University of Hawai'i men's basketball coach Bob Nash can be forgiven for wondering out loud why the Rainbow Warriors were playing a non-televised BracketBusters game last week in Riverside, Calif. in the midst of the WAC season.

His WAC coaching brethren were wondering much the same thing.

It isn't just that the 'Bows took a 79-62 thrashing by lightly regarded UC Riverside when they could have — and should have — been back here preparing for the WAC stretch run. It is that the dearth of TV exposure has driven the WAC to grasp at such straws.

The nation's most far-flung conference might as well be playing in Patagonia for all the exposure — or lack thereof — it gets for men's basketball. "Under exposed" is how commissioner Karl Benson pointedly termed it in a coaches' conference call yesterday that turned into a one-sided referendum on the liabilities of the WAC's BracketBusters participation.

Because the current TV contract with ESPN guarantees the entire WAC only four total — three regular-season plus the conference championship game — appearances, members will do almost anything for the mere possibility of ending up on the tube.

Of the nine WAC teams that took part in the BracketBusters charade, just two ended up on TV. And on the limited ESPNU at that.

You could, of course, argue that this is a good year for WAC teams to stay away — far away — from the cameras and out of impressionable living rooms given their non-conference struggles. But perhaps a contributing factor to the WAC sinking to the No. 20th-ranked conference (from 10th last season) in the power indexes is that a lack of visibility is showing up in recruiting.

Players want to be on TV and if WAC schools can't provide that visibility, then the prospects that have options will go to other places. Apparently the last couple of years they have and it has caught up with the WAC.

Each of the last two summers ESPN has made proposals to extend its TV agreements with the WAC, offers that would have guaranteed up to 12 basketball games plus nearly a tripling of rights fees. But WAC athletic directors, looking for much more money, voted the proposals down each time.

So while UH football had six ESPN appearances alone last year and looks to have as many as four conference games shown this year (possibly in addition to games at Florida and Oregon State under the Southeastern Conference and Pac-10 contracts), 'Bows basketball had but one.

Not exactly the recommended way to spread your recruiting message.

For the amount of time the 'Bows already are on the road, it is no wonder Nash says games like last weekend's non-conference BracketBusters appearance at UC Riverside "really (don't) serve us well."

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