‘We worked really hard to get to this point’

Gib Arnold’s eyes welled up and he began to speak deliberately, his voice just above a whisper.

In an interview that ranged between the manner of his firing as head men’s basketball coach at the University of Hawaii to the current ineligibility of star forward Isaac Fotu, Arnold was at his most emotional speaking of what the Rainbow Warriors might have been under his leadership in the upcoming season.

"I think we worked really hard to get to this point, to where I had a special group of guys," Arnold said in his family’s Kailua home. "I had NBA-talented players. And we were young, and we had great leadership in Garrett (Nevels). We had great players in Fotu and (Stefan) Jankovic and Negus (Webster-Chan) and Mike Thomas grew up and Aaron Valdes. Our freshman class was the best ever.

"I’ve had top-25 teams, and I felt this was the best team I’ve ever had the opportunity and pleasure to coach. And so did the guys. And that’s what’s killing them — they’re feeling like this has been taken out from under them. And they continue to be told ‘it’s for your good.’ And I don’t buy that. And neither do the guys. They don’t believe that, when they were told ‘this is done for you.’ They don’t believe that."

Those players are at the command — at least for now — of acting head coach Benjy Taylor, Arnold’s former right-hand man. Athletic director Ben Jay has not informed Taylor how long he will hold the position.

Arnold said he supports Taylor and does not want to fight to retake his post at UH to coach a fifth season, legally or through the media. But he does seek to clear his name of wrongdoing.

The NCAA, which has investigated the UH hoops program since March, has not yet sent its letter of allegations to UH detailing possible infractions committed by the program.

"You know, I’ve loved it here," said Arnold, a Punahou graduate. "We built something special. We did it the right way. If there were mistakes that were made, sorry. I would have liked to have been part of the process of creating the solution. That’s all I ask. I think at the University of Hawaii, we’re great at finding the problem. We suck at finding the solution."

Arnold expressed some frustration with previous Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports.

"What’s going to happen … is probably in the next two or three weeks we’ll get a confidental letter of allegations," Arnold said. "And I’m sure it will be mysteriously leaked to the Star-Advertiser, and (columnist) Ferd Lewis. We’ll probably get an email from the athletic department telling us we’re not supposed to do that, we can get fired if we share confidential information. Probably be a few nasty articles, referring (to) us as Charles Manson or whatnot.

"But then something beautiful will happen; there’s actually going to be a process, that the NCAA allows as part of this. There will be 90 days of which we’ll be able to read everything that they’ve said.

"The idea all along, was, hey, we’ll wait until this process happens, we’ll find out what the allegations are, and probably, once we’ve put out our information, a number of those allegations will be disproven. A few of them will probably have some truth or some partial truth to them, that we’ll agree … to some (extent). And there might be a couple too like, ‘wait a minute, we disagree with this. We disagree with this statement.’ And that’s the process."

Arnold was asked if he felt anything would be revealed by the investigation that would qualify as firing with cause. He was fired without cause Tuesday, meaning he gets paid the remainder of the $344,000 on his contract expiring June 30.

"That’s a fair question. And, I don’t (believe so)," he replied. "I never have.

"I felt very confident, as did my attorney who said, ‘I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I don’t see a smoking gun.’ You know, never in our wildest dreams did I expect to have a piece of paper (firing slip) put on my desk."

He said he first heard of the firing of himself and assistant Brandyn Akana an hour beforehand from his wife, who heard from friends.

News broke Wednesday that Fotu, UH’s returning All-Big West Conference forward, is ineligible to play in games for an indefinite period and that the team is appealing to have him reinstated.

Arnold said he didn’t know how much time Fotu will miss this season.

"It kills me," he said. "And I haven’t even been able to reach out and help him. … I don’t even know what he’s being alleged of. I can tell you, I have nothing, zero, to do with any of this. They never asked me questions regarding any specific thing with Isaac Fotu, along any lines, that I know of. So, that’s very troubling, when a great kid — not a good kid, a great kid — is told you can’t play, and we’re not telling you why you can’t play."

The son of former UH coach Frank Arnold conceded his days as a head coach — at least at the Division I level — might be over.

"Could be done," Arnold said. "Google my name. See what comes up. It won’t come up, ‘highest team GPA.’ It won’t come up ‘winningest percentage coach in the history of UH.’ It won’t come up ‘great group of guys.’ (Or) ‘20-loss program to a 20-win program.’ It’ll come up, ‘NCAA investigation, fired.’ It’s hard for an AD to sell that to his people. So, you know. But that’s the least of my worries. We’ll figure something out."

Arnold was 72-55 in four seasons in Manoa, including 20-11 last season. UH played in the pay-for-play CollegeInsider.com Tournament twice during his tenure, but did not qualify for the more prestigious NCAA or NIT tournaments.

Last week, UH was picked to finish fifth in the Big West Conference media preseason poll.