This is the time of year when if the football team is disappointing the wise guys say something like "When does basketball season start?"

The rebuilt University of Hawaii hoops squad will be unveiled tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center. And that’s fun, except for one little thing. It doesn’t have a point guard.

College basketball teams are easier to rebuild than college football teams. Way fewer moving parts.

But one thing that’s not negotiable is that you need someone good to bring the ball up court and run the team as an extension of the coach. Gib Arnold doesn’t know who that is yet. He can’t even be sure if he has a capable pass-first point guard on his roster.

Manroop Clair could turn out to be the answer. Unfortunately he’s battling injuries now.

If the new front-court players are as good as advertised (we already know center Vander Joaquim is the real deal) it will be a shame if no one can get them the ball.

Then there’s volleyball; that’s usually something to look to when football’s not going well. The Wahine remain nationally ranked. However, the team’s most exciting player has been suspended and we don’t know when or if Jane Croson will return.

Bummer.

AND WE haven’t even gotten to the latest chapter with upper campus. Either the Board of Regents has magically developed some gumption or more political pressure is being applied and that’s why it has apparently done something close to a 180 in its support of president M.R.C. Greenwood.

Either way, it’s easy to envision another search committee in the near future and not for a new football coach — although that’s what some of the fans want five games into Norm Chow’s tenure.

Meanwhile, the quest to find a new athletic director is making the same amount of progress as the transit project. Zero.

The need for a Manoa chancellor is as debatable as that of rail. UH would likely have to pay yet another high-salaried exec not to come to work if it releases Tom Apple, who has been on the job for an even shorter time than Chow. But can it afford to keep Apple when a prominent power broker like Bert T. Kobayashi won’t work with him and resigns from the athletics booster club, citing a lack of respect for him?

So there are choices. Unfortunately, both bad.

SPEAKING OF options, that’s what scares me about UH’s chances at Aloha Stadium on Saturday: New Mexico’s wishbone offense. My wish for the Warriors is that they would have a healthier defensive line and more experienced linebackers to deal with the Lobos’ ground attack that averages 271.7 yards per game.

Good: New Mexico’s option is different than Nevada’s pistol that gutted the Warriors and scored at will last month. Bad: Hawaii hasn’t shown it can stop anyone in the FBS yet.

"It’s more like a read zone. With Nevada it was more downhill," Warriors defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer said.

This is when we unleash the standard "assignment football" and "responsibility" blah blah blah about defending the option.

Kaumeyer understands how important that concept is and has conveyed it to his young players. But he also knows there’s a fine line between thinking and doing and it still comes down to disrupting the offense by hitting harder and faster.

"We’ve got to be aggressive and take guys on," he said. "We’ve just got to shed blocks and go. Even though you know your assignment you still gotta beat the guy in front of you and make the play. It’s about getting off blocks."

The Warriors have a bye next week. If they don’t shed those blocks and come up with a homecoming win, a lot of UH fans will turn their attention to basketball and that point guard situation.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.