Preseason polls, as we all should know by now, are about perception and come with few guarantees of anything.

But if you are the University of Hawaii men’s basketball team there is, finally, something hopeful in this year’s crystal ball gazing.

After so many seasons of being seen as a lower half — or even bottom — dweller in the conferences in which they have resided, the Rainbow Warriors were picked to finish third in the Big West Conference, it was announced Wednesday.

Not exactly cause for a parade down University Avenue, perhaps, but both notable and portentous for a program that hasn’t been picked this high by the media in any conference it has played in, Big West or Western Athletic, in 12 years.

To put it in context, the last time UH was picked to finish as high as third by its conference media was four head coaches ago in 2003-04 when Riley Wallace was still flinging green jackets. And Eran Ganot was holding a freshly minted Swarthmore College diploma.

To better refresh your memory, Phil Martin was a preseason All-WAC pick on a team that had Bobby Nash, Julian Sensley and Haim Shimonovich.

Yeah, it really was that long ago.

The team had the distinction of being UH’s last to play in one of the traditional postseason tournaments, the National Invitation Tournament. None of this pay-to-play stuff.

And, as it happened, the ‘Bows won two games to get to the quarterfinals before losing at Michigan.

It stood as UH’s last 20-win season — until last year’s remarkable run. With three returning starters and nine lettermen from the 22-13 team that went to the championship game of the Big West Tournament, there are reasons for considerable optimism.

And their merits have been recognized beyond these shores. No small milestone for a program that has too often faded in conference or collapsed in the postseason.

UC Irvine, which returns three starters from a team that went to the NCAA Tournament and nearly took down Louisville before falling 57-55 in the second round, was the obvious pick as the preseason favorite but hardly an unbeatable juggernaut.

After that you could almost flip a coin between UH and UC Santa Barbara, the No. 2 pick.

Fact is the Big West lost a lot of its firepower with the departures of well-established stars Alan Williams of UC Santa Barbara, Corey Hawkins of UC Davis and Long Beach State’s Mike Caffey, all of whom were multiple time all-conference selections and thorns to UH.

The ‘Bows, if they can settle in to Ganot’s system, would seem well-placed to thrive in the Big West, a conference where they really should be, to borrow a phrase, chasing championships. A home-heavy, nonconference schedule of lukewarm opponents gives them both ample time and the opportunity to get a running start before conference play opens Jan. 6 in the Stan Sheriff Center.

There is one thing, however, that you can absolutely count on when it comes to preseason polls. Their emergence means the start of the season is right around the corner.

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