Wahine hoops coach under fire

Rainbow Wahine basketball coach Jim Bolla is under fire, and it’s not just for another season of dismal results on the court.

Bolla was placed on indefinite paid leave last week for undisclosed reasons, although reports have since emerged that the cause of the action is an alleged physical confrontation with a player that recently came to university’s attention.

Associate coach Pat Charity was in charge of the team during the past week, when UH suffered road losses to Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State.

The setbacks dropped the Rainbow Wahine’s records to 5-19 overall and 2-9 in the WAC.

Bolla is in his fifth season as the Rainbow Wahine’s head coach.  After this season, he has two more years remaining on a contract extension.
Bolla was the subject of an internal investigation following last season, when some players complained that he engaged in verbal abuse of team members.  But he returned to job, nevertheless, although he did receive a written reprimand for the athletic department.
The men’s basketball team, meantime, will try to  bounce back from a gut-wrenching 47-46 home loss Saturday night to Nevada, who outscored the Bows 8-0 over the final 2:14.

Hawaii will take marks to 12-12 overall and 4-8 in the WAC for its next game – a road showdown with Fresno State on Thursday that will be nationally televised on ESPN2.
In men’s volleyball, Hawaii is off this week following back-to-back road losses to Long Beach State, dropping its records to 3-8 overall and 1-6 in the MPSF.  UH next plays host to Stanford on Feb. 26 and 27.

The Rainbow Wahine opened the softball season in impressive fashion, upsetting sixth-ranked Oklahoma 8-5 in the opener of the Paradise Classic.   But they lost their other four games.

Over the past weekend, they again went 1-4 during a 22-team tourney  hosted  by UNLV.  UH lost 6-2 to Northwestern, 8-0 to Kentucky, 3-2 to Oregon, spanned a seven-game skid with an 8-3 win over St. Louis and then lost 8-0 to UC-Davis.

UH is now 2-8 going into a game tomorrow at Loyola-Marymount.