"Maybe we'll get another shot at 'em." — Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo after absorbing an 84-62 loss to the University of Hawai'i.

So, when was the last time you heard the coach of a nationally ranked team wishing a shot at revenge upon a UH basketball team ... in the postseason?

Yes, here we are, what, 40 minutes into the Rainbow Warriors' season and already there is talk about the postseason. Izzo has pointed to the 'Bows and, based upon Saturday's rout, declared: "That's an NCAA team, I don't think there's any question about it."

As someone who's been to four of the last seven Final Fours, we'll take him at his word. And, apparently, so will a lot of fans who are already wondering about making March vacation plans.

But one game does not a season make.

Saturday's triumph was, to be sure, one to celebrate and the 'Bows and their fans did that. The whooping and chanting started with a couple minutes left in the game and may just now be ending.

It was also a game to underline the potential of this well-rounded team and largely unselfish, which would seem to be considerable if they keep both their health and their heads.

As guard Matt Lojeski put it after a 20-point performance: "This is a big, emotional win and everything like that but it is just one win."

And, the 'Bows probably need at least 19 more of them to get where they want to go, the NCAA Tournament, without winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. Twenty-plus if you count getting to the second round of the NCAAs for the first time.

So, it was encouraging, amid all the backslapping and untethered talk, to hear some of the 'Bows putting this one in perspective not long after tucking it into the win column and, at No. 300, head coach Riley Wallace's career album.

Added Lojeski: "Now we have to focus on UNLV and go down to Vegas and that's going to be just as tough as it was here."

Well-spoken sentiments, indeed, because the Rainbows will not arrive in Las Vegas for tomorrow night's game unannounced. Not now. Nor more hiding out in the middle of the Pacific until the Rainbow Classic. The clobbering of the Spartans saw to that. More so should UH find itself in the polls before tipoff.

And that is just the beginning because the 'Bows have marked themselves as someone likely to get everybody's best shot, especially in the WAC, from here on out.

So, let what befell the Spartans at the Stan Sheriff Center serve as a warning to their conquerors, the 'Bows: Be ready for all comers and, of course, drink plenty of water.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.