Stan Sheriff Center: Hawaii basketball’s international house of hoops was packed for win over Tulsa

The University of Hawaii has always had to look off-island for basketball talent if it wanted to seriously compete.

The Rainbows took that a Euro-step — and beyond — farther nearly two decades ago.

It was right before 2000 when veteran head coach Riley Wallace agreed to let assistant Scott Rigot use his strong international recruiting connections to build a squad of players from around the world.

The Rainbows ended up with stars and role players from Canada (Phil Martin and Carl English), Israel (Haim Shimonovich), Serbia (Predrag Savovic), Lithuania (Nerijus Puida and Mindaugas Burneika), South Africa (Paul Jesinskis) and Nigeria (Tony Akpan).

From 2000 to 2002, UH had players from five continents.

It was not without hitches, including some having to sit out several games due to NCAA rules regarding foreign athletes and amateurism.
But the result was winning basketball and back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. That was made possible by Hawaii winning the WAC tournament in 2001 and 2002. Both times it was in Tulsa, Okla., and both times it was by beating the host Golden Hurricane.

The irrepressible Savovic, known simply as “Savo,” was the UH ringleader, and often its scoring leader. He could stick the 3, and could stick you with an elbow without anyone noticing.

“It’s like an old man playing against boys because he knows every trick,” said Tulsa coach John Phillips of the AP honorable mention All-American.

Starting and ending with those two conference tournament championship games in ’01 and ’02, Hawaii beat Tulsa four times in a row. The one of those at home was a full-house “White Out” regular-season game at the Stan Sheriff Center, which the ‘Bows won in thrilling fashion. And it’s No. 7 in the Star-Advertiser’s countdown of the top ten most memorable sports events in 25 years of the SSC.