Sunday, May 19, 2013
Further Review Premium
As our ohana celebrates a milestone birthday today of my aunt and godmother Sandra Lee, much of the conversation will be about and include her grandchildren (she has quite a few), in particular Kanoa Hironaka and Taylor Suwa since they just competed in state championships last week.
So the UH athletic department no longer owes $13M to upper campus. Balanced budget, the easy way. Some look at it as a family member forgiving a loan. Some look at it as a charge-off of a bad debt. Some look at it as $13M of public money being taken from UH's academic mission.
Hawaii athletic director Ben Jay will be at Pearl Ridge Elementary on Thursday. So show up with your signs and your petition and your speeches, fans of the nickname Warriors, all by its lonesome.
Crunch a few numbers and you may be in for a surprise. University of Hawaii sports teams won more games than they lost in 2012-13. And even if the UH baseball and softball squads lose everything the rest of the way, this year is a winning one overall for the UH athletic department on the playing fields.
One of the paths to a good outlook on life is to try to do something different every day, something you never thought you'd experience. For me on Saturday, that meant watching a water polo match on the Internet.
Anthony Carter and Alika Smith established themselves as the most recognizable tandem in the history of University of Hawaii sports. Now, 15 years after, there's another UH athletic pairing in a different sport putting the finishing touches on careers even more impressive.
If you're encountering difficulties figuring out where Tom Apple is coming from, look at where he came from. That would be the University of Delaware, home of the Blue Hens … the Blue Hens who play a level below the University of Hawaii, in the Football Championship Subdivision.
After today we’re done with the silliest debate in the history of college sports, right? If not, somebody please stick pencils into my eyeballs to take my mind off it.
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.
They keep coming. You might wonder why, since the University of Hawaii baseball team is now 9-29 after its 3-0 loss to Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.
Instead of leaving school after his junior season, Davone Bess could have returned to the University of Hawaii football team and left with every program pass receiving record and a diploma. And the NFL would still be there waiting for him.
Everybody relax. Manti Te’o will play in the NFL, might even be a star. It is extremely likely he will be picked by a team today. The fact that he wasn’t drafted in the first round Thursday just means he now has more wood for the fire.
In the early going Sunday, I thought the University of Hawaii baseball team had found another way to lose. But in the final analysis, it wasn't just the poor baserunning that did in the Rainbows in their 10-5 defeat. It was also running out of pitching.
What transpired Saturday at Ko Olina is why we watch sports. Drama, straight out of nowhere. The youngster taking on the established veteran. The up-and-comer breaking through and making the 10-time winner sweat, forcing a playoff.
Michelle Wie checked out of her hotel room but she didn't check out mentally from the tournament, and that helped her to a solid round of 3-under par on Friday.
She’s not here for the golf. Doesn’t play it, doesn’t really watch it much.
The LPGA prides itself on accessibility. It's a big part of the brand. "All you've got is a rope, about three inches between players and fans," said Kraig Kann, the tour's chief communications officer.
It's tempting to dismiss "42" as sentimental rehash dished up a few decades too late. But the story of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier nearly 70 years ago remains relevant today and should be retold to every generation.
There were a few telling numbers from the University of Hawaii's full-pads scrimmage at Cooke Field on Saturday. Norm Chow's supposedly archaic 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-rust offense employed 29 pass plays and 22 runs, for 57 percent.
Leading up to today's release of "42," a film about Jackie Robinson, there's been a lot of talk about the decline in the number of African-Americans playing baseball.
A one-time enemy of thestate on the football field now tries to defend Hawaii — and the rest of the country and its allies — with the stakes much higher.
The bingo promotion in the stands produced more drama than the mismatches on the field. The University of Hawaii softball team hit twice as many home runs in its first inning Saturday as the baseball team has in 27 games.
The off-the-field college sports news is crazier than usual this week, and that's saying something.
"I love living here and being part of the culture," said Ben Jay, Tuesday night on 1420-AM's "Call The Coach" show. "I'm learning about it every day."
On Opening Day for the big leagues, the University of Hawaii played a baseball game that you could consider extended spring training — in the middle of the season.
He's never feared the unconventional path — whether it be the long way to the end zone on punt returns at the University of Hawaii, or carving a trail to pro football stardom in Canada rather than taking another shot at the NFL.
UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii battled for three hours and two minutes in the rain Thursday, and the Gauchos were one run better, 7-6, than the Rainbows in UH's first Big West game as a conference member.
Mike Trapasso said it was part planned and part unstaged. It seemed more spontaneous, as in combustion. "It was worse in the locker room," Hawaii's baseball coach said of his postgame explosion that started in the dugout after the Rainbows fell to Gonzaga on March 11.
CIT and APR. One three-letter acronym is already a source of some acrimony for the University of Hawaii basketball program. The second could be much more troubling.
OK, so who's going to pay for this? Only 3,544 tickets were issued for the glorified rec league tournament game the University of Hawaii basketball team played in Wednesday. We were told UH would have to get 6,500 to break even. Obviously, it didn't come close.
Spring football practice is about working hard to get better, especially when you're coming off a 3-9 season, as is Hawaii. That doesn't mean there isn't time for sideline observers to ponder things like who should be first off the bus.
Perhaps you are familiar with one of the cataclysmic college athletics issues of our time: The Great Bagel Debate. In 2008, the NCAA voted to let its member schools provide student-athletes with "fruits, nuts and bagels" at any time, not just during training table hours.
Before Marshall Henderson of Ole Miss became the most fascinating and hated basketball player in the SEC, Hawaii fans got an eyeful — and earful — of the Rebel without a pause at the Stan Sheriff Center last December.
Around 700 fans filled the stands for Thursday’s 1-0 University of Hawaii softball loss to Cal in the rematch of the dramatic UH win a year ago today, when Jessica Iwata homered to beat the then-No. 1 Bears.
This is when any college basketball team that gets hot and makes some 3-pointers has a chance to survive and advance, at least for a while.
Cutting down the net, after winning on senior night? Well, as University of Hawaii TV voice Jim Leahey said, "Why not?" It worked out OK for the Indiana men, and they did it after a loss.
One night recently toward the end of a typical 15-hour work day, Ben Jay strolled around the soccer practice field at the University of Hawaii. "As I did that, more and more it became clear to me we could turn that field into a field suitable for (intercollegiate) competition.
Joe Moore and I told him it's a good idea, if he had a time machine. "I told him he's 10 years too late," said Moore, the KHON-TV2 anchor who skirmished with June Jones over Rainbows and Warriors.
If you've been hearing about Cal Lee's new job, it's probably speculation he's going to be a high school head football coach again.
Maybe upsets just don't mean as much anymore. Maybe the relevance of this one has faded over the decades. Maybe the window has closed, and Chaminade's knocking off of No. 1 Virginia and Ralph Sampson 30 years ago just doesn't mean as much as we thought it would.
Gib Arnold calls it "beautiful" and says, "That's the kind of problem I want to have." The University of Hawaii basketball coach has been on both sides of court stormings, back when he was an assistant at USC. Big win at home, big loss on the road. Fans rush the court.
As Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara traded the lead nine times in the first half alone Thursday, at least one court-side observer at the Stan Sheriff Center was all smiles. Dennis Farrell, the commissioner of the Big West, attended UH's narrow 70-66 home win.
It was the greatest season in University of Hawaii softball history, and to that point 2010 was the most eventful year in Kelly Majam's life. UH went to the College World Series, with Majam, the team's star freshman centerfielder, breaking home run records and receiving national acclaim.
Few — if anyone — expected the University of Hawaii baseball team to have a winning record seven games into this season, not with the first two series being against nationally ranked Oregon and Rice.
The University of Hawaii somehow turned a basketball game against Northern Arizona into an event. A great one. I figured UH would win handily, which it did, 84-50. But I wasn't expecting much as far as a crowd and atmosphere.
Wayne Graham turns 77 in two months. The only retiring he looks forward to is his Rice pitchers sending opposing batters directly back to the dugout.
Back when Maryknoll won its first and only — so far — state boys Division I basketball championship, the players had the best suntans in the country. That's what happens when you don't have a gym and practice outside.
Baseball people know you don't panic at 0-3. Especially when the losses are against a team as good as Oregon. Yes, this could be a long season for the University of Hawaii … especially if the Rainbows had to play the Ducks every game. Fortunately they don't — just once more, today.
What's the shelf life for buzz? It held up nine months for Quintin Torres-Costa. It was last May when he pitched one of the most spectacular games in Hawaii state high school tournament history.
With the official end of the Rainbow, a new round of complaints ensued. That was expected. Negative feedback would have arisen from whatever athletic director Ben Jay decided regarding University of Hawaii team nicknames.
One of the things Norm Chow talked about when he became University of Hawaii head football coach 14 months ago was paving a path for UH players to the NFL.
Saturday Night Fever at the Sheriff Center on disco night against UC Irvine was far less flashy than blitzing Long Beach State two nights earlier. But this 78-72 win for UH's fifth-straight victory possessed a charm of its own because of its textbook nature.
When you see something really cool you want to share it with friends, right? The first one of these for me in 2013 is tonight, at the Stan Sheriff Center, when the University of Hawaii men's basketball team hosts UC Irvine.
Looks good ... on paper. That’s one of the few conclusions we can really make today about the University of Hawaii’s football recruiting class.
Ma'ake Kemoeatu figured he was done. He'd had a good eight-season run in the NFL, but now he could barely jog.
That was one year ago.
BY-Who? Oh, that's the school on the North Shore, right? That's where some younger University of Hawaii football fans stand.
That first play from scrimmage on Sunday didn’t do much to inspire confidence in the future of the Pro Bowl, which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has had on double-not-so-secret probation since last year’s comedy of pretend football.
McGarrett and Danno The Next Generation appeared at the Ihilani Resort the other day for some taping.
If Merton Hanks were still an NFL player, those neon green kicks he wore to Pro Bowl practice Thursday might be flagged for unnecessary roughness on the eyes.
Aloha, NFL Pro Bowl players. Welcome to paradox, um, sorry, I mean paradise. Enjoy. It could be the last go-round for your all-star game if you don't knock each other's blocks off out there at Aloha Stadium on Sunday. Unlike all the other games, where you have to play nice-nice.
Reader interest remains high on this topic, so bear with me on one more Manti Te'o column before shifting into Pro Bowl gear.
A few Hawaii fans remaining gave Corey Hawkins sincere applause after he came out for interviews following his sublime performance for UC Davis in its 93-82 win over the Rainbow Warriors.
Manti Te’o was either extremely naive or incredibly manipulative.
Maybe this was just a sizzling four days for him. Or maybe we got a close look at a golf superstar in the making. Russell Henley's unreal, record-breaking 24-under-par win at the Sony Open in Hawaii -- in his debut as a PGA Tour member, no less -- could signal either.
Russell Henley peered out the window as darkness descended on the nearby beach. As has been the case most of the past three days, not one leaf on one tree stirred.
If golf were a different kind of sport, we'd look at Kevin Carll as owning the ultimate homefield advantage. Of all the 144 players in the field of the Sony Open in Hawaii, he is the one who knows the course at Waialae Country Club the best.
MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. >> You might want to say luck ran out, but that notion disappeared as quickly as Eddie Lacy into the Notre Dame end zone the first time. And it never returned. This had nothing to do with the fickle nature of good fortune.
They called it the Game of the Century even though the century was only about two-thirds over. We try not to do stuff like that these days, although it is tempting to dub tonight's BCS championship tussle the Game of the Millennium.
You can get a can of Spam in South Bend, Ind., easily. It's just $2.89 for a 12-ounce can at Martin's Super Market. But as any college kid from Hawaii on the mainland will tell you, it tastes a lot better when that can of fatty, salty goodness is received in the mail from the islands.
Desmond Howard got his wish. Alabama vs. Notre Dame in the BCS national championship game. Certainly the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner would have preferred his Michigan Wolverines in the mix Monday at Sun Life Stadium.
Where others see an interruption to momentum, Manti Te’o sees a chance to improve. Where others see building rust, Te’o sees building trust. More time to synergize the Notre Dame defense as it preps for Alabama.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. » At 5 feet 9 and 185 pounds, Notre Dame receiver Robby Toma isn’t exactly your prototypical first-off-the-bus guy. And his stats this year are relatively modest: 24 catches for 252 yards — career highs, but not eye-popping. His one touchdown came on a running play.
The events of Dec. 8 encapsulated the sports year in Hawaii as results were all disappointing for many in the 50th State. Even before the UH basketball team lost that evening for the third time in four games, 63-56 to Pepperdine, happenings on the continent were disheartening.
We told you they'd be exciting ... in good ways and bad ways, and that's what the University of Hawaii basketball team displayed Saturday. The Rainbow Warriors escaped with a thrilling 74-71 win over Cal State Northridge in their Big West debut.
Is Maui still no ka oi when it comes to college basketball tournaments in Hawaii?
The offensive fireworks apparently missed the cutoff to Aloha Stadium. Thanks to the SMU defense for bringing at least some excitement to the Hawaii Bowl.
It's not quite as big as Michigan, North Carolina and Kansas in the Rainbow Classic. But the Fab Five's coach from 20 years ago is here for a tasty matchup of his San Diego State Aztecs against flamboyant Arizona for Tuesday's championship final of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
Here's the good news for the University of Hawaii basketball team. The Warriors get to play a team they will probably beat today. And that's about it.
Full-speed ahead. That's the vibe I got from Ben Jay when he was finally introduced as the University of Hawaii's new athletic director on Thursday.
In this season of giving, the University of Hawaii is displaying its generosity.
The magic number for the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl is 14,500. That's how many people are needed in the Aloha Stadium seats on Christmas Eve to guarantee its existence a year from now.
Jim Donovan's dream job as University of Hawaii athletic director turned into a $200K-a-year purgatory at the chancellor's office. All of us should be allowed to enjoy such a session in timeout at least once, no?
The Honolulu Marathon calls itself the people's race, and with good reason. By number of entrants, it is the second-largest marathon in the country. And it's not elitist like Boston, where you can't get to the starting line without a strong qualifying time.
To win the Heisman Trophy, it helps to play a great game at precisely the right time, against the right opponent. And that is what Johnny Manziel did. He accounted for 345 yards and passed for two touchdowns in Texas A&M's 29-24 victory over then-No. 1 and undefeated Alabama on Nov. 10.
Can Ben Jay bring in the Benjamins? Or, more correctly, the thousands and the millions? Can anyone? The University of Hawaii's incoming athletic director knows that's the biggest challenge awaiting him in Manoa.
Marc Moriguchi pressed the button on the EKG machine, hoping for a different result. The readout was the same all three times. Acute myocardial infarction. In layman's terms: heart attack.
The idea for today, in conjunction with Billy Hull’s fine work in putting together the annual All-Hawaii Grown team, was to pick the greatest college football performers of all-time who played their high school football here in the islands.
Last week it was Hawaii chanting U-S-A in the locker room. This week it was the opponents doing so during pregame. The University of South Alabama Jaguars' uniforms even resembled those UH wore last week in its tribute to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Is there time for one final flavor of the week in the Heisman Trophy voting? There likely is not, because many of the voters have made their decisions and some have already turned in their choices.
From 2007 through 2010 Colin Kaepernick of Nevada was an enemy of the state of Hawaii. Now Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers has started the past two games at quarterback for the favorite team of many NFL fans in the islands.
There are two constants for this weekend each year. Turkey sandwiches (good) and moaning about the big, bad NCAA and how unfair and mean it is to the University of Hawaii volleyball program (bad).
Well … bring on Temple!
My thought was to write about Kawehena Johnson being perhaps the finest pound-for-pound high school football player I’ve ever seen, the MVP of one of the best teams in the state’s history.
Nearly 50 years before Walter Camp saw Ebb Ellis run with the ball during a soccer match and envisioned a different game, a learning institution opened on Maui.
Oh yes, Hawaii was ready to play at 7 p.m. The Rainbows are always ready at tip-off. Ready to run, and it's great fun to watch.
Laura Beeman and her players got a close-up look at whom she considers the most physically gifted player of her time Sunday at the Stan Sheriff Center: 6-foot-8 Brittney Griner, three-time All-American and 2011-12 player of the year from defending national champion Baylor.
No doubt time remained on the clock. Just enough. There was 1/10th of a second left when D.J. Richardson launched that corner 3-pointer. That shot won the game for Illinois.
Jace Tavita isn't even selfish about the selfless stat. "I didn't know I had 10 assists, wow," the University of Hawaii starting point guard said after UH's 81-54 victory Sunday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
More people ask the question each week as the losses pile up for the 2012 University of Hawaii football team.
So the UH athletic department no longer owes $13M to upper campus. Balanced budget, the easy way. Some look at it as a family member forgiving a loan. Some look at it as a charge-off of a bad debt. Some look at it as $13M of public money being taken from UH's academic mission.
Hawaii athletic director Ben Jay will be at Pearl Ridge Elementary on Thursday. So show up with your signs and your petition and your speeches, fans of the nickname Warriors, all by its lonesome.
Crunch a few numbers and you may be in for a surprise. University of Hawaii sports teams won more games than they lost in 2012-13. And even if the UH baseball and softball squads lose everything the rest of the way, this year is a winning one overall for the UH athletic department on the playing fields.
One of the paths to a good outlook on life is to try to do something different every day, something you never thought you'd experience. For me on Saturday, that meant watching a water polo match on the Internet.
Anthony Carter and Alika Smith established themselves as the most recognizable tandem in the history of University of Hawaii sports. Now, 15 years after, there's another UH athletic pairing in a different sport putting the finishing touches on careers even more impressive.
If you're encountering difficulties figuring out where Tom Apple is coming from, look at where he came from. That would be the University of Delaware, home of the Blue Hens … the Blue Hens who play a level below the University of Hawaii, in the Football Championship Subdivision.
After today we’re done with the silliest debate in the history of college sports, right? If not, somebody please stick pencils into my eyeballs to take my mind off it.
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.
They keep coming. You might wonder why, since the University of Hawaii baseball team is now 9-29 after its 3-0 loss to Cal State Fullerton on Sunday.
Instead of leaving school after his junior season, Davone Bess could have returned to the University of Hawaii football team and left with every program pass receiving record and a diploma. And the NFL would still be there waiting for him.
Everybody relax. Manti Te’o will play in the NFL, might even be a star. It is extremely likely he will be picked by a team today. The fact that he wasn’t drafted in the first round Thursday just means he now has more wood for the fire.
In the early going Sunday, I thought the University of Hawaii baseball team had found another way to lose. But in the final analysis, it wasn't just the poor baserunning that did in the Rainbows in their 10-5 defeat. It was also running out of pitching.
What transpired Saturday at Ko Olina is why we watch sports. Drama, straight out of nowhere. The youngster taking on the established veteran. The up-and-comer breaking through and making the 10-time winner sweat, forcing a playoff.
Michelle Wie checked out of her hotel room but she didn't check out mentally from the tournament, and that helped her to a solid round of 3-under par on Friday.
She’s not here for the golf. Doesn’t play it, doesn’t really watch it much.
The LPGA prides itself on accessibility. It's a big part of the brand. "All you've got is a rope, about three inches between players and fans," said Kraig Kann, the tour's chief communications officer.
It's tempting to dismiss "42" as sentimental rehash dished up a few decades too late. But the story of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier nearly 70 years ago remains relevant today and should be retold to every generation.
There were a few telling numbers from the University of Hawaii's full-pads scrimmage at Cooke Field on Saturday. Norm Chow's supposedly archaic 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-rust offense employed 29 pass plays and 22 runs, for 57 percent.
Leading up to today's release of "42," a film about Jackie Robinson, there's been a lot of talk about the decline in the number of African-Americans playing baseball.
A one-time enemy of thestate on the football field now tries to defend Hawaii — and the rest of the country and its allies — with the stakes much higher.
The bingo promotion in the stands produced more drama than the mismatches on the field. The University of Hawaii softball team hit twice as many home runs in its first inning Saturday as the baseball team has in 27 games.
The off-the-field college sports news is crazier than usual this week, and that's saying something.
"I love living here and being part of the culture," said Ben Jay, Tuesday night on 1420-AM's "Call The Coach" show. "I'm learning about it every day."
On Opening Day for the big leagues, the University of Hawaii played a baseball game that you could consider extended spring training — in the middle of the season.
He's never feared the unconventional path — whether it be the long way to the end zone on punt returns at the University of Hawaii, or carving a trail to pro football stardom in Canada rather than taking another shot at the NFL.
UC Santa Barbara and Hawaii battled for three hours and two minutes in the rain Thursday, and the Gauchos were one run better, 7-6, than the Rainbows in UH's first Big West game as a conference member.
Mike Trapasso said it was part planned and part unstaged. It seemed more spontaneous, as in combustion. "It was worse in the locker room," Hawaii's baseball coach said of his postgame explosion that started in the dugout after the Rainbows fell to Gonzaga on March 11.
CIT and APR. One three-letter acronym is already a source of some acrimony for the University of Hawaii basketball program. The second could be much more troubling.
OK, so who's going to pay for this? Only 3,544 tickets were issued for the glorified rec league tournament game the University of Hawaii basketball team played in Wednesday. We were told UH would have to get 6,500 to break even. Obviously, it didn't come close.
Spring football practice is about working hard to get better, especially when you're coming off a 3-9 season, as is Hawaii. That doesn't mean there isn't time for sideline observers to ponder things like who should be first off the bus.
Perhaps you are familiar with one of the cataclysmic college athletics issues of our time: The Great Bagel Debate. In 2008, the NCAA voted to let its member schools provide student-athletes with "fruits, nuts and bagels" at any time, not just during training table hours.
Before Marshall Henderson of Ole Miss became the most fascinating and hated basketball player in the SEC, Hawaii fans got an eyeful — and earful — of the Rebel without a pause at the Stan Sheriff Center last December.
Around 700 fans filled the stands for Thursday’s 1-0 University of Hawaii softball loss to Cal in the rematch of the dramatic UH win a year ago today, when Jessica Iwata homered to beat the then-No. 1 Bears.
This is when any college basketball team that gets hot and makes some 3-pointers has a chance to survive and advance, at least for a while.
Cutting down the net, after winning on senior night? Well, as University of Hawaii TV voice Jim Leahey said, "Why not?" It worked out OK for the Indiana men, and they did it after a loss.
One night recently toward the end of a typical 15-hour work day, Ben Jay strolled around the soccer practice field at the University of Hawaii. "As I did that, more and more it became clear to me we could turn that field into a field suitable for (intercollegiate) competition.
Joe Moore and I told him it's a good idea, if he had a time machine. "I told him he's 10 years too late," said Moore, the KHON-TV2 anchor who skirmished with June Jones over Rainbows and Warriors.
If you've been hearing about Cal Lee's new job, it's probably speculation he's going to be a high school head football coach again.
Maybe upsets just don't mean as much anymore. Maybe the relevance of this one has faded over the decades. Maybe the window has closed, and Chaminade's knocking off of No. 1 Virginia and Ralph Sampson 30 years ago just doesn't mean as much as we thought it would.
Gib Arnold calls it "beautiful" and says, "That's the kind of problem I want to have." The University of Hawaii basketball coach has been on both sides of court stormings, back when he was an assistant at USC. Big win at home, big loss on the road. Fans rush the court.
As Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara traded the lead nine times in the first half alone Thursday, at least one court-side observer at the Stan Sheriff Center was all smiles. Dennis Farrell, the commissioner of the Big West, attended UH's narrow 70-66 home win.
It was the greatest season in University of Hawaii softball history, and to that point 2010 was the most eventful year in Kelly Majam's life. UH went to the College World Series, with Majam, the team's star freshman centerfielder, breaking home run records and receiving national acclaim.
Few — if anyone — expected the University of Hawaii baseball team to have a winning record seven games into this season, not with the first two series being against nationally ranked Oregon and Rice.
The University of Hawaii somehow turned a basketball game against Northern Arizona into an event. A great one. I figured UH would win handily, which it did, 84-50. But I wasn't expecting much as far as a crowd and atmosphere.
Wayne Graham turns 77 in two months. The only retiring he looks forward to is his Rice pitchers sending opposing batters directly back to the dugout.
Back when Maryknoll won its first and only — so far — state boys Division I basketball championship, the players had the best suntans in the country. That's what happens when you don't have a gym and practice outside.
Baseball people know you don't panic at 0-3. Especially when the losses are against a team as good as Oregon. Yes, this could be a long season for the University of Hawaii … especially if the Rainbows had to play the Ducks every game. Fortunately they don't — just once more, today.
What's the shelf life for buzz? It held up nine months for Quintin Torres-Costa. It was last May when he pitched one of the most spectacular games in Hawaii state high school tournament history.
With the official end of the Rainbow, a new round of complaints ensued. That was expected. Negative feedback would have arisen from whatever athletic director Ben Jay decided regarding University of Hawaii team nicknames.
One of the things Norm Chow talked about when he became University of Hawaii head football coach 14 months ago was paving a path for UH players to the NFL.
Saturday Night Fever at the Sheriff Center on disco night against UC Irvine was far less flashy than blitzing Long Beach State two nights earlier. But this 78-72 win for UH's fifth-straight victory possessed a charm of its own because of its textbook nature.
When you see something really cool you want to share it with friends, right? The first one of these for me in 2013 is tonight, at the Stan Sheriff Center, when the University of Hawaii men's basketball team hosts UC Irvine.
Looks good ... on paper. That’s one of the few conclusions we can really make today about the University of Hawaii’s football recruiting class.
Ma'ake Kemoeatu figured he was done. He'd had a good eight-season run in the NFL, but now he could barely jog.
That was one year ago.
BY-Who? Oh, that's the school on the North Shore, right? That's where some younger University of Hawaii football fans stand.
That first play from scrimmage on Sunday didn’t do much to inspire confidence in the future of the Pro Bowl, which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has had on double-not-so-secret probation since last year’s comedy of pretend football.
McGarrett and Danno The Next Generation appeared at the Ihilani Resort the other day for some taping.
If Merton Hanks were still an NFL player, those neon green kicks he wore to Pro Bowl practice Thursday might be flagged for unnecessary roughness on the eyes.
Aloha, NFL Pro Bowl players. Welcome to paradox, um, sorry, I mean paradise. Enjoy. It could be the last go-round for your all-star game if you don't knock each other's blocks off out there at Aloha Stadium on Sunday. Unlike all the other games, where you have to play nice-nice.
Reader interest remains high on this topic, so bear with me on one more Manti Te'o column before shifting into Pro Bowl gear.
A few Hawaii fans remaining gave Corey Hawkins sincere applause after he came out for interviews following his sublime performance for UC Davis in its 93-82 win over the Rainbow Warriors.
Manti Te’o was either extremely naive or incredibly manipulative.
My favorite story leading up to the BCS national championship game wasn't about an Alabama or Notre Dame player or coach.
Maybe this was just a sizzling four days for him. Or maybe we got a close look at a golf superstar in the making. Russell Henley's unreal, record-breaking 24-under-par win at the Sony Open in Hawaii -- in his debut as a PGA Tour member, no less -- could signal either.
Russell Henley peered out the window as darkness descended on the nearby beach. As has been the case most of the past three days, not one leaf on one tree stirred.
If golf were a different kind of sport, we'd look at Kevin Carll as owning the ultimate homefield advantage. Of all the 144 players in the field of the Sony Open in Hawaii, he is the one who knows the course at Waialae Country Club the best.
MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. >> You might want to say luck ran out, but that notion disappeared as quickly as Eddie Lacy into the Notre Dame end zone the first time. And it never returned. This had nothing to do with the fickle nature of good fortune.
They called it the Game of the Century even though the century was only about two-thirds over. We try not to do stuff like that these days, although it is tempting to dub tonight's BCS championship tussle the Game of the Millennium.
You can get a can of Spam in South Bend, Ind., easily. It's just $2.89 for a 12-ounce can at Martin's Super Market. But as any college kid from Hawaii on the mainland will tell you, it tastes a lot better when that can of fatty, salty goodness is received in the mail from the islands.
Desmond Howard got his wish. Alabama vs. Notre Dame in the BCS national championship game. Certainly the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner would have preferred his Michigan Wolverines in the mix Monday at Sun Life Stadium.
Where others see an interruption to momentum, Manti Te’o sees a chance to improve. Where others see building rust, Te’o sees building trust. More time to synergize the Notre Dame defense as it preps for Alabama.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. » At 5 feet 9 and 185 pounds, Notre Dame receiver Robby Toma isn’t exactly your prototypical first-off-the-bus guy. And his stats this year are relatively modest: 24 catches for 252 yards — career highs, but not eye-popping. His one touchdown came on a running play.
The events of Dec. 8 encapsulated the sports year in Hawaii as results were all disappointing for many in the 50th State. Even before the UH basketball team lost that evening for the third time in four games, 63-56 to Pepperdine, happenings on the continent were disheartening.
We told you they'd be exciting ... in good ways and bad ways, and that's what the University of Hawaii basketball team displayed Saturday. The Rainbow Warriors escaped with a thrilling 74-71 win over Cal State Northridge in their Big West debut.
Is Maui still no ka oi when it comes to college basketball tournaments in Hawaii?
The offensive fireworks apparently missed the cutoff to Aloha Stadium. Thanks to the SMU defense for bringing at least some excitement to the Hawaii Bowl.
It's not quite as big as Michigan, North Carolina and Kansas in the Rainbow Classic. But the Fab Five's coach from 20 years ago is here for a tasty matchup of his San Diego State Aztecs against flamboyant Arizona for Tuesday's championship final of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
Here's the good news for the University of Hawaii basketball team. The Warriors get to play a team they will probably beat today. And that's about it.
Full-speed ahead. That's the vibe I got from Ben Jay when he was finally introduced as the University of Hawaii's new athletic director on Thursday.
In this season of giving, the University of Hawaii is displaying its generosity.
The magic number for the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl is 14,500. That's how many people are needed in the Aloha Stadium seats on Christmas Eve to guarantee its existence a year from now.
Jim Donovan's dream job as University of Hawaii athletic director turned into a $200K-a-year purgatory at the chancellor's office. All of us should be allowed to enjoy such a session in timeout at least once, no?
The Honolulu Marathon calls itself the people's race, and with good reason. By number of entrants, it is the second-largest marathon in the country. And it's not elitist like Boston, where you can't get to the starting line without a strong qualifying time.
To win the Heisman Trophy, it helps to play a great game at precisely the right time, against the right opponent. And that is what Johnny Manziel did. He accounted for 345 yards and passed for two touchdowns in Texas A&M's 29-24 victory over then-No. 1 and undefeated Alabama on Nov. 10.
Can Ben Jay bring in the Benjamins? Or, more correctly, the thousands and the millions? Can anyone? The University of Hawaii's incoming athletic director knows that's the biggest challenge awaiting him in Manoa.
Marc Moriguchi pressed the button on the EKG machine, hoping for a different result. The readout was the same all three times. Acute myocardial infarction. In layman's terms: heart attack.
The idea for today, in conjunction with Billy Hull’s fine work in putting together the annual All-Hawaii Grown team, was to pick the greatest college football performers of all-time who played their high school football here in the islands.
Last week it was Hawaii chanting U-S-A in the locker room. This week it was the opponents doing so during pregame. The University of South Alabama Jaguars' uniforms even resembled those UH wore last week in its tribute to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Is there time for one final flavor of the week in the Heisman Trophy voting? There likely is not, because many of the voters have made their decisions and some have already turned in their choices.
From 2007 through 2010 Colin Kaepernick of Nevada was an enemy of the state of Hawaii. Now Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers has started the past two games at quarterback for the favorite team of many NFL fans in the islands.
There are two constants for this weekend each year. Turkey sandwiches (good) and moaning about the big, bad NCAA and how unfair and mean it is to the University of Hawaii volleyball program (bad).
Well … bring on Temple!
My thought was to write about Kawehena Johnson being perhaps the finest pound-for-pound high school football player I’ve ever seen, the MVP of one of the best teams in the state’s history.
Nearly 50 years before Walter Camp saw Ebb Ellis run with the ball during a soccer match and envisioned a different game, a learning institution opened on Maui.
Oh yes, Hawaii was ready to play at 7 p.m. The Rainbows are always ready at tip-off. Ready to run, and it's great fun to watch.
Laura Beeman and her players got a close-up look at whom she considers the most physically gifted player of her time Sunday at the Stan Sheriff Center: 6-foot-8 Brittney Griner, three-time All-American and 2011-12 player of the year from defending national champion Baylor.
No doubt time remained on the clock. Just enough. There was 1/10th of a second left when D.J. Richardson launched that corner 3-pointer. That shot won the game for Illinois.
Jace Tavita isn't even selfish about the selfless stat. "I didn't know I had 10 assists, wow," the University of Hawaii starting point guard said after UH's 81-54 victory Sunday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
More people ask the question each week as the losses pile up for the 2012 University of Hawaii football team.
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