By Gary Dickman.

Finally. It happened. Yes, it actually is 2021. Now what? The hope is that we get back to life as we knew it from one year ago. But I think we all know that’s still a work in progress. A lot of us thought that as soon as the calendar said 2021, things would immediately get better. Not quite, not as of yet. But with it being 2021, I also think we can see hope and a light at the end of this dark tunnel.

As for current sports, I wish there was more to say about the University of Hawaii’s men’s basketball team. It was their bye week, now it’s nine weeks in a row of scheduled games in the Big West. And as of now, the games this week vs UC Riverside are still on. Both Friday and Saturday’s games will start at 2:00 p.m., and this year I’m hosting the Rivals Waikiki Pregame Show one hour before tipoff for both home and road games. And I’ll be joined by my cohost, Brian McInnis, formerly of the Star-Advertiser.

Here’s what I can tell you about Riverside. They’re 3-1, with an impressive win vs Washington, 57-42. Now, I’ll point out the game was at a neutral court in Las Vegas, and it was played on 48 hours notice after both teams lost games in Vegas due to COVID cases with their opponents. (And Washington is really bad this year, 1-7 on the season.)

They’ve had their last six games cancelled, and haven’t played since December 10. Their most dangerous player is 6’9 Arinze  Chidom, who had a lot of success vs UH last year, and is averaging 13.8 points a game. And he’s got some overseas helps in a couple of transfers. 7-1 center Jock Perry is from Australia via St Mary’s, and had 21 in the win vs Washington. These games won’t be easy. Riverside is only allowing 55 points a game. I see both teams a little rusty, and for UH, it’ll be a lot of guys first game vs D1 competition. In two weeks of Big West play, only three series out of 10 were played. Let’s hope we have better luck this week, and for the eightweeks after that.

I’m so glad we had the NFL this year, even with some creative rescheduling, I looked forward to every Sunday of football. Kind of fitting that the last regular-season game wasn’t so regular. The Sunday night finale meant a lot, at least to Washington and the NY Giants. Washington needed to win or they’d be going home and the Giants would have been playoff bound. I’m sure you know about the controversy, with Philadelphia pulling Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld.

I almost feel bad for Eagles head coach Doug Pederson. Either he’s a liar or a really bad football coach. He won a Super Bowl in Philly just three years ago, which is also the last time Sudfeld played in an NFL game. So I know he’s a smart coach. You know the coach is lying when he says he was trying to win with the quarterback move. His own players had to be held back on the sidelines from going after Pederson when they saw this move. Some players got to him and demanded to know why he did this. No answer. Wow, just three days into the new year and we already have one of the year’s top stories. Now I know there won’t be a 30 for 30 on this, but maybe they can make a 15 for 15.

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