Based on recent history, there are worse fates for the Hawaii men's basketball team than opening up league road play at Fresno State.

The Rainbow Warriors face the Bulldogs today at 5 p.m. at the Save Mart Center in the first of eight Western Athletic Conference away games.

UH (8-7, 1-1 WAC) has won two of three from FSU (8-7, 1-0) in Fresno, Calif., including a 73-69 decision last season. The Rainbows also swept the home-and-home series from the Bulldogs in 2008-09, but lost when it mattered, 62-58 in the WAC tournament play-in game in Reno, Nev.

“;Last year was last year. We gotta look at where we are right now, and we're just going to go up there and do the best job that we possibly can and hope it's going to be good enough,”; UH coach Bob Nash said. “;We can't look at last year and think they're the same team. Certainly we're not the same team. But we have played well in Fresno not only last year, but the year before. We hope that trend continues.”;

The Rainbows arrived in Fresno late Thursday night and got in a practice yesterday in preparation for the Bulldogs. The matchup features two NBA hopefuls in UH senior Roderick Flemings (15.0 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game) and FSU sophomore Paul George (17.0 ppg, 7.7 rpg, WAC-best 2.7 steals per game).

“;Coach come up with a great scouting report, man,”; Flemings said. “;We'll do the same thing we did last year. Few little tweaks, and we should be able to get out of there. If everybody plays together as a team and keeps playing team defense, we should be able to beat anybody.”;

And the Rainbows have all their active players back — junior guard Dwain Williams (14.8 ppg) made the trip. He missed the Rainbows' win over Boise State on Monday after dislocating his shoulder in practice.

From Fresno, UH heads quickly to Logan, Utah, to face Utah State (10-6, 0-2) on Monday. Both the Bulldogs and Aggies will be well rested; FSU last played a week ago in a 71-68 win over Boise State, and USU won't have played for a full week.

“;Well, anytime a team gets a chance to rest and to really just focus in on themselves and work on our stuff, they're going to have the advantage,”; Nash said. “;We only have one day to prepare for Utah State after traveling, but that's where your fundamentals really have to kick in. You can't beat yourself by turning the ball over, not rebounding. So do those things, run a good offense, handle whatever pressure they throw at you, then you put yourself with a chance to win. That's all you want to do, have a chance to win on the road.”;

They'll be met with extreme stinginess on this trip. Fresno State is last in the league in scoring at 67.6 points per game, but yields a scoring average of just 63.4 (second-best in the WAC to USU's 61.2) and a field-goal percentage allowed of 39.5 (first, with USU second at 41.3 percent).

FSU coach Steve Cleveland attributes the stats to a new defensive philosophy — a willingness to embrace the zone. He's been primarily a man-to-man stylist over his 30-plus years of coaching.

“;I think changing the defense, in some ways kind of takes teams longer to get into a groove,”; Cleveland said. “;I think one thing we really struggled with last year in our man is, we really allowed people to kind of pound it at us, and it really kind of broke us down. We're gonna use a combination. We're gonna use what works, but you're going to see us on misses and makes play man and zone, and switch defenses often at timeouts and dead balls.”;

And, of course, the Bulldogs still have their dynamic duo of forwards George and Sylvester Seay (15.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg). Steven Shepp has alleviated the loss of last year's point guard, Dwight O'Neil, with 4.8 assists per game, tops in the WAC.

The Rainbows are 4-12 under Nash in road WAC games.