This is silly

Now there's plenty of fans in the Aloha State who will absolutely disagree with the following but the talk of letting Coach Bob Nash go or giving him but another year to establish himself is simply craziness.

We are not related to Nash nor has he employed us or (to our knowledge) ever uttered the words Parsing The WAC (despite coming damn close many times with 'the WAC this' and 'the WAC that') in any of his numerous press conferences. We thoroughly understand his oversight and imagine he will quickly rectify this delinquency the next time in front of a microphone considering the immense influence we wield.....lol

Anyway, Bob Nash has been in charge two years in Honolulu. His tardy hiring effectively damaged the possibility of initially soliciting a larger pool of possible recruits, which should not be laid at Nash's feet but ultimately is.

His second recruiting class brought in ALL-WAC player Roderick Flemings. Nothing more needs to be written about Flemings as he is a Top 10 player in the conference and very close to being among the five best.

Besides Flemings, Petras Balocka, Lasha Parghalava, Brandon Adams and Adam Jespersen signed on with the Bows. Balocka and Adams are at worst rotation players and possible starters if matched with the appropriate teammates. The jury remains out on Jesperson as it's too early for any final 'label' and Parghalava has been a disappointment. There's been talk -- accurate or not -- that it was necessary to bring in Parghalava in order to land Balocka. Regardless, it doesn't change the analysis of each individual.

Judgment: not a great class but a solid enough one, with one star and two possible starters. But the need for a sharpshooting backcourter remains unfulfilled and a true point guard still needs to step up.

Nash's first recruiting class produced Kareem Nitoto, Conrad Fitzgerald, Bill Amis, Adhar Mayen and Xiang Ji.

The sophomore Nitoto originally signed with St. Mary's and is a strong defender. His shooting goes in-and-out and he can create but seems more suited for a jack-of-all-trades guard role than a point. Fitzgerald is a freshman who is still too young and he hasn't played enough for any determination. Amis is a solid junior frontcourter with shooting, rebounding and shotblocking talents -- someone whose game would benefit from playing with a backcourt three-point marksmen so as to give him greater room to maneuver in the paint. Mayen is a junior who hasn't developed as UH expected and remains a top athlete but with inconsistent production and he'll be a senior next season. Ji is another frosh who has intriguing size but the jury remains out.

Judgment: Nitoto and Amis have been starters, Fitzgerald and Ji need another season before an accurate analysis can be offered and Mayen hasn't produced as desired.

That's three starters out of 10 recruits, plus a couple of helpful guys, along with a number of recruits still too young to make a call. Two could rightfully be called miscalculations.

What's also intriguing is that Hawaii missed on two 'bigs' in C.J. Webster (San Jose State) and Brian Freeman (Long Beach State). Webster visited San Jose and then made his decision, thus turning down an offer to fly to Honolulu because his family didn't want him that far from home. Freeman was more than likely coming to Hawaii but the letting go of Riley Wallace and the long gap of time before Nash was hired eliminated that possibility.

It also needs to be noted that Hiram Thompson returned from his LDS mission and his scholarship was honored by Nash. The freshman was bothered all season by various injuries but has possibilities, but perhaps more as a third guard.

Two scholarships are apparently available. One has to be a dependable shooting guard. The other may need to be spent on a point but UH also has the need for another big who can help out and take over when Flemings, Amis, Balocka and Paul Campbell each complete their frontcourt eligibility at the end of next season.

With many coaches, the youngsters on the team -- at least some of them -- would be jettisoned to make way for new recruits. Coach Nash faces a dilemma: does he drop some kids, ones whose frontrooms he came into and asked that they come to Honolulu or does he roll the dice and keep his commitments?

More than likely, his future employment will depend on the answer to just that question.

Coaches are fired when they don't win enough games. Recruiting is the lifeblood to any successful program. It's our contention that Nash has done fine so far with his landing of players, especially considering he's really had but one full season to do so. But this time around, Nash will have to land top-flight players, a task made all the more harder because of the iffiness of a contract extension.

Sadly, it doesn't look like smooth times for Hawaii basketball.