When it comes to picking his battles, it seems Riley Wallace is a descendant of William Wallace — the main warrior in the movie "Braveheart."

Riley Wallace, the head coach of the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team, has never backed down from a challenge, and he doesn't intend to start any time soon.

Wallace is about to begin his 20th season as head coach of the Rainbow Warriors. Twilight 'Ohana — the official start of practice for the basketball team — is scheduled for Friday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

A clause in Wallace's current contract states that the 2006-07 season will be his last with the 'Bows.

But is it?

Wallace, who will turn 65 later this month, addressed his contract issue, the upcoming season and his possible future plans in a recent interview with The Advertiser.

On whether this will, indeed, be his final season at Hawai'i:

"I'm not sure yet. It's in the contract, there's no question about that, that there would be no renegotiations on the contract as it is.

"We'll wait and see what kind of year we have; how you feel at the end of the season.

"I know I was good friends ... when he was coaching ... with Dean Smith of North Carolina. We were playing in a golf tournament one time and he mentioned to me to never make a decision at the end of the year. You always make it after that. Because you'll always quit if you do it at the end of the year because you're tired."

On why he signed the contract in the first place:

"The comment I made then was that probably was the key, in that I would probably be ready to retire at age 65. Again, I think I was talking at the end of the season.

"They (the UH administration) gave me a significant raise for the final two years of this contract, which will help with retirement ... and so (UH) helped me from that standpoint.

"I knew it said in the contract that I would agree to retire. I signed it two-fold. One, I was trying to hire my brother at the time and I thought if I went along with signing it, I might be able to get him in here."

NOTE: Wallace's brother, Loren, was rejected by the UH administration as a candidate for an assistant coach's position under Wallace last year.

On the possibility of renegotiating the contract, or signing a new one with Hawai'i:

"Obviously, if you go undefeated you probably could renegotiate. So the best thing to do is go out there, not worry about it and win every game you can possibly win and then see what happens at the end of the year.

"If I do retire, I'll be happy. It's been a good run. I love the place, and I have a lot of players I feel I've helped, and a lot of players have helped me.

"And I think the fans know that over the 20 years, we've been a very competitive team in our league."

On potential candidates for the head coach's position at Hawai'i should Wallace retire after this season:

"There's going to be a lot of people checking into it. Most of the older guys on the Mainland know how tough this job is because they know how tough it is to recruit at their own places. To get kids to come 2,500 to 5,000 miles away from home is a very difficult task. You have the expenses of it, and being away from home. And now with the involvement of parents, a lot of them don't want their kids to go that far.

"But any young coach will go anywhere, any time. So you'll get interest from those guys.

"When Stan Sheriff hired me, he said he called top name coaches and at the salary they pay here compared to other places, they basically laughed at him.

"Now if they pay a new coach in the realm of what they're paying the football coach here, they'll get a good coach."

On his personal choice — current associate coach Bob Nash — as a successor:

"If I step out of here, I would like to see Bob Nash get the job. He deserves the job and he should get the job. He's ready to take over.

"They would have to make sure they got somebody that knows what's going on and nobody knows that better than Bob Nash. They won't go get someone more qualified to run a program with the toughness of this one.

"It takes an inside knowledge of how to get it done here. As you look back in the past at some of the hires made in football and basketball, there's been some failures in between because some of those hires didn't understand how tough the job is and the adjustments that have to be made.

"If you move on from me to the staff that's here already, there would be no adjustments."

On his health, especially after procedures on his skull, heart and back in recent years:

"I'm in as good health now as I've ever been. I feel like what Jim Nabors told me, he said he feels like a bionic man because he's got all new parts. I'm the same. I got the head fixed, the heart fixed, the back fixed, so I'm in good shape."

On the health of his wife, Joan, and how that might affect his retirement decision:

"She had a mini-stroke (last year), but she's back now. She substitute teaches and travels back and forth to help with the grandkids. She's back doing what she loves, so that's not going to make us move anything."

On the possible opportunities he might explore once in retirement:

"Broadcasting is a possibility. I've had contacts with (former UNLV and Fresno State coach) Jerry Tarkanian. He wanted me to do a syndicated radio show nation-wide with him out of Vegas, possibly.

"Public relations is another thing. I'm pretty good with people and so PR work with Vegas and Hawai'i is a possibility.

"Administration, I haven't given up on that as a possibility.

"If someone contacted me (about coaching at another school), I'd have to listen. I don't know that I'd want to start a whole new program from scratch, or have the time to start on the bottom like I did here. But to go into a program that's on the top or in the middle, I'd have to look into it. But that's not something I'm looking to do at this point."

On the outlook of the 2006-07 Rainbow Warriors:

"I think depth is going to be our strength. We should have depth at just about every position. That helps you with injuries, for foul trouble, and not wearing any of the players out during the season.

"I think our overall size is a strength, if we use it. We have to get them to be a little more physical, and toughness has to develop, but the size is there.

"Offensively, we should have some firepower to score points."

On the difficulties of traveling:

"It's the one thing that being the coach in Hawai'i makes you wonder what you could have done with the same kids in a much more fair situation for the players, travel wise.

"We have great fans, a great place to play, and we win a very high percentage at our place. But we also lose a very high percentage when we go to their place.

"They complain about having to come here, and we complain about having to go there. So it works both ways.

"Now, if we're making a bus ride to play some of these teams instead of getting on a plane and going across that ocean, it's a more fair situation.

"I've always wondered what it would be like to take what we have here and move to the middle of California and be on an equal setting with the other teams travel wise."

On the difficulties of recruiting men's basketball players to Hawai'i:

"There's two things that have helped us in the last six or seventh years. One was the foreign kids. We had the winningest team in history here with guys like Savo (Predrag Savovic) and (Haim) Shimonovich and Carl English and (Phil) Martin and (Nerijus) Puida and (Mindaugas) Burneika.

"Now, we're getting good kids from the Northwest and California areas, and that's easier to recruit.

"It all goes back to (associate coach) Jackson Wheeler. He's one of the top recruiters in the country. The other coaches in the league know that. He's consistent with his recruiting. He really knows what we need and who plugs in where.

"The thing we don't get here (in Hawai'i) for basketball is the depth that other programs get because we don't really grow a recruiting nucleus here for basketball like we do for volleyball and baseball and football.

"We've had great basketball players come from here, but not in big numbers and not big in size."

On returning center Ahmet Gueye, who underwent knee surgery in March:

"Ahmet Gueye needs to get healthy. He's about 80 percent right now. He can run a little bit, but he needs to come back 100 percent because he really adds a lot to this team. Not only on the court, but his personality. He's one of the nicest kids, a good person to have on the team.

"On the court, he adds athleticism in the post, blocking shots and rebounding. That is more prevalent out of him than anybody else we have on the floor."

On Matt Lojeski, the leading returning scorer from last season:

"He averaged 14, 15 points a game for us. He came in his first year and really was able to light it up. He shoots a good percentage. Plays good defense for us.

"I think he wore down at the end of the season by not having Bobby (Nash) and Matt Gibson there to help him. He kind of wore down on me a little bit, so we had to depend on the freshmen last year a little more than normal. This year he'll have some help because we do have depth."

On the return of redshirts Matt Gibson and Bobby Nash:

"I call (Gibson) the energizer bunny. He's got that energy and he needs to keep that energy and focus it into our game. He's much better now than he has been the past two years as far as running the things we want.

"We got him at the point (guard) right now. He needs to keep it under control, work on his passing, and stay within the scheme of things offensively and defensively. If he does that, he'll be a very good basketball player.

"Bobby has been real good here in the fall. He's back healthy and he looks bigger. He's known our system so long, he knows stuff better than anybody out there."

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.