Patience, patience, coach Eran Ganot pleaded with his struggling University of Hawaii basketball team.

Palms down and arms outstretched in front of him in a near flapping motion, he sought to settle down the agitated Rainbow Warriors.

Amid yet another stretch of play that prompted head shaking by the Stan Sheriff Center crowd, Ganot gamely tried to both console and cajole the ’Bows.

Ganot’s ministrations did not have the immediate desired effect on a UH team that lost its fourth consecutive game Friday night, 66-52` to Utah.

But a bigger question these days is how much patience will there continue to be by the folks in the stands?

In the era of instant messaging, what is the shelf life on endurance for the considerable task of the wholesale rebuilding of a basketball program?

UH is relegated to the seventh-place game of the Diamond Head Classic on Sunday, sentenced to the 9:30 a.m. Christmas Day time slot against Southern Mississippi for the first time in the eight-year history of the event.

Including its holiday eight-team tournament forerunner, the Rainbow Classic, it is only the second time in 20 years that UH has found itself trying to avoid eighth — and last — place in one of its hometown events.

It is an early-morning exercise in front of what figures to be a sparse gathering that long ago UH head coach Frank Arnold once called, “beyond humbling.”

And, this was before it became a Christmas Day event.

Now, nobody expected that under the double-edged sword of following the most successful season in UH men’s basketball history and the curse of NCAA sanctions this task would be easy. And nobody in their wildest dreams should have imagined a restocking of the shelves to be accomplished before Santa Claus came.

But the grumbling has grown as the struggles of the ’Bows have deepened in the wake of a 4-7 start. The online grousing has widened.

In the arena the moaning now begins as if on cue every time the UH guards dribble mindlessly into a corner as the shot clock winds down. The disappointment is audible with each mounting turnover for a team that entered Friday night ranked 252nd (among 347 NCAA Division I teams) in assist-to-turnover ratio. And the frustration is palpable when there is no ball movement for a team ranking 317th in scoring offense.

After three shot-clock violations, each more maddening than the last, some fans were shouting, “shoot! shoot!” as soon as UH inbounded the ball.

To be sure, we were spoiled by not only last year’s tide of victories, but also by the artistry and excitement with which they were accomplished.

People who just a couple of months ago readily acknowledged that things would take time are now looking at their watches as if a bus is running late.

Meanwhile, confidence gained in victories against Division II Hilo and cream puffs Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Texas State has been shaken by the realities of better quality opposition. The tenacity UH took into action against fifth-ranked North Carolina has waned.

And, as tough as things have been of late for the ’Bows, the scary thing is we might not have seen the bottom yet. Especially when you consider UH hasn’t left the island for any of its games. The ’Bows, unlike the Rainbow Wahine, who have played five road games spread across two mainland trips, haven’t strayed more than 9.7 miles from campus, that for the two-game Pearl Harbor Invitational.

And it is going to be a while before recruiting delivers ample reinforcements.

So, take a deep breath and then buckle up, because we could be here a while.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.