Hawaii Basketball

Who could it be? Who should it be?…

Who knows… but evidently there are a ton of applicants with hopeful aspirations of become the leader of second biggest show in town (behind UH football). 71 to be exact. Among them is 25 year staff member Bob Nash and current Kentucky assistant coach Scott Rigot. Both intruiging choices, but why should we choose one or the other?… Here’s a quick rundown:

Bob Nash, University of Hawaii, Associate Head Coach
Why he should get it: Simply put, Coach Nash should at least have a CHANCE to coach the Warriors. Loyalty goes far in Hawaii and you can’t get more loyal than his 25 years which is longer than even Coach Wallace’s entire UH career (and that doesn’t include his playing days). And… His son is in his final season, so it’d be great to see the two together for at least one more year.

Why he shouldn’t: Well, it could be time for a change. Time to make the jump from local to national. Time to expect more than simply an NCAA berth and join the other “big-time” mid-majors in moving beyond the opening game. UH should strive to be Butler… not Jackson State or Niagara. Its not known at this point how much Coach Nash knows or how far he could possibly take them, but when you’ve been under the same guy with that same mentality for so long, its hard think otherwise.

Scott Rigot, University of Kentucky, Assistant Coach
Why he should get it: According to a few past UH players, Scott Rigot was the genius behind a lot of the “good things” that happened while he was here at UH. Rigot implented the FLEX offense with all of its reads and counters, a much more advanced version than what you’ve been seeing since his departure. He was also responsible for bringing in several of Hawaii’s most prized internatioanal recruits which is part of the reason UK scooped him up a few years ago. Speaking of the Wildcats, being on the their staff means Rigot comes from a “big-time” atmosphere where basketball rules-the-world so hopefully he’ll bring the same attitude and lofty goals along with him to UH…

Why he shouldn’t: Apparently Kentucky’s poor performance as of late has been attributed to Rigot and his fellow assistant’s inability to attract high-level recruits to the storied program. Rumors have said that Rigot was on the chopping block on at least one occasion and with Tubby Smith moving on to Minnesota without taking him along, there may be some truth it. Also, as a SEC assistant, Rigot may aspire to land at a big-time program (which Hawaii is not), so its likely that he’ll have a few other applications floating around with Hawaii lingering near the bottom of his wish list… so we’ll see.