This is finals week for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team.

Fittingly, Riley Wallace, head coach of the Rainbow Warriors, passed some important tests yesterday.

Wallace was cleared by his doctors to resume coaching duties after undergoing tests on his heart.

"The tests went real well, and there's no need for surgery or anything like that," Hawai'i associate coach Bob Nash said. "He'll be back in the gym (today)."

Nash conducted yesterday's practice while Wallace rested after his medical tests.

Wallace, 65, underwent preliminary tests on his heart last Friday. He was advised by his doctors to rest through the weekend and return for more tests yesterday.

Wallace underwent a successful angioplasty two years ago to improve the blood flow to his heart.

The team also took the weekend off, but returned to practice yesterday without Wallace.

"It's a little different; there's not as much yelling," senior co-captain Matt Lojeski said. "You can tell Coach is not here, but we all know what's going on."

The 'Bows, who are 4-4, have all week to prepare for Saturday's game against Northwestern State. However, all of the Hawai'i players have to complete final examinations this week, so the practice times have been cut back.

"We're going with shorter practices this week, but we're still getting done what we need to get done," junior guard Matt Gibson said. "We have a lot of days to prepare for this game, but we have to take care of our school work as well."

Nash, who is in charge of scheduling opponents for Hawai'i, said the current 11-day window between home games was intentionally set.

"It's actually a department policy to not schedule games during finals week," Nash said. "It's a hard time, but it's a necessary time for the guys to make sure they get all their work done in the classroom."

Hawai'i is coming off a 61-58 home loss to UNLV last Tuesday.

"We're anxious to get back in a game," Lojeski said. "We struggled in our last game, so we want to come back out and show what we can do."

Nash said the 'Bows will start preparing specifically for Northwestern State later this week. For now, Hawai'i is concerned about fixing its own problems.

In particular, the 'Bows are shooting just 36.4 percent from 3-point range, and averaging 18 turnovers per game.

"Since we have some time in between games, we're focusing on trying to get our offense back and running," Nash said. "In the games we lost, we let the teams take us out of our offense, and we didn't generate enough — our shooters couldn't get going."

In their four victories, the 'Bows are averaging 78.8 points per game; in their four losses, they are averaging 58.0 points per game.

GUEYE RETURNS TO NEW PRACTICE SCHEDULE

After taking most of last week off to rest his injured right knee, senior forward Ahmet Gueye returned to practice yesterday.

Gueye had not practiced since last Tuesday's game against UNLV.

"For not having practiced the last five days, I thought he came back and looked fine," Nash said of the 6-foot-8 Gueye. "But we want to keep him ready for the whole season. That's the main thing."

Upon doctors' advice, Gueye will try not to practice more than three consecutive days for the rest of this season. His plan is to practice two days in a row, then take a day off.

Gueye underwent surgery on his right knee in March.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.