Larry Brown Sports

The Honolulu Police Department said on Tuesday that they are not opening a criminal investigation of alleged point shaving regarding the University of Hawaii football team because of a lack of information.

The school’s president says the office of admissions received an anonymous letter on November 3rd alleging point shaving by members of the football team. The timing of the letter coincides with suspicious movement concerning the point spread for one of Hawaii’s games.

Covers.com points out that the point spread for the Hawaii-Utah State game opened with Hawaii favored by 7.5 points, and as much as 9 in one book. Three hours later, the line was down to 3.5 everywhere.

“There was some wise-guy buzz about that game even before these allegations surfaced,” Covers reports.

The Wynn casino in Las Vegas reportedly opened with the line at 7.5 Sunday night and it dropped to 3.5 Monday morning.

The only thing we can think of that would cause a move like that is either wise guy money, or key injury news concerning a quarterback. Hawaii’s quarterback Bryant Moniz played the entire previous game and played the entire Utah State game, so that explanation does not hold up.

As for the actual game, Hawaii blew a 28-7 halftime lead and lost 35-31. They’re 5-6 on the year and 4-7 against the spread.

It was such a lovely story. The little engine that could. Hawaii was on a mission to repeat what Boise State had done the year before. Only problem, Boise State had already made everyone aware of the little guy; Georgia was having none of that. All those people who said Hawaii deserved a shot at the national title for going undefeated, what do you have to say now? From 12-0 to getting destroyed by a real team. It wasn’t even funny. They looked like a JV squad out there against Georgia. They got their quarterback killed.

Let’s just call Hawaii what they were — a nice story and good team that took advantage of a weak schedule. Sure, they managed to beat everyone they played (until now), which is more than what we can say for the Michigans and USCs that lost to inferior opponents, but that doesn’t mean they’ve earned the right to compete with the big boys. One out of ten times they can pull an upset on a big-time team like Georgia, but the other 10, they’ll get throttled as they did. Anyone watch the game? You see the disparity in talent? Colt Brennan couldn’t even get to three in his snap count before he had a pack of Dawgs on his back. He got crushed. They couldn’t protect him for crap. And boy, did you see the Hawaii defense (if you can call it that) attempt to stop the Georgia running game? What a joke. No wonder this team gave up 44 to the likes of Louisiana Tech.

So what’s the point? Just keep this game in mind next time we have a small school run the table. They’re great stories, but they really don’t belong with the big boys just as Georgia proved.

First we had June Jones complaining that nobody would come to the Island because Hawaii would kick everyone’s ass there. Now we have officials penalizing them for doing nothing more than a pre-game dance routine. From the Honolulu Advertiser via Ben Maller:

Prior to the opening kickoff against Louisiana Tech, the Warriors were assessed a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Bulldogs won the coin toss, opting to receive, and the Warriors were forced to kick off from their 15.
…
The NCAA has rules against unsportsmanlike conduct, but none specifically mentions the haka, a Maori war chant the Warriors began doing last year before games.
…
“I checked,” Jones said of the guidelines. “We didn’t do it on the field. We did it 75 yards away from the field. … It’s not (unsportsmanlike). It’s a cultural, spiritual thing. It’s unfortunate. There’s no unsportsmanlike issue in the book covering this.”

See, that’s what happens when you can’t beat Hawaii on an even playing field. Personally, I think they’re getting hosed on the call. The WAC is culturally biased. Let Hawaii dance, let them do the Haka. Otherwise, you will pay the price.

Let me say upfront that I’m a June Jones for several reasons. For one, he’s a really nice guy. Secondly, without June Jones, there would be no Timmy Chang. And lastly, because he gets off some great lines, such as this:

“Teams don’t want to make the trip anymore,” says Hawaii coach June Jones. “They come here, we kick their ass, they go home.”
…
The NCAA allows Hawaii to play 13 games and allows mainland teams an exempt game for playing at Hawaii. The Michigan State game was the 13th game, and now Hawaii has only one BCS opponent, which isn’t enough to legitimize its schedule.

Well that’s an utter shame. June Jones man, now he is great. Straight up saying we kick everyone’s ass and then send ‘em home. Fantastic. Tell us how it really is why dontcha? Think about it though, would you want to go to Hawaii? They’re a good team that sneaks up on you. They’ll assault you with 400 yards passing and like 5 aerial touchdowns on the Island. They rock at home. I wouldn’t want to go there. Would you? Of course not. Unless you’re on vacation. And therein lies the unfortunate problem. June Jones though, Hall of Famer.

(via Fark)