It’s been a rough patch for University of Hawaii athletics, on and off the field. With Norm Chow now ousted as head football coach, interim Coach Chris Naeole has worked his athletes physically and mentally this past week, hoping to salvage the rest of the season. Today, at 1 p.m. Hawaii time, the Rainbow Warriors take on UNLV in Nevada, and Hawaii fans are cheering them on.

As for another UH squad emerging after its own tough times last year: The men’s basketball team gave fans an ultimately exciting show Thursday night, rallying from a 22-point deficit to win in overtime, 101-96, against Chaminade in an exhibition game. Let’s hope the team sees much success under new hoops coach, Eran Ganot; likewise for the football Warriors under interim Coach Naeole.

Trash pickup should be a can-do job

Trash pickup is considered a basic service a city provides. Even so, Honolulu doesn’t quite have a handle on it.

And it’s not just that trash bins in some communities were not emptied on schedule for four days, due to staff shortages. Every system has failures. The more worrisome thing would be that it was unclear how many homes were missed. Even when the electric company has outages, it knows where the lights are out.

Let’s hope the city fills its vacant positions soon and gets things back on track. Trash pickup needs to be reliable. “If can, can — if no can, no can” is not a slogan that should apply here.