Nothing seems to come easy for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team these days.

The Rainbow Warriors wouldn't want it any other way.

"We're not going to feel sorry for ourselves; we're not going to panic," Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said. "We're four games into it and we have a long season to go. We want to get better, and that's what we're trying to do this week."

After a disheartening loss to Brigham Young last Friday that dropped the 'Bows to 2-2, Nash gave the players the weekend off to rest and recuperate.

"It helped a lot," senior forward Roderick Flemings said. "A bunch of us are hurting, so getting a couple days off was good. We're ready to get back at it, get back to winning games."

It's not going to be easy.

The 'Bows will host another former Western Athletic Conference rival in New Mexico on Friday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Lobos are 5-0, including victories over current WAC teams New Mexico State (97-87) and Louisiana Tech (81-52).

"We need to get ready for our conference games, and playing teams of the level of a BYU or New Mexico will challenge us and get us ready," Nash said.

Mostly, the 'Bows need to work on repairing themselves. Hawai'i opened the season 2-0, committing just 22 turnovers in those two games. But in the two losses since then, the 'Bows have committed 36 turnovers.

"We're rushing through everything right now," junior guard Jeremy Lay said. "We need to run our whole offense, stay patient. BYU is a good team. They deserved to win. But if we had run our offense the way we were supposed to, we could have stayed with them."

The 'Bows also need to shore up their defense. One of the team goals is to hold opponents below a .400 field-goal percentage. Through the first four games, Hawai'i's opponents have a .473 percentage.

"We've been leaving each other out to dry on D," Flemings said. "We just need to help each other out more. It's going to come. We're just getting used to who ever's out there on the floor."

Indeed, injuries and other issues have created a constantly changing rotation.

This week is no different.

Starting guard Dwain Williams did not practice yesterday because he was feeling ill. Flemings, who has been playing mostly at small forward and power forward, filled in at shooting guard yesterday.

"We just need to get everybody healthy," Flemings said. "We haven't even put our whole team out there for one game."

Flemings is hurting as well. He has been battling a groin/abdominal injury since the preseason.

"It's like it comes back every game," he said. "I wish I could just rest it and get better, but we gotta win these games."

Post players Bill Amis (injured foot) and Douglas Kurtz (NCAA suspension) are still unavailable.

"We're not going to make excuses," Lay said. "I think you'll see a very different team when we do have everybody back and clicking. But we can win with this group and we want to show it in our next game."