Where in the name of Vaidotas Peciukas has the time gone?

Has it really been going on eight seasons now and that National Invitation Tournament game with Nebraska in 2004 that the University of Hawaii has been without a home sellout in basketball at the 10,300-seat Stan Sheriff Center?

Can it really be six years, when Michigan State played here, without a turnout of 8,000 or more? And almost five years, on Riley Wallace’s aloha night, since the 7,000 figure was approached at the turnstiles?

For if there is a season for the crowds to come back and rock the joint, early indications are this could be it.

As they return from the road smack dab in the thick of the Western Athletic Conference race — and when was the last time we could say that after visits to perpetual double-whammy sites Fresno State and Nevada? — the ‘Bows have something to market.

Get by Louisiana Tech on Thursday night and, suddenly, the ‘Bows are 3-1 in the WAC (11-7 overall) and playing New Mexico State (currently 13-5, 3-0) for no worse than possession of second place in the conference.

Yes, UH has a lot to play for these days and it has a team and cast of personalities that have made it interesting along the way, even in defeat.

Ever since the victory over then-14th-ranked Xavier in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic — a run of five triumphs in seven games — the ‘Bows have begun to capture the imaginations and Gib Arnold’s team has opened up possibilities unexplored in recent years.

Throw in a 33rd and last tour around a remarkably wide-open, watered-down WAC and there are some opportunities to put bodies in seats that have gone long unoccupied since Peciukas and the ‘Bows drew 9,451 through the turnstiles for the Cornhuskers.

Maybe the ‘Bows will even draw enough that the charade of announcing only tickets distributed figures can be abandoned once and for all. Going on two seasons now the curious but operative policy at UH has been not to announce turnstile attendance for men’s basketball games. Totals for tickets distributed — whether actually used or not — are announced instead.

The theory apparently being, according to UH spokesmen, that potential recruits will be more favorably disposed toward UH if they see the higher distributed figures that can vary by as much as 3,000. In 2010-11, for example, we’re told the turnstile average was 3,958 per game, while the average distributed was 6,537, a significant difference.

Never mind that with TV and the Internet prospective recruits can often see for themselves whether the arena is half-full or not.

In no other sport does UH hold back on the turnstile figure. If women’s basketball can own up to a turnout of 410, you’d like to think the men can come clean on 10 times that number.

The hope is that the season will be such that the crowds will come through the turnstiles for the ‘Bows. And that UH will be proud enough to announce it.

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