Coach Gib Arnold is usually full of youthful energy and enthusiasm. But he sounded old and tired in his post-game interview with radio voice Bobby Curran after Saturday’s game at Louisiana Tech.
The good news is the University of Hawaii basketball team left Ruston, La., for probably the last time.
There wasn’t a whole lot else to be happy about at the end of this 10-day, 11,000-mile road ordeal in which Hawaii also lost to Montana and New Mexico State — and by an average of 24.7 points. Just that it’s finally over.
In his 5-minute post mortem with Curran, Arnold uttered the word "legs" — as in exhausted, rubber legs — three times.
"It seemed like we were really tired," Arnold croaked.
Tired legs lead to turnovers. Hawaii had 22 of them Saturday in falling 84-67.
Going 0-3 on this trip was not unexpected. But three double-digit losses is not good. The question now is whether the team can recover to finish out the WAC season at home with wins against Idaho and Utah State to position itself decently for the conference tournament.
People aren’t talking about UH making a 3-0 run through the WAC tourney and into the NCAAs like they were before this road trip from hell. But it’s still not impossible.
For it to happen, the Rainbows need Zane Johnson to start scoring again; he showed some signs of coming out of his extended slump Saturday, going 3-for-8 from 3-point land and totaling 11 points.
And for the entire team to re-learn taking care of the ball, of course. And rebounding. And not fouling. And playing solid defense again.
On second thought, yeah, it looks pretty close to impossible. Those are a lot of things to fix in a short amount of time, whether you’re at home or on the moon.
If anything, this crazy voyage should remind advocates of UH joining the Mountain West instead of the Big West in basketball about the harsh realities of long road trips deep into the continent.
Unfortunately, the NCAA Tournament selection committee relies too much on the ridiculous Ratings Percentage Index formula for strength of schedule that makes the Mountain West look like a way better conference than the Big West. But howls against the simplistic stupidity of valuing the records of opponents and opponents’ opponents as 75 percent compared to 25 percent for the actual team in question are finally starting to take hold. May RPI forever RIP, soon.
The Rainbows will enjoy much more success in away games in the Pacific Time Zone — within driving range of LAX — than they ever did or would in a conference that includes visits to places like Wyoming, Colorado State and Air Force.
We’ve been down this road before … when these high-altitude, expensive-and-difficult-to-get-to outposts were members of the WAC. Even good UH teams were pounded by some mediocre squads enjoying the comforts of home.
And, sorry, I must have missed something. When did Mountain West basketball become the Big East?
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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.
