Couple of quotes from UH’s big hoops win
Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett was not in a very good mood after Hawaii edged his team at the buzzer in a Diamond Head Classic game on Monday night. Can’t say I blame him — some of the first -half calls that got his team in foul trouble were a little sketch. Regardless, a great win for UH which made the plays when needed. The Rainbow Warriors are a very entertaining team that will make noise in the Big West and maybe beyond.
Here’s what Bennett had to say afterward, followed by a few quotes from UH coach Gib Arnold (got to his postgame presser late because I had to wait outside of Saint Mary’s lockerroom quite a while.
Q: “You stayed with Hawaii the entire game but couldn’t get over the hump.”
A: “We played well.”
Q: “Anything on the officiating, was it called to tight?”
A: “Don’t even tease me with that question.”
Q: Hawaii made strong runs at the end of the first half and start of second half. Any comment on that or what they did?
A: “Ah, they played downsize. We got in so much foul trouble early, in that first half. And they played downsize. We didn’t do a very good job defensively, again. We’re really struggling there. But we couldn’t play much better offensively.”
Q: “This is a bit awkward to talk about right now, but it’s no secret your name came up a lot when the Hawaii job opened up three years ago. Any comment?”
A: “Rumors. Straight rumors. There was nothing there. (Former Saint Mary’s AD and current UH associate AD) Carl Clapp’s here. He’s a good guy. That’s my one connection to Hawaii and I have a lot of respect for this program and school, it’s a good place.”
Here’s a long Gib Arnold answer to a question I got in at the end of his post-game talk with reporters:
Q: “Where does this win rank for you?”
A: “I haven’t had a lot of time to think about it, but as far as the win itself it’s a great win against a great team. 24 RPI, they win 20, 27 games a year. A program that’s where we want to be. I was in the WCC with Randy Bennett. We were stepping all over them and they took over a last place team. I told that story to my team that they’re where we want to go they’ve done what we want to do. They’ve done the heavy lifting. They’re a program. we’re a team that occasionally plays good basketball.
“A big step to becoming a program is beating another program and we did that tonight. It’s a big win especially big coming off a tough, tough loss. I think that adds to it.
“Again, I found that … as a coach I learned a lot about my team today because of the circumstances. what I learned pleased me as a coach.
“We’re not there. We’ve got to play a really good Pac-12 team. Every year we call every single Pac-12 team and ask them to play us, home and home. We’re told no every single time. Now we’ve got a shot at one.
“The guys from L.A., the West Coast guys are excited about the game on Christmas (against Oregon State.”
Sloppy, Didnʻt Need to be Close…
BUT Good WIN
OVER a PAC-12 Team…
A win by any other name is still a win.
A win is a win is a win.