Tom Apple’s still the new guy on campus, but he displayed adeptness Monday at the favorite sport of some University of Hawaii administrators.

Dodgeball.

The kind without a ball, and without real answers to valid questions about things like missing money and bizarre allocation of resources. Public money, public resources.

And don’t forget the real baffler: how someone can be lauded for what a great job he’s doing but have that job taken away from him … and be reassigned to something completely different (Monty Python reference intended, as this has become quite the Flying Circus).

Oh, the new chancellor certainly said some interesting things about budgets and his vision for UH in his 20 minutes with reporters. That’s part of how you play the game: distract and conquer. Do it well and you don’t have to answer the real questions of the day.

But eventually, UH will have to tell us how the $200,000 for the Stevie Wonder fundraiser concert that became a fund-waster disappeared, and what it’s going to do to fix things so it can’t happen again.

One thing’s for sure: It won’t recur on Jim Donovan’s watch as athletic director, since that tour of duty is now completed — either with flying colors or before he could be fired, depending on how you want to look at it.

A statement from UH on Sunday said Donovan was "cleared of wrongdoing" in the loss of the Wonder bread, and quoted Apple as saying Donovan "served the University well as our Athletics Director."

On Monday, Apple upgraded "well" to "fantastic." If that’s true, shouldn’t Donovan still be the AD? Shouldn’t his contract be extended, with a big raise befitting "fantastic" status?

Nope. Instead, Donovan was by Apple’s side, being introduced as the chancellor’s Special Director In Charge Of Something But UH Won’t Tell Us What Yet.

You’ve heard of too big to fail. Apparently Donovan is too "fantastic" to remain athletic director.

And get this: Apple said UH was planning on conducting a national search for an AD even before the Wonder blunder. Maybe there’s a super-duper fantastic candidate out there to take UH to the "next level." Let’s spend more money on a search firm and find out! But Donovan, being fantastic, is welcome to apply for his old job when the national search commences.

In summary: This guy did a great job as athletic director, but we put him on leave because a big mistake happened in his department. But now we’re reassigning him because we think he’ll be great in this other high-paying job. But he can apply to be AD again.

Sorry, I’m not buying and neither should you.

Apple was asked if UH was pressured by legislators to keep Donovan on board. "Absolutely not," he replied.

I’ll stand by what I’ve heard from more than enough credible people, and the only way this crazy chain of events can be explained: Absolutely yes.