The University of Hawaii men's basketball team is looking up.

Problem is, the view is from the bottom of the Western Athletic Conference.

The Rainbow Warriors were picked to finish last in the WAC preseason polls released yesterday.

In two separate polls, the WAC coaches and media predicted that Hawaii will finish ninth in the nine-team WAC.

"We're not going to use this and say we're going to work hard and work our way from the bottom," Hawaii head coach Bob Nash said. "We're going to work hard no matter where we were picked."

Hawaii has been in the WAC for men's basketball since 1980, and has finished last in the final standings just twice — in 1986 and '88.

"It doesn't make a whole lot of difference where you're picked at this time of year," Nash said. "It's where you finish in the final poll, not the beginning poll."

The 'Bows return 10 players from last season, when they finished 13-17 overall and placed eighth in the WAC with a 5-11 conference record.

"Personally for me, it would be insulting if they rated us too high because we didn't deserve it from last year," senior center Paul Campbell said. "Last year, our team wasn't that good and now we have a chance to step up and play better."

The 'Bows return the top three players from last season in forwards Roderick Flemings and Bill Amis, and center Petras Balocka. They also added three recruits who are expected to challenge for starting roles — guards Jeremy Lay and Dwain Williams, and center Douglas Kurtz.

"It's going to give us a lot of motivation going into this preseason to come together for when WAC starts and prove a lot of people wrong," Amis said. "We have a couple of new guys and also last year, we didn't play together. So if we play together and get our offense clicking, I think a lot of people will be surprised."

Utah State, which won the WAC regular-season and tournament titles last season, was picked to finish first by both the coaches and media.

The top four teams were the same in both the coaches and media polls: Utah State first, Nevada second, New Mexico State third and Idaho fourth.

Every team in the conference will return key personnel. Fourteen of the top 15 scorers from last season's final WAC statistics are returning.

"It's a tough conference," Flemings said. "People down play it a lot, but it's tougher than people think."

Nevada sophomore forward Luke Babbitt was named the Preseason Player of the Year by both the coaches and media. He averaged 16.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game as a true freshman last season.

The coaches and media selected the same Preseason All-WAC first team: Babbitt and Armon Johnson from Nevada, Mac Hopson of Idaho, Jared Quayle of Utah State, and Jahmar Young of New Mexico State.

Flemings was named to the Preseason All-WAC second team by the coaches (a second team was not named for the media poll).

Flemings, a 6-foot-7 senior, averaged 16.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season and was named to the All-WAC second team.

"That's not really a big deal for me," he said. "Second team, first team, no team. As long as we win, I don't really care."