At least there won’t be any more kooky talk about Hawaii somehow securing an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

That was one of the few positives to be derived from the quintessential “bad loss” for the Rainbow Warriors at home against UC Riverside on Thursday night.

It was exciting and close, but it wasn’t expected to be. Hawaii, with a six-game winning streak, was a double-digit favorite coming in and wasn’t supposed to have to rely on a late rally … which in this case, came up short.

But UH got started too late — especially on defense — against the Highlanders, a bottom-feeder team in the bottom-feeder Big West conference.

If there’s anything else good about it for Hawaii, it reminds the ‘Bows they haven’t arrived at the dance quite yet.

“It’s a wake-up call,” junior forward Mike Thomas said, adding that the Rainbows failed to play solid defense for all 40 minutes.

And UH showed it is the kind of team that can shoot itself into wins but out of them, too, jacking up 3s early in possessions instead of working for better shots.

“We weren’t following our identity,” coach Eran Ganot said, noting that the defense, rebounding and good shot selection that led UH to 22 previous wins this season were mostly MIA. (After he credited Riverside, of course.)

Roderick Bobbitt remained at four steals from catching Tom Henderson’s program career mark. More importantly, the team’s magic number didn’t change either. The first-place Rainbows still can lock up the regular season title by winning out, holding a one-game lead over UC Irvine and two over Long Beach State. Hawaii owns the tiebreaker over the second-place Anteaters but has lost its only game so far against the 49ers.

So, they’re still in the driver’s seat. But they need to quit texting and focus on the road directly in front of them.

“We’re still in first place, we just have to come back with that hunger,” sophomore guard Isaac Fleming said.

And, if we want to be technical about it, the ‘Bows lost their composure. On retro aloha shirt night, the Rainbows regressed to last season, when it seemed like every game was a T party.

Bobbitt jawing with Riverside coach Dennis Cutts is a worse look for the supervising adult, but a double ejection would’ve been a costlier loss for UH.

At least there’s the motivation of senior night on Saturday against CSUN — a game that could be the last home appearance not only for those whose eligibility is expended after this season, but perhaps also some or all of the juniors, since as it stands Hawaii won’t be eligible for the NCAA Tournament next year.

Speaking of that, the Rainbows know this as well as everyone else does: Another lackluster and un-poised effort like this one in the Big West tournament, and the corresponding automatic bid to The Dance will go the way of that mythical at-large selection that never existed in the first place.

Fortunately, though, these players have shown a tendency over the past two seasons to right themselves after a loss. The last time UH suffered back-to-back defeats was Feb. 19 and 21 … of 2015.

“We live and we learn,” Fleming said.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quickreads.