By Paul Honda
paul@hondareport.com
Tuesday, Mar. 27, 2007

Maybe it's because I spent much of the past few weeks hammering away at our All-State work (softball, and now soccer).

Maybe it's the 2 1/2-week bye for the ILH.

Whatever the cause, the state of girls basketball, for me anyway, is in a stagnant state right now. Oh, not to worry, things will pick up quickly. The ILH season resumes on Tuesday, and a whole lotta coaches will be a whole lot happier for it.

One coach e-mailed me with a lengthy rant about why he hates this unprecedented break in the ILH season. I agreed with him on every point, but what can he do? A break that long gives players and their parents the mentality that a trip is OK, that skipping a practice now and then is fine. Never mind that everyone (almost) will be back in preseason mode when the break is done.

Seventeen days without a game doesn't happen in basketball, not in preseason, regular season or postseason. It's a coach's worst-case scenario. Even the Ultimate Teacher, John Wooden, would rather have a game or two squeezed in there if possible.

The nice thing about the ILH break is that I'm not missing big games between the elites. When the Star-Bulletin Girls Basketball Top 10 was released on Monday, the top seven teams remained intact. Doldrums.

But Lahainaluna and Kamehameha-Hawaii arrived, as they should. At this point, the chase for the state title is still not much different than the start of your typical big-time marathon. I do think Punahou has the wits and hunger to win the whole thing again, and their uptempo philosophy fits well with their athletic players. Mike Taylor is still one of the very best coaches in the game, and he's also right at the top when it comes to game management.

For now, there will be no watching of Punahou, not 'til next Tuesday. We'll see who took the 17 days and really honed the skills. We'll also see who went on long vacations, didn't touch a basketball for nearly the whole time, and did nothing to improve her team's chances to reach its potential.

Hey, it's only basketball, but where there's lack of commitment, nobody benefits. Even a young player needs to know where the standard of excellence exists, and that's where good coaches impart that knowledge.

It ain't easy being a coach, but every single one out there knows commitment when it shows up. There may not be a dominant team this year. In fact, there is none. But commitment, and the lack of it, will show pretty clearly. Vividly.

Tuesday will be quite interesting.

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