The first-place University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine basketball team.

Ponder that distinction for a moment and savor it, because it has definitely been a while since people have been able to write Rainbow Wahine hoops and "first place" in the same sentence.

Perhaps not since the 1997-98 season, four head coaches and a conference membership ago, have the Rainbow Wahine held a piece of first place in any conference this late in the season.

To put it in some perspective, Capt. BJ Itoman, who has been flying C-17s for the Hawaii Air National Guard, was playing point guard when UH was sitting atop the Western Athletic Conference in the 1997-98 season.

But here the Rainbow Wahine are nearly three-quarters through their return season to the Big West and resolutely clutching a share of first with Pacific at 9-4 with five regular-season games remaining.

As remarkable as that is here, consider the jolt that has accompanied it in the Big West, where they thought expansion was gifting them with somebody named Patsy. After five consecutive losing seasons in the WAC, the Rainbow Wahine were picked for a sixth-place debut in the 10-member Big West, and some thought that generous at the time.

Instead, as UH (13-11 overall) heads out on its last conference road trip of the season this week to UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly, the Rainbow Wahine are looking down in the standings on four teams picked ahead of them, including Cal State Northridge, the preseason favorite.

Take care of business on the road and the Rainbow Wahine have three season-ending home games in which to stake a claim to their first regular-season conference title in 16 years.

Suddenly, first-year head coach Laura Beeman looks like a prime candidate for coach of the year honors and Kamilah Martin a possible player of the year award winner.

To be sure, the Big West isn’t as rigorous as the WAC the Rainbow Wahine once competed in, but what Beeman has accomplished in less than 11 months since taking over at UH has been inspiring. With a handful of holdovers from an 11-19 (6-8 WAC) team that returned no seniors, an emerging redshirt and some 11th hour recruits, she has cobbled together not only a capable team, but one of considerable resilience.

That the Rainbow Wahine somehow emerged from the gauntlet of a preconference schedule that ranked No. 5 for degree of difficulty, (No. 1 Baylor, No. 4 Stanford and No. 13 Oklahoma, etc.) with a 4-7 record and in one piece and without a tortured psyche was viewed as an accomplishment in itself.

Nowhere, except on the boards, where they lead the Big West in rebounding margin, and on team defense, where they rank second, do the Rainbow Wahine’s statistics jump out at you. But they have done enough things well at the right times to win six of their last eight games and catch Pacific in the standings.

Which, given the depths they have emerged from, makes the heights they have attained all the more lofty.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.comor 529-4820.