UH men’s basketball job unique in Division I

In a roundabout way this week, Eran Ganot reminded us of a reason that the University of Hawaii men’s basketball coaching job he holds is fairly remarkable, if not unique at the Division I level.

Ganot’s name was reported linked on a couple of fronts (inaccurately, he maintains) to an opening at the University of San Diego.

The concern among some UH fans and Ganot loyalists was that he might pick up and leave for greener pastures after three seasons on this reclamation project.

To do so would make him the first in the nearly 50-year Division I history of UH men’s basketball to leave for what was deemed a better college head coaching job.

Think about that for a moment. Since the 1970s UH has had eight full-time head coaches — Red Rocha, Bruce O’Neil, Larry Little, Frank Arnold, Riley Wallace, Bob Nash, Gib Arnold and Ganot. (Rick Pitino and Benjy Taylor were temporary, in-season interim appointees with no promise of retention).

None immediately departed the premises for the lure of anything resembling a step up the college head coaching ladder. None cashed in on lucrative deals elsewhere (buy-outs excepted, of course). Some were shown the door, slid into non-coaching positions or, seeing the handwriting on the wall, simply walked away.

But none used UH for a quick steppingstone up the food chain.

There are a few ways to read that track record, of course. One is that this is a great place to live and who needs the rat race of more pressurized surroundings elsewhere.

Other reasons are that the geographical separation from college basketball’s mainstream makes it difficult to advance or that some of the hires were just plain incapable of reaching or sustaining the kind of success that would vault them into better positions.

Three seasons and a 69-35 mark into his tenure at UH, we wait to see which category Ganot might fit into. Or, if he will be the first to be launched to bigger and better things.

In comments to Star-Advertiser basketball writer Brian McInnis this week intended to put distance between himself and speculation about the USD job, Ganot said, “I love my job. I have a great job and I love Hawaii …”

In subsequent comments to the Star-Advertiser over the course of the week, Ganot said he had not applied for the USD job nor had he reached out through representatives.

Absent evidence to the contrary, we are prepared to take him at his word.

This coming season, the team’s roster of scholarship players — guard Brocke Stepteau walked on under Gib Arnold and as yet does not have a scholarship — will be all Ganot signees for the first time.

To this point the perception is that Ganot has gotten the most out of the talent available to him and nipped the incidents that once rocked the program. To be sure, there have been no reports of pakalolo-tripped smoke alarms at the team’s road hotels as was the case prior to his arrival.

The measure of Ganot’s tenure, it seems, will come in his ability to recruit to a talent level that makes the Rainbow Warriors a winner against a competitive schedule and a regular championship contender in the Big West Conference.

If Ganot can take UH to that level, nobody should begrudge him if he, someday, does move on.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.