A little bit of home away from home can be a good thing, especially when you’re from Hawaii.

Just ask the University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team. Judging from roaring crowd support and the massive number of ti leaves waved at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif., it seemed like the Big West championship tournament was at UH’s Stan Sheriff Center.

Wait a second — make that the “2023 OUTRIGGER Big West Men’s Volleyball Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands.”

If the ESPNU announcers working the final match forgot to mention the Hawaii hotel chain as the sponsor, no worries … Outrigger signage at the arena got plenty of camera time. So did the ti-leaf-waving UH fans.

The Warriors probably would have won even without the familiar faces and voices and good luck charms.

But it certainly didn’t hurt their chances, and when you’re competing in the conference that is to men’s volleyball what the SEC is to football, you’ll take every edge you can get.

Even if UH hadn’t won the tournament final, the two-time defending national championships would still have advanced to the NCAAs this week in Virginia. But if the Warriors had lost, they wouldn’t have a bye into Thursday’s semifinals — and that really helps.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority helped facilitate the conference’s partnership with Outrigger, and also worked with the UH Alumni Association to stage a pre-tournament rally. The Big West has also partnered with the HTA for the conference’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

“As an official Corporate Partner of the Big West through 2023, the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority will be able to showcase the Hawaiian Islands through a host of partnership assets across the Conference’s broadcast, print, digital and social platforms as well as in-venue signage,” according to a Big West news release in January 2021.

State Sen. Glenn Wakai, vice chair of the Senate’s committee on Energy, Economic Development and Tourism, said this was an example of how UH sports can help the visitor industry — and vice versa.

“It was smart to partner with Outrigger and promote both entities,” Wakai said. “Outrigger was a big sponsor. LA is the largest Hawaii tourism market, one that we would always want to activate.”

Sports tourism is just one piece of the HTA’s responsibility pie, but it is a significant one — and at times it has been tasty, helping bring in or keep events like PGA and LPGA golf and NFL preseason football games. The Big West venture seems like it’s a win-win-win, and many fans want more-more-more support for UH sports.

But what if there is no HTA?

Its continued existence is in limbo, at best. A bill in the Legislature to eliminate it was deferred by the Senate last week. But the HTA’s future remains very much in question.

Lawmakers have proposed a new state agency instead, which would focus on “destination management” more than marketing.

The HTA has been associated with plenty of sports event difficulties (Pro Bowl problems, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team cancellation, Maria Sharapova no-show — to name a few).

How much blame it deserves for any or all of it depends upon with whom you talk.

It is also very debatable if a replacement tourism entity under more direct control of the state would do a better job.

But one dedicated exclusively to sports — whether public, private or somewhere in between — might have a better chance of success. If the idea of a state sports commission had been taken more seriously eight years ago we might not be in the mess we’re in now.

“HTA has done a respectable job in handling some of these (sports) events,” said then-Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui, after the soccer flap in late 2015. “But if Hawaii really wants to be serious about being known as a place that handles these events and with first-class facilities, we need a commission that is dedicated to sports. Sports is kind of an add-on to HTA.”