The Christmas season is a time for family, so the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team will be spending a lot of time with each other for the next week.

The Rainbow Warriors are in the midst of a 10-day break between games.

They beat Long Beach State, 61-57, on Sunday. Their next game is scheduled for Wednesday against Louisiana-Lafayette on the opening night of the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic.

"This week is about conditioning and taking care of our business," Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said. "We won't start thinking about (Louisiana-Lafayette) until next week. The time off between games gives us time to perfect some things in our offensive scheme, make some adjustments, add some things — do a lot of stuff you normally wouldn't get to do when you have a lot of games scheduled."

The 'Bows are also completing their academic final examinations this week.

"It's that time of year where we have finals, and a lot of other things to take care of," senior tri-captain Matt Gibson said. "But it's also a good time to get everybody healthy from those nagging injuries. By the time we play again, it's not going to seem like that long of a break."

In addition to completing finals, many players are preparing for their families to start arriving in Honolulu over the next few weeks.

"There's a lot of things going on this time of year," Gibson said. "But basketball is always first."

NASH LIKES DECEMBER FOR RAINBOW CLASSIC

Nash said he does not intend to move the Rainbow Classic from its December window in future years.

With a plethora of other tournaments now available in November, many marquee teams have been reluctant in recent years to commit to the Rainbow Classic.

"We've been able to fill it for the last 44 years," Nash said. "It may not be the creme de la creme of college basketball, but we feel like it's still a good eight-team tournament."

The eight teams in this year's field are East Tennessee State, Georgia, Hawai'i, Louisiana-Lafayette, Ohio, Saint Mary's, St. John's and Tulane.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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