Mousefather

Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune has a nice profile of Warriors assistant coach Mouse Davis, the godfather of the run-and-shoot.

“June is doing a really good job with this group,” Davis says. “We rip people. It was like when we were at Portland State ripping people. We’re moving up and down the field. My punter (Kurt Milne) hasn’t punted in two games. I told him, ‘How in the hell are you going to earn your letter?’ ”

With their no-tight end, double slotback system, the Warriors lead the nation in passing offense (434.8 yards per game), total offense (553.8 yards) and scoring offense (48.6 points). They have scored 40 points or more in nine of their last 10 games and have totaled 583 points, breaking the school record of 502 set in 2002.

Mouse also more nice things to say about June and the offense.

“I’d say my impact is, oh, probably about a half of 1 percent,” he says, cackling. “I tell the people, the reason our offense goes is Colt, but our offensive MVP is June. He does a hell of a job with these kids. Me? I just take any spot no one else on the staff wants. I might not do anything on any given day (at practice).”

Davis is taking this coaching thing year by year. But what else is he going to do? He’s only 74.

“You can only play so much golf,” he says. “Maybe if I were to get the right deal, I might continue coaching. I’d like to be a little more in the action part of it. I don’t feel much different than I did when I was 35. I don’t want to turn into an old man, even though I am an old man.

“If I didn’t have fun, I’d say, ‘Adios, amigo.’ But this is fun. And it’s more fun watching people say, ‘What the hell are they doing with that offense?’ (Idaho coach) Dennis Erickson came over after our game and said, ‘If I knew what the hell you were doing, I’d run it myself.’ ”

This Warriors coaching staff is unbelievable. Can't take it for granted!

And I guess it's official:

Arizona State this afternoon accepted a bid to play the University of Hawai'i in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl on Christmas Eve at Aloha Stadium.

ASU athletic director Lisa Love received the offer from Jim Donovan, the game's executive director.

The Hawai'i Bowl made the offer after the Emerald Bowl, which had the fifth pick of Pac-10 teams, filled its slot with UCLA.

"Two and a half weeks ago we weren't sure we would even get (a Pac-10 representative) based upon the way they kept beating each other in conference, so we're very happy we have a Pac-10 team," Donovan said. "We met our goal of bringing a Pac-10 team to the bowl."

The Warriors are 10-2. ASU is 7-5.

The Star-Bulletin has more from Jim "Beuwmm!" Donovan:

“We are excited to have a team from a BSC conference in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl,” executive director Jim Donovan said. “Arizona State had a winning record and a nice win over a hot Arizona Wildcat team to wrap-up their regular season. I think it will be a great match up with the Warriors playing a talented Sun Devil team from the Pac-10 conference.”

Those punks at the Emerald Bowl wielded their power and deprived us of UCLA. But like I mentioned before, look on the bright side. At least UH will play a team with a winning record. Thanks to Charles for the heads up.

Looking to this week's game, C0hiba points out in the comments that Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel does not rank Hawaii in his "Power Rankings." Instead he ranks Oregon State at #24. Here's what he has to say about that:

I'm either going to look like a genius or an idiot for replacing Hawaii with Oregon State a week before the two play each other. The Beavers proved their worth by beating USC and winning six of their last seven; the Warriors needed a dramatic rally to beat a mediocre Purdue team at home.

I choose "idiot". Thanks for the tip C0hiba!

Glendalyn Junio of Ka Leo O Hawaii recaps the Purdue game. The article ends with this great quote by senior Leonard Peters.

"For some reason, we didn’t feel like [Purdue] had any respect for us this week; they talked about not coming down because they weren’t making any money and that it was too far. But you know, our closest [road] game is like five hours away and we don’t complain. It’s just what we have to do because we live on an island ... A lot of their players and coaches were taunting us before the game. So we took it upon ourselves and we came in to tell everybody ‘Let’s do it.’ In the first quarter, we shut them up, and it shows how much heart our team has to fight through adversity – you know, being down for the first time at home, to fight through it. It’s a feeling we’re not used to and our guys battled through it.”

I'm gonna miss him! Hopefully we get to see him play on Sundays.

And finally, thanks once again to Stephen Tsai, Princess Leila and the rest of the Advertiser crew for putting on another great live chat on The Warrior Beat, this time with Adam Leonard. Lot of good questions and a lot of great answers by "The Manimal". Glad he'll be here for another couple years.