On Monday, we heard loud and clear from the men’s basketball coaches in the Big West Conference on the subject of all-conference honors.

And tonight, perhaps, a stirring rebuttal on the matter from an aggrieved and freshly-inspired Vander Joaquim?

At least that is the hope as Hawaii opens play in the postseason against UC Irvine.

Just how long the Rainbow Warriors (17-13) stick around their first Big West Conference tournament in Anaheim, Calif., will be in large part dependent upon how their senior center takes being passed over for both first- and second-team all-conference selection.

If being relegated to a Mr. Congeniality of sorts as an “honorable mention” pick rankles Joaquim, as it should, then so much the better. If it fuels determination to make his last stand in a UH uniform his best one, then why not?

Because the 6-foot-10, 245-pound Joaquim playing with focus and ferocity would go a long way toward taking the ’Bows where they want to go but haven’t been for far too long.

UH hasn’t played in the championship game of a conference tournament in a decade. Almost as telling is that the ’Bows have managed a first-game victory just once in the past seven years.

While some of that history might be lost on Joaquim, a third-year performer for the ’Bows, there are some recent realizations that undoubtedly haven’t been. Among them is the fact he was an all-conference pick in a tougher Western Athletic Conference last season and was a preseason All-Big West selection this year after deciding not to test the pro market.

As such, he was expected to tower over the competition, both in height and performance, contending for conference player of the year honors. Instead, in a league largely devoid of talented big men, coaches collectively considered him, based upon all-conference voting, essentially the fifth best at 6-7 and above.

That Joaquim was regularly double teamed was testament to the threat that opponents feared he could be as well as the weakness of UH’s outside shooting. But whether it was the sometimes suffocating attention he drew or the fouls that periodically seemed to unnerve him, Joaquim could struggle with consistency.

Some of his most relevant per-game numbers, 48.3 percent field-goal shooting, 8.4 rebounds, 0.93 blocks and 14.1 points, were only slightly below last year’s. It was just that it seemed for  every two of those double-double nights that reminded you of the brilliance he was capable of, there seemed to be a game that fell below his standards.

No matter what happens this month, Joaquim will leave Manoa ranked highly in career points (10th currently), rebounds (third), field-goal percentage (ninth) and blocked shots (sixth).

But his standing could be burnished by the kind of I-told-you-so performance that leads the ’Bows to a breakthrough conference tournament title and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

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