By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Glad to see ya, coach, step right in here, let's put a shell lei around your neck and have you meet the gang.

I'm sure you know Tubby (Smith), here, from Kentucky; that's John Calipari with his nose in the Pittsburgh real estate brochure; over there is Ben Howland looking like a million bucks in that new UCLA shirt, and then there are the Harricks from Georgia — hey, how did they sneak in here?

How about a handful of macadamia nuts — if (Rick) Majerus hasn't already gobbled up the whole tray — to munch on? Maybe something cold to wash them down with?

The hula show will be starting in a few minutes, which reminds me, when was the last time we had you out in Hawai'i for a game?

You know, we're signing up teams for the upcoming season and on through 2006-07, and there are still plenty of good dates available. Just step up to the chart over there on the wall and pick what works for you. If not the Rainbow Classic, how about the Adidas Festival or an early December game?

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Welcome to Riley's Rainbow Room, aka the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic suites, at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, headquarters for the coaches at the NCAA Final Four and a party with a purpose.

It is there, in suites 1242-44, that the University of Hawai'i, in a venture underwritten by Outrigger, has come in search of a remedy for a growing problem confronting its basketball team: the schedule.

Tired of complaints about where the big names, like Indiana and Kansas, have disappeared to, and concerned about the empty seats that booking Tennessee Tech and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi bring, the Rainbows are putting on a full-court schmooze.

And, not a moment too soon. When you go 27-6 and 19-12 in back-to-back seasons, and manage just two home sellouts, you have a problem. When you have to win the WAC tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament because the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) won't do it for an at-large invitation, you pull out all the stops.

Once upon a time, fans came out almost automatically to see the Rainbows play. But then North Carolina and Kansas showed up here the same week, too.

Times have changed for a number of reasons, not all of them in UH's control, and the Rainbows have been hard pressed to keep pace. UH had Butler, an eventual NCAA Tournament Cinderella team, in the most recent Rainbow Classic, where they put on quite a show. But a lack of marquee names has made it more difficult to attract fringe fans.

With most of the 2003-'04 non-conference schedule, except for the Maui Invitational and UC-Santa Barbara, remaining to be filled, the Rainbows have their work cut out for them.

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Say, coach, while we refresh that mai tai, could we interest you in a game in 2004?