Wallace, Lojeski, Gueye

Moving over to basketball, tonight is the final home game for Matt Lojeski, Ahmet Gueye, and Coach Riley Wallace. Be there! If you can't be there, watch the game on K5, listen to it on 1420 AM, or watch it online at Hawaiian Telcom Media.

And Jason Kaneshiro writes a really great article as he talks to the players who were there when Riley first started coaching at UH. And no, those black and white photos are not for effect.

"You could already tell there was a new sheriff in town, big time," said guard David Hallums, a transfer to UH from Brigham Young-Hawaii.

"When I first met him you could see he just brought an intensity that I enjoyed because he didn't put up with anything. ... When he first came in, and I was there from Day 1, guys just quit. Literally, they left the island."

Among those who had to adjust to Wallace's vocal coaching style was Chris Gaines. The lanky guard was the Rainbows' leading scorer as a freshman and went on to become the program's all-time leading scorer. But he didn't get cut any slack as the new head man pushed the 'Bows through physical practices.

"Chris used to get beat up by everybody," said Hallums, Gaines' roommate at the time. "He used to get frustrated -- he would throw the ball, he'd walk out of the gym, come back in. But he got tougher and slowly he got Coach Wallace's respect for digging in.

"When he started getting knocked around during the games, it was nothing because in practice it was like football practice sometimes."

Let's hope UH wins big tonight, for the players, for Coach, and for momentum going into the WAC tournament.