The ever-shrinking University of Hawai'i men's basketball team still wants to come up big in Reno, Nev. this week.

The Rainbow Warriors departed Honolulu early this morning for a crucial Western Athletic Conference road game at Nevada on Saturday.

Starting center P.J. Owsley was not on the travel roster. He has not practiced since injuring his right knee last Thursday.

Because the 'Bows will play only one game on this trip, Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said he wanted Owsley to stay in Honolulu to give the injury more time to heal.

"It's a precautionary thing," Nash said. "We much rather have him ready for the home stretch than take him on this trip and risk his knee swelling up."

Owsley's absence will leave Hawai'i with nine players in a gambling city that has dealt nothing but bad luck to UH teams of the past.

"P.J. is our best post defender, so we're going to miss him," senior point guard Matt Gibson said. "That just means the rest of us will have to play as hard as we can to make up for it."

Hawai'i is 0-10 all-time against Nevada in games played in Reno. What's more, the Wolf Pack beat the 'Bows, 77-59, last month in the Stan Sheriff Center. It was Hawai'i's worst home loss this season.

"Just the fact that no Hawai'i team has won there before is enough," Gibson said. "But there's a ton of other reasons why we need to go in there and win this game. We didn't play a good game against them here at our place, so we have a chance to make up for it at their place."

Nash, however, said he is not putting any emphasis on UH's previous games against Nevada. Not even last month's loss.

"That's being stuck in time," he said. "Those games are over. It's history. Of course, you can always learn from it. But we're a different team from what we were the last time we played them, and so we're approaching it as a new game."

Since the loss to Nevada on Jan. 12, the 'Bows have won four of five games.

Depending on the outcome of other WAC games this week, Saturday's game could be for third place in the conference. It will also be televised nationally on ESPN2.

"We just have to worry about our own business," Nash said. "We can't be concerned about ESPN, or any of those other things."

The 'Bows have not played since a 71-57 home victory over Louisiana Tech last Saturday, so they have had a whole week to prepare for the Wolf Pack.

Nevada is scheduled to play a home game against San Jose State today.

"We had a good week (of practice) so far, and we'll have one more practice at (Nevada's) place on Friday," Nash said. "We've been a team of adjustments the whole year; we adjust to what the situation dictates. In this case, we won't have P.J. and we'll have only nine healthy bodies so we'll play with our nine."

The 'Bows will need to be ready against a Wolf Pack team that is 8-2 at home this season.

"There's a lot of distractions there — you have the casinos, the altitude, the snow," Nash said. "And then you have to deal with a team that's been one of the top programs in the country the last few years. A lot of visiting teams have had problems there, not just Hawai'i, but we'd like to buck that trend."

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.