UH AD Jay not in a hurry to make coaching changes

All it takes is a few keyboard clicks to find disgruntled and mostly anonymous folks who want University of Hawaii coaches and administrators ousted for a variety of reasons.

There’s even a "Fire Ben Jay" poll. There are 24 who say "yes" and 179 who say "no," so the new athletic director doesn’t have to worry about that yet. I’m guessing he isn’t at all, since he’s got lots of other things to lose sleep over.

Those eager for Jay to drop the hammer on a coach or three, well, you may be in for a wait. He’s more interested in changing dead light bulbs than coaches right now, and nothing he’s said or done since he got here in January indicates he’s in a hurry to hand out walking papers.

There is no hot seat for anyone to be on … yet.

"No, not really. Unless there’s something to do with NCAA compliance or academic related or plain out negligent, where I have to question somebody’s character," Jay said. "Outside of that, I’m just sitting here evaluating them as coaches."

The academic part of Jay’s evaluation process comes into play heavily with men’s basketball coach Gib Arnold’s possible extension, as UH is in serious jeopardy of falling short in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rating criteria. What happens in the classrooms and on final exams as this semester comes to a close could be crucial to the program’s future, more important than anything that has transpired on the court.

Whether UH is eligible for postseason play in 2015 could hinge on the grades of a player who has completed his eligibility and another who is transferring. And since APR is on a four-year scale, academic deficiencies from the year before Arnold arrived are still in effect.

But there’s no doubt the massive number of early departures from UH in Arnold’s three years has contributed heavily to the APR situation.

"Sometimes it’s about playing time and turnover does happen," Jay said. "There will be times when a coach has to be honest with a kid and say, ‘I don’t really see you getting much playing time,’ and let the kid make the decision. That’s fine, that’s being honest with him. But where turnover can hurt obviously is in academics, and we need them leaving in good standing."

That’s why future contract extensions will have bonuses linked to academics — not silly autograph sessions that look more like workarounds to avoid the taxpayer sticker shock of a higher base salary.

Jay’s policy is to see coaches in action during their seasons before judgments on contract extensions and restructuring.

That process cuts both ways. While it can give coaches who have struggled more rope, one who might deserve an extension, soccer’s Michele Nagamine, has to wait.

The Wahine were 8-9-3 after her second season last fall. But it was another year of steady improvement as UH went 5-12-1 in Nagamine’s first year; she took over following the 3-14-3 mark in 2010 under Pinsoom Tenzing.

"It’s not fair to sit here and decide on Michele if I haven’t seen her coach," Jay said.

Some say you might as well fire a coach you don’t extend. That’s because one viewed as possibly on limited time loses leverage — in recruiting, as well as with current players.

Nagamine is a players’ coach, so maybe that won’t be a problem for her.

As for Charlie Wade and Mike Trapasso, they need to keep Jay’s eyes on the men’s volleyball and baseball recruiting classes they have coming in as much as they possibly can.

Job security is alien to coaching. But Jay seems fair-minded and in no rush.

Plus, there are lots of other things he can fix with the money it takes to change a coach.

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.