End of the Warrior road | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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DARRELL MIHO / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Benjy Taylor hopes his status as Rainbow Warriors head coach will switch from interim to permanent once the position is posted by the university.

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LOS ANGELES » It’s official. The roller coaster of a season for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors has come to a full stop.

As expected, UH (22-13) will not play in a postseason tournament after the Rainbows lost in the Big West tournament championship game, 67-58, to NCAA Tournament-bound UC Irvine on Saturday at the Honda Center.

Athletic director Ben Jay all but discounted an appearance in the pay-for-play CIT tournament in the moments after the loss, noting "Financially, we can’t really take a chance on the CIT or CBI."

The 32-team CollegeInsider.com postseason Tournament costs roughly $35,000 to participate per round. UH played in it in 2011 and 2013.

Jay reaffirmed that nothing had changed Sunday afternoon, around the time the 68-team NCAA field was announced.

UH’s RPI (153) was not high enough to merit serious consideration for the 32-team NIT.

UH coaches and players realized their season was over in the wake of the Irvine loss.

"We made a decision, whether it be right or wrong, that we weren’t going to do it," UH coach Benjy Taylor said of a pay-for-play event. "We could have been involved with those tournaments a while ago. We’ve been a good team all season. We’ve been on the radar all season. Injuries slowed us down in conference a little bit, but we wanted it all this year."

There is much to be settled this offseason, starting with the head coaching job. Taylor’s interim status is set to expire, but he is hopeful he can secure the permanent job once the position is posted by UH.

There’s also potential NCAA sanctions to settle as a result of the notice of allegations delivered to UH in January. As always, some player attrition is possible, especially now given all the uncertainty.

"It’s been a great ride. It made us all tougher, each individual. We just gotta learn from everything that happened this year," junior point guard Roderick Bobbitt said.

The Rainbows weathered adversity all season to compile their most wins since the 2001-02 team went a program-record 27-6.

"It was just a fun year for me," said sophomore forward Aaron Valdes, who made the Big West all-tournament team along with Bobbitt. "We had our ups and downs. I mean, we enjoyed every second of being around each other. We look forward to the future and we’re excited."

Irvine earned a 13th seed and plays No. 4 Louisville in the NCAA second round at Seattle’s KeyArena on Friday.