It's different now, kind of like the sticks being tossed around North Shore swells as your T-shirt is in spin cycle. Balsa wood longboards were once the rage, ancestor to the tri-fin 8-footers of today.
Surfing and basketball have taken similar paths in Hawaii. Used to be, recruiting great college players to the islands was, well, Hiki'ole.
Impossible.
It's different now.
|  | | Riley Wallace has seen a positive change in attitude toward Hawaii basketball in his 15 seasons on the Big Island. |
"I remember beating the bushes as an assistant," Riley Wallace said. "A lot of the top guys in the country would take trips here, but it was another thing getting them. Moses Malone even took a trip here. But now, with there being a limit on the number of recruiting trips a player can take, you really have a sense the kid is very interested in what you have to offer when he comes.
"We visited five kids this year and got four of them, and the fifth went to Alabama when a scholarship opened up because Gerald Wallace went pro. That's pretty good. We'll take a year like that all the time."
Wallace begins his 15th season as head coach in October, six months removed from the program's third NCAA Tournament appearance, from going one-and-out against Syracuse. He returns seven of his top nine players and adds immediate help with point guard Mark Campbell of Clackamas (Ore.) College.
A tough act to follow, 2000-01. Hawaii, whose athletic teams traditionally play the role of mouse to a hungry cat on the road, won three straight WAC Tournament games in Tulsa. The Rainbows did so by routing Texas Christian by 20, upsetting regular-season champ Fresno State and beating the Golden Hurricane on their own court in overtime.
They did so by playing Hawaii ball.
It's a fun style, Wallace employs. Lots of motion. Three-point city. Freedom to improvise. It must be to interest a standout like forward Nkerunem Akpan, born in Nigeria who played prep ball in Alabama.
This is Oahu: Lots of sun and sand and surf and a climate that allows weathermen 10-hour work weeks.
This is Oahu: Very, very far away.
"We're a good enough program to get involved with most kids," Wallace said. "Then, it's a matter of what the player wants and how much the parents are involved in the decision. That's why we really have established a strong relationship with the high school and junior-college coaches of these kids. We need them to be up front with us so we don't waste time on players who really aren't interested in going far away from home."
Hawaii offers outstanding prep talent as often as snow falls on Waikiki, but Wallace has been fortunate to keep the few talented ones home. One who left and didn't return is Julian Sensley, a native of Kailua who signed with Cal last November.
Sensley -- who many believe was the best player ever produced in Hawaii by the time he reached the 10th grade -- played two years of prep ball at St. Thomas More.
"There is a great example of why the NCAA is trying to take all the power away from the AAU and summer coaches and give it back to the high school coach," Wallace said. "It's frustrating. If he stays in Hawaii and makes grades, we probably get him. But people pull him away and he is influenced by others. This is the what they mean by the bad side of recruiting. Sometimes, as a coach, you have no control over a specific situation.
"You just have to go on and recruit the next one."
He has, with consistent success. One source of wealth has come on foreign soil, where Wallace has found kids willing to start their American basketball careers in an island. But this has put the Warriors at the forfront of the NCAA's recent crackdown of foreign players playing in professional leagues oversees. The NCAA has sent out 60 letters to member schools challenging the eligibility of many of the 340 foreign athletes.
Hawaii got letters on three players: rising senior forwards Predrag Savovic (17.6 ppg) and Mindaugas Burneika (7.4 ppg) and rising sophomore Bosko Radovic (5.8 ppg). Hawaii had to deal with this last season when Israeli Haim Shimonovic had to sit the first 22 games, the equivalent of the number of games he played with pros in Israel.
Savovic is a fifth-year senior and played at UAB before Hawaii, but that doesn't matter. If Savovic played in 30-plus games with a pro team then his eligibility would be done, a crushing blow to Hawaii's 2001-02 season.
Still, 15 years later, Wallace is defying the odds, still holding his own in the recruiting wars.
Hiki'ole?
Not at all.
Opening more doors
Texas-El Paso went 22-8 last season and advanced to the NIT, ending a six-year postseason drought. Eight of the top nine players return (standout Brandon Wolfram doesn't), but the most important face might be a new one.
Assistant coach Silvey Dominguez.
Third-year UTEP coach Jason Rabedeaux named Dominguez to succeed Eddie Hill, who resigned to accept a position on the University of Portland staff. A Dominguez key: He spent the past five years assisting at USC and is quite capable along the Southern California recruiting trails.
Bottom line: You can never know enough people in and around Los Angeles.
"Silvey brings a wealth of experience to our program, both with recruiting and on the floor," Rabedeaux said. "To lure him away from USC, an Elite Eight team last year, speaks volumes for where we are headed."
Tark over Ivy
Phil Rasmussen is a 6-foot-7 forward who can knock down an open 3-pointer and who scored 1,280 on his SAT.
Who was wanted by the likes of Princeton and Columbia.
Who chose Fresno State instead.
The player from Sacramento Jesuit High and his 3.97 grade-point average waited out the recruiting process until realizing his dream. Three weeks after the spring signing period ended, a scholarship became available on Jerry Tarkanian's team.
"I always wanted to play big-time Division I basketball, and now I get to do it for a legendary coach," Rasmussen said.
Tarkanian returns arguably his best team in seven years at Fresno State, one that could force Rasmussen to redshirt.
"No matter what, I will improve," he said. "I'll be playing with fantastic players. They'll definitely be in the NCAA Tournament again."
And if he can't help on the court just yet, his tutoring skills should go a long way.
More exposure
They say perception is half the battle. If so, WAC basketball teams are better off today than last season.
The conference signed a three-year contract with ESPN to televise football and men's basketball games. The coverage includes the conference hoop tournament, which returns to Tulsa in 2002.
"The (ESPN) deal brings our conference back into the big-time of major college athletics," Fresno State athletic director Al Bohl said. "It will immediately help with exposure and recruiting. It was the best situation we could have asked for."
Ed Graney of the San Diego Union-Tribune is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at ed.graney@uniontrib.com.
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