NCAA win leaves ‘the boss,’ island fans jumping for joy

When time had expired and confirming glances at the TV screen attested to the authenticity of the University of Hawaii’s opening-round NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament victory, the old coach went airborne.

Propelled by the exultation of a breakthrough triumph 44 long years in coming, 74-year-old Riley Wallace leaped out of his chair at the California Hotel &Casino in Las Vegas, where he had joined a gathering of Hawaii fans.

“I jumped 3 inches, I was so happy,” Wallace said in a phone call. “OK, maybe 2. My (vertical) isn’t what it used to be.”

After four fruitless tries — three of them in Wallace’s 19 years as the program’s most accomplished head coach — the 77-66 upset of fourth-seeded California in Spokane, Wash., on Friday had advanced the 13th-seeded Rainbow Warriors to the second round of the tournament, where they will play Maryland at 1:10 p.m. Sunday.

It was the milestone victory Hawaii fans had been waiting for since the legendary Fabulous Five fell by 27 points to Weber State in the 1972 tournament. In four tries, the last one 14 years ago, they had lost by an average of 16 points. The NCAA Tournament field expanded to 68 teams from 24 in the interim, but UH never got closer than 10 points in a first-round game.

“I had hoped they’d get that win before (I died),” acknowledged Wallace, who has survived two strokes.

The years of pent-up hopes were part of why a vocal contingent of Hawaii fans took up a robust chant of “Rain-bows! Rain-bows!” as the waning minutes wound down on the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena clock.

Eran Ganot understood well the depth of the triumph. Unlike some of his predecessors, the rookie head coach grasped and celebrated UH history, welcoming icons as well as rank and file of the past throughout the year. And in postgame comments he graciously paid a heartfelt and lengthy homage to former head coaches Wallace, Red Rocha, Larry Little, Bob Nash and others who had come before him.

Ganot noted, “To build for the future, you have to honor your past. You have to understand your past. And we have a great tradition.”

It would be a triumph made all the sweeter by what the ’Bows endured to get there. Many of the players, including second-half savior Quincy Smith, a senior, had experienced three head coaches in as many years, not to mention nearly a dozen assistant coaches passing through.

They had toiled under the cloud of an NCAA investigation they were not principals in for nearly as long. A key teammate, Isaac Fleming, quit just before the end of the regular season. Through it all Ganot had given them much-needed structure and sought to reinforce team concepts.

To get where they stand today, these ’Bows had to set a school record for single-season victories, their now 28-5 mark surpassing the 27-6 finish of the 2001-02 team, which was the last to reach an NCAA Tournament.

Except for the faithful on these shores — and in the White House, where President Obama’s bracket had them as the self-described “homer” choice to beat Cal — few thought the team from the middle of the Pacific and a mid-major conference, the Big West, capable of knocking off the 23rd-ranked team in the Associated Press poll.

The Big West had not had a representative win an opening-round game (exclusive of play-in contests) since 2005.

When the UH-Cal pairing was announced, Fox Network sportscaster Dan Patrick said it was “outlandish” to pick the ’Bows as a first-round bracket buster. ESPN’s Basketball Power Index gave UH a 16 percent chance of beating the Golden Bears, which was 4 percentage points below the historical winning percentage of No. 13 seeds vs. No. 4 seeds (25-99) since 1985.

Las Vegas oddsmakers initially made UH a seven-point underdog, with the line dropping to 5-1/2 before tipoff due to Cal injuries.

So when the Golden Bears, who were without their two starting guards, Tyrone Wallace (broken hand suffered Wednesday in practice) and Jabari Bird (back spasms before the game Friday) clawed back from what had been a 47-37 deficit to close to 47-46 with 11 minutes, 56 seconds remaining as UH fouls mounted, the concern was palpable from the Palouse to Palolo.

But that would be the Golden Bears’ last scent of a comeback, as UH outscored them 30-20 the rest of the way. In this, Smith, who was apparently determined for it not to be his final college game, was clutch with the highest-scoring game of his UH career. He scored 19 points, 11 of them in the second half, when the team’s leading scorer, Stefan Jankovic, was sidelined for 13 minutes with foul trouble.

Particularly telling was that Smith, UH’s worst free-throw shooter with a 43.7 percent average on a team averaging 68 percent, made good on seven of eight attempts.

Thursday night, not wishing to leave anything to chance, Wallace left a voice message for the protege he had recommended for the job last year. “I was staying up late and I got this voicemail,” Ganot said. “It was Coach Wallace. He said, and I saved it, ‘Best of luck. Proud of you. And go get a good night’s sleep.’ And at that point I shut it down (around 2 a.m.). That was it. He’s the boss.”

When it was over and a TV reporter asked him about it being barely 10 a.m. in Hawaii, Ganot said, “They’re rockin’ right now (in Hawaii). I don’t care what time it is. It’s a special time.”

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