Rainbow Warriors and Wahine headed to The Big Dance

In the end, there was no choke, and there’s no chance of a snub.

There will be no watching others on TV from across the ocean, wondering what might have been.

No settling for a sideshow event. No worrying about an NCAA investigation.

Not today, not this time.

They’re champions, and wallflowers no longer.

For the first time in nearly a generation the Rainbow Warriors and Wahine are headed to The Big Dance.

With their victories in the championship games of the Big West tournament Saturday, the University of Hawaii men’s and women’s basketball teams earned automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament.

After the men cut down the nets, as the women had earlier in the day after their win, the two teams gathered on the court a few miles from Disneyland and chanted: WE ARE … BIG WEST CHAMPS … WE ARE … HAWAII.

Now comes the really fun part, as both squads learn where they are headed over the next two days.

This is the second time both UH teams made it in the same year. The first was 1994 — before most of the current players were born.

The last time the men went to the NCAAs was 2002. For the women it was 1998.

The Warriors have overcome plenty of adversity, winning more than 20 games for three seasons in a row — and under three different coaches, part of the fallout of an investigation that could leave them ineligible for postseason play next year.

The results of the NCAA’s findings also forced them to forfeit victories — but not this 64-60 nail-biter over a Long Beach State team that had dealt Hawaii two of its five losses this year. Hawaii tied the program record Saturday with its 27th win.

“Come on, I want to book my tickets,” Dennis Le, 32, of McCully, said nervously as he watched the final minutes at Stats Sports Bar near Ala Moana.

Le, a lifelong UH fan, attends most home games and now plans to follow them to the tournament.

“Wow, I am a little speechless,” UH athletic director David Matlin said in a text. “Amazing win for our program, our university and the state of Hawaii. So proud of the Wahine and the Warriors.”

More than a thousand Hawaii fans attended the games at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

“There’s a lot of pride here, so many people from Hawaii,” said Jeff Cabanlit, who is from Pearl City but moved to Anaheim last year from Cerritos, Calif.

He brought his 7-year-old son, Conner, to the game, and both were attired in UH green.

“It’s all about pride,” he said.

The Wahine win was not nearly as close — 78-59, over UC Davis. But it’s just as rewarding for a program that has steadily improved in the past four seasons under coach Laura Beeman.

“When you think about it being 18 years ago, yeah, that’s a long time,” said Nani Cockett, who starred on the last UH women’s team to go to the NCAAs. “(The program) went through its downs after Vince (Goo) retired as coach. It was a dark period and Laura brought this team back to life. I was hoping they’d make it last year. But (losing in the Big West tournament final after winning the regular-season title) that just fed their fire to not let that happen again.”

UH first-year men’s coach Eran Ganot was obviously elated, and told radio play-by-play announcer Bobby Curran afterward he was confident the ’Bows would hang on and not lose to Long Beach State again.

“These guys have a look,” Ganot said on KKEA 1420-AM minutes after the win. “And when you see that look late in the game you believe.”

Le said he believes that the ’Bows can finally win in the NCAA Tournament for the first time (they are 0-4), although they will undoubtedly be an underdog.

“Of course it depends on the matchup, but we could do some damage,” he said. “You never know, we can catch some people off-guard. We’ve had good teams before, but Eran seems to instill this never-say-die attitude. It seems like Eran is getting the best out of each player.”

The UH men and women both got huge contributions from role players off the bench Saturday, as they had throughout the tournament and regular season.

“The one similarity I see (in comparison to the ’Bows’ last NCAA teams in 2001 and 2002) is that you have your superstars like Savo (Predrag Savovic), and Carl (English), but then it’s the role players who have really stepped up,” said Derek Inouchi, the UH sports media relations director, who also handled publicity for the teams 14 and 15 years ago. “Look at the quality minutes guys like (freshman guard) Sheriff (Drammeh) when Q (Quincy Smith) got hurt and (junior center Stefan) Jovanovic. Not a lot of stuff on the stat sheet, but steady play.”

Cockett said the current Wahine team has more depth and size than her team in 1998 did.

“I’d tell them enjoy this time and take it all in,” she said. “But when it’s time to take care of business, take care of business. We never could get past that first round. This team could do greater than what my teams did. However far they want to take it, it’s up to them. They made the entire state of Hawaii proud, and made me proud to be a Rainbow Wahine.”

The exposure UH gets from having its basketball teams on the national stage won’t erase all of its problems, but it certainly won’t hurt. And the TV money it gets with a first-round men’s win would help.

“I don’t know if football can take a page out of this, but winning cures everything,” Le said.