As rocky as the basketball season has been to this point for the University of Hawaii, there is a lot to look forward to just around the corner.
In this case, hope and potential salvation are spelled B-i-g W-e-s-t C-o-n-f-e-r-e-n-c-e.
BIG WEST AT A GLANCE
Team record RPI
Long Beach St. 5-10 135
UC Irvine 6-9 152
UC Santa Barbara 1-9 195
Cal Poly 5-7 249
CS Northridge 3-9 266
UC Davis 6-7 275
Hawaii 5-7 309
CS Fullerton 5-7 312
UC Riverside 1-8 336
Source: NCAA.
If you are the Rainbow Warriors, who are 5-7 with one nonconference game remaining before the Big West starts Jan. 5, there is no reason to view the impending conference season as daunting. There are no indications of a powerhouse lurking in the weeds, hardly a beast in the bunch.
Not when, as of Christmas Day, there wasn’t a winning record to be found anywhere among the nine-member league.
One thing everybody from Riverside, Calif., and Davis, Calif., to Honolulu has had in common is futility, with a combined record of 37-73. The only difference has been in the degree of struggle, from 1-9 (UC Santa Barbara) to 6-7 (UC Davis).
Another common thread — for all but UH, which is the only member yet to play an away game — has been a propensity for hitting the road.
And, the road hitting back. Hard.
Sixty-eight percent of the nonconference Division I games Big West teams have played or will be suited up for are on the road or neutral courts, according to assistant commissioner Mike Villamor. So far, Big West teams are a collective 5-43 in just road contests and 4-18 in neutral site games.
Which, no doubt, has something to do with the Big West batting a meager .258 (25-72) overall against fellow Division I opponents. Without lower-division opponents, which the Big West has gone 12-1 against, things would be grim indeed. As it is, Sonoma State and Fresno Pacific are all that stand between UCSB and UC Riverside (1-8) respectively being 0-for-the-season so far.
To put this into wider perspective, the Big West ranked 27th among 32 Division I conferences in Rating Percentage, the formula the NCAA uses to help select teams for postseason berths.
Just two seasons ago the Big West, traditionally a mid-major, finished 14th. So, this has been a deeper struggle than usual and, unabated, has the potential to be the conference’s worst in 20 years.
Outside of Long Beach State, which is 5-10 against a Murderer’s Row schedule, nobody in the Big West is ranked in the Top 150 (out of 351 Division I schools) in the RPI.
The 49ers, who were the preseason pick to win the conference, have achieved their No. 135 RPI the hard way, going 1-9 on a road gauntlet that has included stops at Wichita State, North Carolina, Louisville, UCLA, Kansas and Texas.
How much their strength of schedule, ranked 14th, will have them primed for conference remains to be seen. But it has sure helped pay bills around the athletic department, including the $350,000 base salary of Dan Monson, the Big West’s highest-paid coach.
UCSB, which has a list of tormentors that includes UCLA, USC and SMU, is ranked No. 1 in the nation in strength of schedule, with its opponents having posted a 72-27 record.
But that meat-grinder, as Big West teams can finally console themselves, will soon be in the past. Come next week the guarantee checks will be in the bank, and the lumps and blowouts inflicted by nonconference opponents will be but a memory.
And hope for a turnaround will be right around the corner because the Big West Conference season will get underway.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
