Whatever the University of Hawaii comes up with for its men’s basketball schedule this year, can we please have at least a couple quality guarantees?

Such as a moratorium on appearances by everybody’s favorite punching bag, Arkansas Pine Bluff?

And, no more than one sacrificial Division II opponent?

We bring this up because the Rainbow Warriors, as with many of their brethren this time of the year, are in the process of filling in the final nonconference pukas in their 2016-17 schedule, officials say. And, more and more in the past six years, there has been a trend toward plugging them with rent-a-victims.

Not since Bob Nash’s final season (2009-10), when the ’Bows last had a strength of schedule in the top 95 of Division I, has UH played a slate ranked in the upper 50 percent by the NCAA.

Of course, the fact that it turned out to be Nash’s final season no doubt encouraged his successors to water down their schedules in the interest of longevity. That and the contract provisions that rewarded 20-win seasons with bonuses or extensions.

With each lowering of the standard, coaches have been more emboldened. Even last season, with the firepower of Roderick Bobbitt, Aaron Valdes, Stefan Jankovic & Co. all returning, the schedule was ranked just 190 by the NCAA.

So, with a mass departure and a lot of new faces arriving on campus, you can bet this won’t be the year UH tackles Murderer’s Row. And, it shouldn’t be. But that doesn’t mean it has to turn into a binge at the pastry counter, either.

“I would say with eight new recruits I think our schedule is going to be more difficult this year when you look at it in totality,” athletic director David Matlin said. “I think our schedule, overall, is a better schedule.”

One common thread over recent years has been an appearance by the Golden Lions of UAPB. Four times in the past six seasons they have found their way to the Stan Sheriff Center, losing by an average of 22.5 points per game.

The Golden Lions were one of four UH nonconference opponents who were ranked 310 or worse last season, all of them 20-game losers.

When there haven’t been enough available of their ilk — Mississippi Valley State, Howard, Delaware State — UH has begun to increasingly double up on D-II foes, something unheard of in most of the Nash and Riley Wallace years.

Since the advent of the Diamond Head Classic, UH has been in an enviable position — especially if you are a Big West Conference team. The ’Bows have the ability to play an attractive, competitive schedule, if they choose. The DHC, which is owned an operated by ESPN Events, books and pays the freight on three good teams UH gets to play on its home floor.

The good news this year is UH also will have North Carolina, which is stopping by on its way to Maui for pennies on the dollar. Thereby leaving some moolah to book some respectable opponents.

If, of course, UH so chooses.

Here’s hoping that they do.

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