It is fitting that the current record holder retired UCLA coach Andy Banachowski will be in attendance tonight to celebrate with his long time friend Dave. Shoji will go for his 1107 win which is impressive but equally as impressive is that his record has a winning percentage of 85%. And that is against the likes of Penn State, USC, UCLA, Stanford, and now Texas and the list goes on and on after a 39 year coaching career at UH.
What I hope won't happen is his girls are trying so hard to give Coach Shoji the record and then relax a bit when they have to face 10th ranked UCLA the next night. The ultimate goal every year for the Rainbow Wahine is to make the Final Four and possibly win the title, but they will need to position themselves in the beginning of the season to give them quality wins against top ranked opponents to secure hosting in the first couple of rounds of the NCAA tournament. Last year they had to travel to Seattle to play a trapped game against Washington. I'm sure (whomever the Wahine would have played) at home they would have breezed through the first two rounds and have a chance at regionals and possibly make the Final Four.
I think (putting all "bachi" aside) the Wahine will once again not host the first round of the NCAA tournament but with this experienced team will get over that hump and have a great postseason run into the Final Four. This is the part I don't want to get further ahead on because I believe this year's team has the talent and experience to give Coach Shoji a reason of possibly retiring after this season. I'll just leave it at that.
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