Sports Watch
A must-win situation faces the Rainbows
Maybe to Coach Mike Wilton every match is a must win. Surely, the two victories over UCLA - including the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match when it counted - fell in that category. So's the victory over Brigham Young. Any contest with BYU is a must win.
Last Saturday's three-game sweep over Pepperdine in the first round of the MPSF playoff was another must win - not only for the Rainbows - but for the UH athletic department.
It was so important that you could almost hear Athletic Director Hugh Yoshida breathe a sigh of relief when Yuval Katz (who else?) put away seven of the last eight UH kills to finally secure the victory.
Beating Pepperdine was definitely a must win because, without it, there would have been no volleyball with two more sellouts this Friday and Saturday at the Special Events Arena.
By winning, the Rainbows got to host the league's tournament championship. Hawaii will meet UC-Santa Barbara, while defending champion UCLA will take on Cal State Northridge. The winners will advance to the title game with the champion automatically qualifying for the Final Four.
THAT the NCAA championships will be at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion creates an interesting wrinkle, creating another especially must-win situation for the Rainbows in their next game.
In a way, a victory Friday over the Gauchos could be more important than winning the following night.
The ideal scenario, of course, would be to just win, baby. Four more victories and the Rainbow men can hang their first NCAA championship banner along with the four won by the Wahine volleyball team.
Short of that, things can get iffy for the Rainbows because of the Pauley Pavilion Factor.
As we all know, you can't take anything for granted when it comes to NCAA dealings with the University of Hawaii. Or the MPSF and UH, as witness that the absurdity of Yuval Katz not being named the league's MVP.
That's why the UC-Santa Barbara match could really be THE must-win match of the season for Hawaii.
By beating the Gauchos, the Rainbows will finish no worse than runner-up in the tournament, almost insuring an at-large bid to the Final Four.
But if UH loses, that means the Gauchos will play for the championship. And if they go on to beat UCLA, heaven help the Rainbows. Ditto, if Northridge surprises the Bruins in the other semifinal Friday.
One would hate to think how Hawaii would fare if it's caught in an either-or decision with UCLA for an at-large berth, considering the NCAA tournament will be held at Pauley Pavilion.
Either team would be an ideal at-large pick, if the other captures the league championship.
So what it boils down to this Friday, is not only hoping that the Rainbows win, of course, but that the Bruins win as well.
NO matter what happens, volleyball has certainly been a winner already at the University of Hawaii this school year.
What else can you call it when the Wahine finished 31-1 and the Rainbow men are 26-1 and counting? Only two losses all season.
More significantly, volleyball turned out to be a gold mine for the financially struggling athletic department because of a decline in football revenue.
Thanks to the phenomenal successes of the Rainbow men and Wahine, volleyball hasn't only been self-sufficient, it has become a real money machine.
The Wahine drew an NCAA record 145,006 fans, grossing $536,000 in ticket sales the past season. The Rainbow men will surpass the Wahine's attendance with Friday's crowd. It also grossed $532,000 in ticket sales, not counting the matches against Stanford, California and the MPSF playoffs.
That a non-income sport like volleyball has generated more than a million dollars is another remarkable story in itself.
Bill Kwon has been writing about sports for the Star-Bulletin since 1959.