THERE is one word that describes the attendance figure for Wednesday night's University of Hawaii men's basketball game at the Special Events Arena: Disgraceful. No-shows are missing
one heck of a teamThis isn't a knock on the 6,707 fans who showed up as the Rainbows finally wore down San Diego State for another victory.
Now, I have criticized UH head coach Riley Wallace plenty of times over my seven years in Hawaii. He has screamed at me on TV, over the radio and in person - especially a few years back when the Rainbows won the WAC tournament to sneak into the NCAA tournament right after I had suggested that they start looking for another coach.
Usually, Wallace's teams over the years made it pretty easy to conk him over the head in print more than once a season.
But this year's team was 18-4 and 10-2 going into Wednesday's game - and was coming off two very difficult and emotional victories at Wyoming and Colorado State.
The circumstances that the team had to overcome - especially the loss of starting center Seth Sundberg - have been well-documented.
OK, the three players who were suspended for 30 days is one negative aspect of this year's team. The players are now paying the price, though, and should learn from such a stupid mistake.
But the rest of the players on this year's team seem to be decent young guys on and off the court.
So, to put it politely, where the hell is everybody?
You turn on ESPN day after day this time of the sports year and college basketball teams with much worse records are playing before bigger and louder crowds.
I know, here are the usual excuses: Live local television (same as volleyball, though, which sells out). The state high school basketball tournament was going on (which doesn't draw much, either). The economy is down (it's still a fairly cheap night compared to a lot of other island entertainment). Blah, blah, blah.
I guess the ticket lines are still screwed up, so there's one legitimate excuse - but not 3,000 missing fans worth.
I've been a sports writer in seven states and this is, by far, the worst basketball state among them. And if you think I'm being a "homer" you don't know my history of blasting UH in every sport when I felt it was deserved.
ANYWAY, to those fans who are showing up, good for you. You are seeing one of the biggest college basketball turnarounds in the nation this year and a very exciting team that isn't through surprising the so-called experts.
If you're not coming out, it's your loss if you consider yourself a UH basketball or UH sports fan for that matter.
It's not fair to the players, though, who deserve to be performing in front of a sold-out Special Events Arena at this point in time.
At least the fans who have been coming out have been vocal. And the UH band and cheerleaders are outstanding.
But the attendance figures that run along with the results across the wires and on TV look bad - and could even influence an NCAA or NIT bid. I have seen it happen.
Hey, it doesn't affect my job so this is just an observation. But I know a good college basketball team that plays hard game after game when I see one. And this team will be rewarded with a trip to the NCAA tournament, even with the lousy home attendance.
The Rainbows currently have the second-best league record behind Utah (11-1), yet Hawaii ranks eighth in the WAC in average home attendance, behind New Mexico, BYU (which is 1-22 overall and 0-13 in the WAC), Utah, UNLV, Fresno State, Tulsa and Texas-El Paso (11-12 overall and 5-9 in the WAC).
Again, one word sums up the overall support of this excellent team that is representing the state university in such fine fashion: Disgraceful.