One of my siblings and I never cheated in Monopoly. The other three did, constantly (full disclosure: if I were not the eldest, I might have too).

Who won?

Nobody. I don’t think we ever actually finished a game. The kids who never cheated were not skilled enough to overcome the cheaters, and the cheaters always got caught.

The board would get flipped, concluding an argument started when a stack of $500 bills and two of the railroads mysteriously made their way from the bank to somebody’s pile of cash. Even after most of us had grown up and left home, my mom was still finding little green houses and "Get Out Of Jail Free" cards between sofa cushions and under rugs.

The point is, if you’re going to cheat (or even be accused of cheating), you should win.

And you should win big. Right?

It’s embarrassing enough for the University of Hawaii that the NCAA is investigating its basketball program. But if you believe some of the wild rumors going around, some big-time talent should be here crushing its Big West opponents and winning NCAA Tournament games on a regular basis.

The 2013-14 team won 20 games, but was just 9-7 in the Big West and lost four of its last six, including a monumental choke job in the first game of the conference tournament.

Gib Arnold’s proponents point out that he has not had a losing season in four years as UH coach. I’ve written several times that I enjoyed watching last season’s team. But the Rainbow Warriors are 1-4 in conference tournament games under Arnold and have not been to the NCAAs since 2002.

You may remember that was with a crew that included some slick foreign imports … and UH paid a price for that with the NCAA, as some of them were hit with suspensions for playing among professionals in their home countries.

But it proved to be a win in the long run for UH, as the talented non-Americans helped UH to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.

When the men’s volleyball team ran afoul of the NCAA in 2002 for a similar situation involving star player Costas Theocharidis from Greece, the Warriors had to vacate a national championship. But it has never been forfeited in the memories of the team or its fans.

I’m told by someone in the know on NCAA matters that UH’s current problems are an accumulation of "lots of little things."

We’ve heard speculation of some big things, too, but that’s all it is at this point — speculation.

"Lots of little things" could describe what happened in 1977, when 68 violations of 18 NCAA rules led to two years of probation for UH, just a few seasons after the success and excitement of the Fabulous Five and continued recruitment of great players, like Tom Henderson.

Even discounting possible sanctions, the longer this current investigation goes on the worse it is for recruiting and scheduling.

I don’t advocate breaking or bending rules. But it is especially sad that if UH did cheat, it could not do so well enough to win the Big West.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.