by Andrew Walden

UH President MRC Greenwood says the Honolulu Police are investigating an anonymous allegation of point shaving by UH football players. But the HPD says there is not enough evidence to open an investigation.

The following is the entire text of the statement released by the University of Hawaii Tuesday:

Dr. MRC Greenwood, University of Hawaii President

On November 3, 2011, the UH Manoa Office of Admissions received an anonymous letter alleging "point shaving" by unnamed football players of UH football games.

Recognizing the seriousness of these allegations, UH leadership acted promptly and responsibly by immediately alerting the Honolulu Police Department and providing the letter to them.

Board of Regents Chair Eric Martinson and President MRC Greenwood met personally with Chief Louis Kealoha to offer UH's full cooperation with HPD's inquiry.

UH has alerted the NCAA about the anonymous letter and its contents and, in discussions with them, has been informed that it is "doing exactly what you need to be doing" in this situation.

Out of respect for the police investigation, UH will not comment further at this point.

The HPD released this statement Tuesday afternoon:

"The Honolulu Police Department became aware of the allegation in early November when UH officials gave a copy of an anonymous letter to the HPD. At this time there is not enough information to open a criminal investigation."

HNN reports that defense attorney Michael Green had some pertinent information which may be of use to any little shavers out there:

Honolulu attorney Michael Green represented former NBA star John "Hot Rod" Williams when he was acquitted of point shaving while attending Tulane University in the mid 1980's. Green told Hawaii News Now even when point shaving has occurred it is difficult, but not impossible, to prove.

"The first way is you have to someway get an admission, either confession or admission from the person who is accused. Sometimes it's on a wire tap. Sometimes your best friend is talking to you about it and that best friend is wearing a wire," Green said….

Once allegations go public, it is natural for fans to compare a team's performance against the spread and to look closely at individual player statistics, especially players in a position to impact games. But Green cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

Now don’t jump to conclusions as you consider the UH football team’s record:

“The football team was favored by Western Athletic Conference coaches and the media to win the WAC football championship in its final season of WAC membership. But because of the team's poor performance this fall, the Warriors will most likely not finish higher than third in the conference. --- KITV Keoki Kerr

“Hawaii 1-6 this year vs. spread as favorite, losing 4 of those games.” -- Brett McMurphy, CBS Sports

“The Warriors won 10 games in 2010 but are 5-6 this year with two games left in the regular season. They’re 3-7-1 against the point spread and have failed to beat the spread in nearly two months.” –Associated Press

“According to VegasInsider.com, they're 3-7-1 against the spread this season. To put that into perspective, only three teams in the entire nation (Florida Atlantic, Maryland and Central Michigan) have won fewer games against the spread all year.” – SBNation

“The Warriors were 5-3 when the anonymous tip was received, but the team has since lost its last three games.” –SBNation

“The #UNLV money line when it hosted #Hawaii opened at around +1600. By kickoff, it was around +700. Pretty mysterious movement at the time.”—Ryan Greene Yahoo! Sportswriter

“Hawaii faced UNLV on Sept. 19, losing the contest 40-20. As Greene noted following that game in a recap published by the Las Vegas Sun, Hawaii was on the wrong end of a blowout despite entering the game favored by nearly three touchdowns.” –SBNation

And be very careful when you read stuff like this from Covers.com:

The investigation, first reported by a Honolulu TV station, was triggered by an anonymous letter that implicated an unnamed player or players on Nov. 3. Two days later, favored Hawaii squandered a 28-7 halftime lead and lost to the visiting Aggies, 35-31.

In addition to the blown lead, the game also featured significant line movement. The Las Vegas Wynn opened Hawaii as a 7.5-point favorite over the Aggies on Sunday, Oct. 30, but the number was down to 3.5 by the next morning. According to the Covers.com line history, the Warriors opened as high as 9-point favorites at one offshore book.

The majority of Nevada and offshore sportsbooks had Hawaii -3 or -3.5 by kickoff.

“There was some wise-guy buzz about that game even before these allegations surfaced,” a Las Vegas industry source told Covers.com Tuesday night.

Or stuff like this from Seattle SBNation:

Remember the strange two-point defensive conversion off of a blocked kick at the end of the Washington-Hawaii game this season? That play just got even stranger with the recent allegation of point-shaving against the Hawaii Warriors.

The allegation adds further intrigue to the peculiar end of the Washington Huskies-Hawaii Warriors game back in Week Two of the college football season.

The Huskies were favored by four points entering the contest and ended up winning the game by eight points, 40-32. The final meaningful sequence of the game, however, featured a block on an extra point by Hawaii's kicker Kenton Chun that was returned for a two-point defensive conversion by Desmond Trufant.

The play itself- a blocked PAT that leads to a two-point defensive conversion- is rare in football. The sequence becomes even more interesting in light of the current Hawaii investigation.

And it would definitely be “jumping to conclusions” to think that this item “Feds Allege Violence, Extortion at Waikiki Nightspot” has anything to do with alleged point-shaving:

“Two University of Hawaii football players who were arrested on misdemeanor assault charges early Sunday morning in Waikiki by Honolulu Police reportedly began their evening at a party at the Shack, then moved to a nearby nightclub where the violence allegedly occurred.”

The HPD’s former legislative liaison, Major Carlton S. Nishimura, is not going to be available to head up the non-existent HPD investigation. After the FBI November 14 allegedly found a half-pound of meth packaged for sale from his home he faces “new federal drug charges added to an existing criminal case alleging Nishimura is guilty of extortion and witness tampering” – stemming from an alleged illegal gambling ring. Nishimura remains in federal custody.

Don’t jump to any conclusions here.

---30--- 

SA: Betting Numbers from Glantz-Culver 

SA: Wagering on UH this year hasn't been the best bet

SA: Say this about UH, it’s not looking the other way 

Pregame.com: College Football: Hawaii Point-Shaving Allegations Examined  -- "Data does not support rampant game fixing.  Yet, the data is not inconsistent with targeted point shaving in a handful of games."