Two years ago the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team’s version of a nonconference road trip was the 10.3 mile bus ride from the Stan Sheriff Center to Pearl Harbor’s Bloch Arena.

That’s where they played their only two out-of-conference “away” games of the season — meetings with Seton Hall and Princeton in TV’s FS1 Pearl Harbor Invitational.

So, Wednesday’s announcement, first by UCLA and confirmed later by the release of UH’s schedule, that the Rainbow Warriors will play four nonconference games on the continent this season — three in ESPN’s Nov. 22-25 Wooden Legacy event in Fullerton, Calif., and a single, stand-alone Nov. 28 game at the Bruins’ Pauley Pavilion — represents a major scheduling breakthrough of sorts.

One that is as welcome as it is overdue.

Consider, for example, that in head coach Eran Ganot’s tenure UH has played a total of two nonconference games on the mainland in three years.

Both trips, Texas Tech in 2015 and Utah in 2017, were, by the way, largely mandated to make up for the six-figure check UH wrote to buy its way out of a Las Vegas Invitational tournament contract in Ganot’s first season.

This season, athletic director David Matlin’s scheduling policy required a mainland “money” game and or exempt tournament such as the Wooden event.

Not since Benjy Taylor was the interim head coach (2014-15) has UH played four nonconference road games in a single season.

This season, between the $90,000 guarantee from UCLA and the terms ($7,500 cash plus rooms and ground transportation) of the Wooden Legacy agreement, UH will come away from its nine-day road trip with some much-needed competition and even more appreciated moolah for the department’s piggy bank after expenses.

Maybe even enough to balance out some of the hits they are likely to take at the box office for another watered-down nonconference home schedule. One led by — drum roll, please — Mississippi Valley State (4-28) and Alabama A&M (3-28), the bottom two teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Perhaps perennial pushover Arkansas-Pine Bluff was unavailable.

There are also two Division II foes, UH Hilo and Humboldt State. Playing the Vulcans, Manoa’s UH system brethren, makes sense on several levels. Playing two D-II foes and importing Humboldt (Calif.) State to be one of them, makes neither dollars nor sense.

Humboldt (9-19) is in the season-opening (Nov. 9-11) Rainbow Classic field along with Portland (10-22) and North Texas (20-18). Northern Arizona (5-27) is a stand-alone Nov. 18 opponent.

While UH will play Nevada-Las Vegas (20-13) and other creditable teams in the Dec. 22-25 Diamond Head Classic, it will do little to line the athletic department’s pockets since the tournament’s owner, ESPN Events, keeps the ticket revenue and pays UH a flat $50,000 for the site and hosting.

While UH might never get UCLA to make an appearance on the Stan Sheriff Center court — and a succession of ’Bows’ coaches and ADs have been trying to get the Bruins here for going on 60 years now — it doesn’t mean the ’Bows have to settle for a bottom feeder-heavy schedule here. Or, confine so much of their annual schedule shopping to the rent-a-foe SWAC.