The race for the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball title renews this week for the University of Hawai'i and how long has it been since we could say that about the Rainbow Wahine?

After a major personnel rebuilding and then a coaching change and accompanying renovation, don't look now but UH is poised to make some noise in the WAC again.

The early surprise of the pre-conference, where it was picked fifth, the Rainbow Wahine could become a lot more than that as soon as Thursday night, when perennial power Louisiana Tech (8-3) comes to the Stan Sheriff Center.

As it is, UH is 10-2 (1-0 WAC), matching its best start since the 2001-02 season. It is probably not a coincidence that was the last time the Rainbow Wahine made a title run, finishing second. Back then championship battles were pretty much taken for granted in the midst of a six-season run in which UH finished as low as third place just once.

The struggles of the intervening years have served to remind just how good those times were and whet the appetite for a return. So, with UH roaring along on an eight-game winning streak and the Lady Techsters coming to town we suddenly have a moment of portent if not an opportunity for validation.

On a roster where eight of 12 scholarship players are in either their third or fourth seasons of playing together everything to this point hints the payoff could be sooner rather than later.

Louisiana Tech might not be what it once was, a year in and year out Top 20 program, but with guard Tasha Williams, it is still the measuring stick in the WAC. It remains the team by which people elsewhere compare teams in this conference and how UH will be judged.

And as surely as the Rainbow Wahine are looking forward to this one, you figure a lot of people here, not to mention the rest of the conference, will have an interest in the result as well.

So far, other than a couple non-conference games (wins over Santa Clara, Washington State and Texas A&M) that make you take note, there have been little more than statistics to guess at. The fact that UH leads the WAC in rebounding is noteworthy. So, too, is that the scoring is well spread with five players averaging from 8.8 to 13 points a game.

But they are little more than the reading of tea leaves, really, when it comes to trying to gauge the rise of the Rainbow Wahine. Which is what makes Thursday's game one to look forward to for the first time in a long time.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.