UH athletic director Matlin proving he’s more than talk

Athletic director David Matlin talked a good game about academics in April when he was introduced at a University of Hawaii press conference.

But, then, don’t most ADs, especially when the chancellor, who did the hiring, is standing next to them at the press conference podium?

The difference is that in two months since taking office, Matlin has backed it up on at least two fronts.

“He’s walked the walk,” said David Ericson, UH faculty athletic representative.

Monday it was announced that UH is pulling out of the Las Vegas Invitational men’s basketball tournament in November. The cancellation of the four-game event spread over eight days in three cities is calculated to save as much a three days of missed class time and, in the long run, maybe, some money.

He is also said to have vetoed another road game during finals week.

The moves come on the heels of a decision two weeks earlier to bring the football team back from Wisconsin after playing Sept. 26 instead of remaining on the continent until the Oct. 3 game at Boise State, a planned three-day savings in missed class time.

Men’s basketball and football are two programs that rank traditionally high in missed class time at UH. It is not uncommon to miss upwards of 20 days each — basketball missed 22 — a considerable number for two programs not figuring in much postseason play recently.

“This past basketball season we had a situation in which the team stayed on the mainland for nearly two weeks and missed about nine consecutive days of classes at the early part of the semester (late January-early February),” Ericson said. “Unfortunately, that’s a recipe for academic disaster.”

Ericson said, “I believe that (David) Matlin is dedicated to preventing similar academic hardships for all of our teams. With Hawaii’s geographic location and necessity of lengthy travel, I think that Matlin and associate AD (Carl) Clapp will be working very closely with the head coaches on scheduling and other measures to mitigate the academic downside of travel to the mainland for our student-athletes.”

That’s no small consideration as UH attempts to boost its Academic Performance Rating, an NCAA measure of eligibility, retention and progress toward graduation that has seen both sports penalized with lost scholarships in the past.

Men’s basketball had the lowest multi-year score among 18 UH teams surveyed in the most recent report. “We have to focus on all areas and (men’s) basketball is probably a little more heightened at this point,” Matlin has said.

In the LVI, UH would have played at California and at San Diego State, probably in Nov. 20 and 23 road games, and then played two neutral site games Nov. 26 and 27 in Las Vegas against two teams from the pool of Sam Houston State, Liberty and Bethune-Cookman.

Withdrawing from the LVI will give UH the opportunity to play two more home games and pick up so-called “guarantee” games for a hefty fee to help mitigate a $120,000 buyout. UH is said to be talking to an ACC team.

“Financially it is a push, to slightly positive over a two-year period,” Matlin said. “Student welfare-wise, it is better, which, to me, seems like the right thing to do.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.