
THERE’S A LOT of talk these days about prioritizing the experience for the student-athlete in college sports. I fail to see how that is done by preparing for a game by setting up camp in a hotel with a casino, regardless how disciplined and focused the team may be.
Incessant noise and smoke. Easily attainable alcohol and gambling, which would be illegal for most players. And, perhaps the most potential danger comes from proximity to a sports book, where bets can be made on the very game the team is playing in. Just being seen near it can get a player or coach in trouble with the NCAA.
Coach Greg McMackin says the Warriors are 3-for-3 in not getting in trouble in Vegas. But they’re also 3-for-3 in losses after camping out here — at least in the first two UH showed up for the first half, unlike the other night.
Two years ago when this was done, I hesitantly bought the very frayed line of reasoning that the discipline derived from everyone sacrificing together by not partaking of the gaming and other distractions would be a good bonding experience. Then, after UH lost a game to UNLV in 2009 it should’ve won, I (and many others) heard very believable tales of some players sneaking out of the hotel and hitting some clubs a couple of nights prior to the game.
BOYD GAMING is a big reason the Warriors stay in a casino several days prior to games. This is wrong on several different obvious levels, but UH sees no problem with a gambling operation as a major sponsor. Maybe I’m missing the big picture, and this is actually good for the student-athlete experience somehow. If it’s a bottom-line money thing, I hope whatever UH saved by staying at a sponsor’s casino hotel instead of somewhere else on the mainland offsets the lost revenue for this week’s home game against UC-Davis when little more than 20,000 show up.
And let’s stop the moaning about the trip being too long, and that’s why the Warriors lost. In 2007, UH won at LaTech and then the next week at UNLV. That Hawaii team spent the week between in Houston — in a hotel without a casino. Couldn’t UH have found a staging area away from Las Vegas after playing at Washington the week prior?
You can say the Warriors didn’t show up Saturday, and they let themselves be manhandled by an inferior opponent. But they weren’t put in a position to win a game they should’ve won. The result is the ugliest loss since the Sugar Bowl and a team that has played worse each week instead of better.
Reach Star-Advertiser sports columnist Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com, his "Quick Reads" blog at staradvertiser.com and twitter.com/dave_reardon Opens in a new tab.
