Final road — how long?

The Rainbow Warriors debarked on their final road trip of the season on Tuesday.

The million dollar question remains, how long will they be gone?

It could be anywhere from until this Sunday (postseason ban upheld by the NCAA, or no word from the NCAA) to mid March (Bows cleared to play by NCAA, Bows win Big West tournament, Bows play in NCAA Tournament).

Ferd Lewis reported this morning that the NCAA got back to the Star-Advertiser with a brief statement on the status of Hawaii’s lingering appeal of its sanctions.

Here were interviews Tuesday by Eran Ganot, Jack Purchase and Gibson Johnson, who stopped by to talk to the media on their way to the team bus from the Stan Sheriff Center before flying out to Sacramento for Thursday’s game at UC Davis.

Ganot:
On how they prepare for this trip:
Prepare the same way we always do. We’re getting ready for two big games on the road. You say the unknown when we’d come back — well, there’d be unknown anyway. Obviously in the conference tournament you don’t know how long you’re playing there. We have the goal of playing as long as we can. When you get to the last trip, you have memories of last year’s last trip, so it would be nice if we’d be out on the road for three weeks again. I’ll tell you that much, I’ve never been so happy to live on flights and airports, bus rides and hotel rooms. So that’s the exciting part … when you get toward this time of the year, you don’t know how much longer you’ll play. We always talk about, we always coach them and these guys want to play forever.

On how they’ve handled it:
I mean, you’re impressed with their performance, but more than anything I’m impressed with their approach, their mental fortitude, their resolve and their professionalism. It’s hard to do. To say that now, looking on two years of that, you know I think even closer to the finish line here those questions are asked a lot more and it’s in the back of your mind a lot more. But you get back on the right path quickly in terms of what you can control, because there’s so many things we have to work on. Look, if it wasn’t for that approach they wouldn’t have had the success they’ve had to this point, though all that. And that’s why we’re going to stick with the same approach down the stretch here.

Are you surprised at team’s leaps?
Well, you always have belief in what we do and belief in the guys. It’s a tough road. I don’t know if you’ll ever see, another year or another team, that will have that many new faces all at once. Even a senior who hasn’t been around this group or this school in a leadership role. So, I always say there’s nothing better than watching a team come together. It usually takes several years. To do what they’ve done and come together like they have in a short period of time is unbelievable, really. It’s such a credit to them. That’s a compliment you get from other coaches, your peers, your competitors as well. ‘Wow, you guys look like you’ve played together for a while.’ And we know we haven’t. But that’s a credit to them. And not just the talents and the work ethic and all that. But the character to spend time together, to learn about each other. And then they play like they love each other. And I think that’s important.

On blocking out external noise:
Well that’s a big part of life in general. Handling success, handling failures. Obviously it’s one of the great things too that’s also tough here, the pro team, these guys get a lot of attention. Pretty scrutinized. There’s no helmets on them. They’re visible. That’s why you have to bring in great people, and we do. We crush it with people. I talk about for the whole university, athletic department, state here. So what we tell them is, we talk about the elephant in the room early, in terms of what’s coming. We try to talk about expectations and prepare them, not just for on-the-floor things. It’s also off the floor, and certainly the adversity this group’s been through. But we confront it head-on and we address it right away so we can get back to work. That’s the whole thing. After a game, we talk about us, get back to work and our approach. If things are going on NCAA-wise, we talk about it, get back to our approach. I think that’s an important thing. That’s such a credit for our young kids to handle it the way they have.

Purchase
Treating these games as your last, or longer?
I’ve packed for two weeks, at least. We’re thinking we’re going to play in the postseason, so we’re getting ready of that, yeah.
We’re just talking about trying to put ourselves in the right position to make the tournament. Take care of business over there.

On NCAA limbo, two games left:
I mean, we’ve had the same approach all year. We don’t know what’s going to happen, we can’t control it, so we’re just taking it a game at a time, just trying to put ourselves in position, if we do make the tournament, to have a good season.

On blocking out external noise:
Yeah, I mean it is kind of hard, but at the same time, we can’t really control it. I was just in an Uber there, and he was talking to us about it. No one knows what’s going on. We can’t really control it, so we just gotta play these games out and see what happens at the end.

Johnson
On leaving on unknown trip:
We just packed enough clothes, I guess, and do laundry there if we have to. But we’re hoping that we’re staying longer. I don’t know, we’ll just see what happens. I’ve never been in a situation like this with a team in a season, so I don’t really know how to answer it.

How proud of team with how you’ve handled it?
Well I think it’s huge. I think it shows a lot of character for our team. I think a lot of other teams in this same situation maybe would have thrown in the towel, and probably would have made it easier on the NCAA just to get us out of the Big West tournament. But I think we kind of forced their hand with our season and our heart and playing hard. So, I mean whatever the result is we’ll take it. But we’ve done our best, you know?
If we’re able to get in that tournament I feel like we’re going to do some damage.

Are you treating these games like your last two of season or are you holding out for more?
It’s almost a weird feeling because kind of toward the end of the season you feel burnt out, but it’s not usually the end of the season right now. You usually have a month left. You’re giving it your all as if it’s the end of the season, but technically you should be giving it your all every game, right, like it’s your last game. I mean, we’ve just been playing hard and are looking forward to these last two games, if they are our last ones, hopefully we can get victories. If not, hopefully we can get some in the tournament.

On blocking out NCAA noise, tough?
Yeah, because it’s affected the lives of everybody in the basketball program, you know? People will ask me, or I have to plan with teachers about grades and essays and tests, and I don’t even know how to respond to them on whether I’ll be here. So, it changes your life a little bit, but there’s not much you can do about it so we’re just plugging along.