Dave Shoji, the University of Hawai'i-Manoa women's volleyball coach, can poke a stick at the NCAA selection committee with virtual impunity this week.

He can toss around "absurd" and "ridiculous" with the frequency that Kanoe Kamana'o sets the outside. He can wonder out loud, "What are they (the committee members) thinking about?" and suggest "They are protecting those big conferences." He can claim, "I don't think anybody can look at those brackets and figure any common sense out of it."

He can do all this — and has with free-swinging alacrity — because, well, what is the NCAA going to do to he and the Rainbow Wahine now?

Deny them a first- and second-round shot at home again next year? Send them onto the home floor of one of the hottest teams in the country?

Been there, doing that.

Let's review for a minute. Last year UH went 28-0 and was the No. 1-ranked team in the country in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll. For its reward, UH got sent to Fort Collins, Colo., and then, Green Bay, Wis. At least, the NCAA might counter, it was indoors.

So, this year, UH goes 25-6, is tied for seventh nationally and gets packed off to Austin, Texas. Should it win on the home floor of a seventh-ranked Longhorn (23-4) team that upset No. 1 Nebraska, UH gets to go on the home court of No. 2 Penn State (29-2).

At this point if you are Shoji you have to be asking yourself just who on the selection committee have you offended in the past decade? "I don't think I did anything," Shoji maintains.

Still, you wonder. Did Shoji make a wise crack about some selection committee member's choice in aloha wear two years ago? Did he fail to recruit somebody's cousin's niece?

The NCAA company line has been that UH's assignments are merely in keeping with the NCAA's post-9/11 policy of geographic clusters so nobody has to travel too far. That someday UH might host again.

But the betting already is that it will be a while before early-round matches come to the Stan Sheriff Center. Terrell Owens might win a Nobel Peace Prize first.

Or, as Shoji puts it: "It doesn't look like we're ever going to host a first and second round (match)."

Maybe, possibly, a regional some day, Shoji and the Rainbow Wahine hope. Whether Kamana'o, who will be a senior next year, gets to play another NCAA tournament match at home remains to be seen.

So, secure in the knowledge that there isn't much in the way of retribution that can befall his team, Shoji has a luxury enjoyed by few of his peers. He can speak most of his mind.

After all, what is there left for the NCAA to do, send UH to a first-round match in Maine?

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.