Along with the women’s cross country team, the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team got a hearty pat on the back this week from the NCAA for academic performance.

The looming question is: Will the NCAA deliver a boot to the Rainbow Warriors down the road?

With the impact of the continuing player exodus hanging over its basketball future, maybe that’s why there wasn’t a lot of official UH celebration of the latest round of Academic Progress Rate scores announced Wednesday.

Both teams earned Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA for having APR scores that ranked in the top 10 percent of their sports for the latest four-year (2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11) rolling period.

The APR is a measurement of eligibility and retention for Division I scholarship athletes that is used as an indicator of eventual graduation rates. With 930 equating as a 50 percent graduation rate and 973 being the NCAA average, cross country had a score of 1,000 and basketball 990.

Under-performing teams, of which 2011 NCAA men’s basketball champion Connecticut was the marquee example announced Wednesday, may be barred from postseason play or lose scholarships. The Huskies were among 15 teams banned from the postseason in the 2012-13 academic year.

That possibility is not lost on UH, where officials have been preliminarily crunching numbers trying to estimate how much danger the Rainbow Warriors might face in the next two years because of the wholesale player movement. Four players left Manoa in the wake of the ‘Bows’ 16-16 season and there have been eight overall since 2010.

Not ideal numbers when the goal is retention and academic progress, much less winning games. And a far cry from the one that cross country has lost.

"At this point in time, it is not looking like a nuclear explosion (for basketball)," athletic director Jim Donovan said.

To avoid that, UH has to hope that Shaquille Stokes, Trevor Wiseman and Bobby Miles continue in school, Zane Johnson graduates soon, Joston Thomas signs a pro contract and incoming Keith Shamburger has enough transferable credits. All of which, under the NCAA formula, would help lessen the damage. And, of course, that nobody else takes a hike.

Ironically, UH has its former coach, Bob Nash, to thank for what breathing room it does enjoy. UH had scores of 1,000 in 2007-08 and 2008-09 and 961 in 2009-10, the three years of Nash’s tenure.

"Bob and his staff share in that recognition that men’s basketball received (from the NCAA)," Donovan said.

Nash’s replacement, Gib Arnold, has had just one season figure in the APR so far, 941 for 2010-11.

The plot thickens in two years when the NCAA raises the minimum standard from 900 to 930, when UH’s exodus years will be part of the equation.

In the meantime, track coach Carmyn James, who is working on a string of Public Recognition Awards, has few APR worries except, maybe, where to hang them.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.