Hawaii Fires Head Basketball Coach. Sportsbook had the Hawaii Warriors firing head coach Bob Nash on Monday. Hawaii has not been very successful in recent seasons although it was not all Nash’s fault. The Warriors were 10-20 this season straight up and a very poor 8-15 against the sportsbook online odds.
Sportsbook had the record for Hawaii under Nash being 34-56 in three seasons. “This was a very tough decision,” athletic director Jim Donovan said in a statement. “No person has shown more dedication to UH basketball than Bob Nash.” Three years ago it was Nash replacing Riley Wallace and things simply didn’t go well. Wallace was a legend at Hawaii and replacing him was next to impossible. Hawaii was 11-19 in Nash’s first season and it didn’t get much better last year at 13-17. This year was a total bust at 10-20 including a very poor 3-13 in the Western Athletic Conference. It was not all Nash’s fault though. The team was decimated by injuries, illness and suspension this sportsbook college hoops season. “Ultimately this comes to a business decision based on win-loss record, not Bob Nash’s character or how well he performed in other aspects of the program,” Donovan said.
Hawaii will have to pay almost a quarter of a million to buy out the last year of Nash’s contract. The new head coach is not going to have much to work with considering the Warriors return only one eligible player in Hiram Thompson who would have liked Nash to say. “We have a good relationship and I know what to expect from him,” Thompson said, “There’s definitely a bright future for next year with the personnel we have coming in.”
Whether the Warriors have talent coming in is up for debate but the days of Hawaii being a basketball team that could win in the WAC has long since disappeared. The Warriors are not even that good at home vs. sportsbook online odds and when a team can’t win home games it is time for a change and Hawaii decided that time is now. The Warriors simply were atrocious on defense this season ranking near the bottom of the country in points allowed per game and other than Roderick Flemings they didn’t have many scoring options. Thompson didn’t even average double digits in scoring this season so there is not much to get excited about with Hawaii basketball in the immediate future.