2011-12 Men's Basketball Schedule (pdf) (html)

HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i revealed its 2011-12 men's basketball schedule today which includes 18 home games at the Stan Sheriff Center, a non-conference road game in a former NBA arena and a pair of neighbor island appearances. In addition, the Rainbow Warriors will host the third annual Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic during the Christmas holiday.

The 2011-12 squad will debut with a home exhibition game versus Hawai'i Pacific on Friday, Nov. 11, before officially opening up the regular-season on Monday, Nov. 14 with a late-night match-up (11:00 p.m.) against future Big West nemesis Cal State Northridge. That game will be part of ESPN's College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon, which includes 24 consecutive hours of live college basketball to celebrate the start of the season. This is the fourth-straight year that Hawai'i is participating in the event.

“This should be a really fun home game,” head coach Gib Arnold said. “It's always nice to play on ESPN and the late-night atmosphere is going to be great for both our players and students.”  

The Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic, which has signaled the beginning of the basketball season the last two years, will take a one-year hiatus before returning in 2012.

“Unfortunately one of the teams in this year's Classic bowed out late,” Arnold said, “and the remaining two teams did not agree to the replacements we presented them. We had to move on; however, we look forward to hosting the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic next year.”

This season, Outrigger Hotels & Resorts will be the presenting sponsor of the first three UH home contests (HPU, Cal State Northridge, and Eastern Washington) and sponsor an interactive fan promotion on the new UH scoreboard, awarding fantastic prizes at all home contests.

UH will head to Vancouver, British Columbia on Nov. 19 to face perennial West Coast power Gonzaga in a non-conference match-up.The game will be played in the Rogers Arena, the former home of the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies. Last year, the Rainbow Warriors played BYU in the EnergySolutions Arena, home of the Utah Jazz.

Three of UH's next five games will be in the Stan Sheriff Center with contests versus Eastern Washington (Nov. 22), Pacific (Nov. 25) and UC Davis (Dec. 11), sandwiched by a pair of road games at Pepperdine (Dec. 3) and Pacific (Dec. 6).

In December, the 'Bows will head to the neighbor islands for the second-straight year, but with a new twist. Last year, UH faced Chicago State at the Lahaina Civic Center, UH's first trip to the neighbor islands since the 2003 Maui Invitational. This time UH will head to Kona on Dec. 16 to face UH-Hilo in the team's first Big Island appearance in 10 years. The 'Bows will then head to Wailuku, Maui, to meet North Carolina A&T two days later on Dec. 18.

“It's a goal of ours to play on the neighbor islands every year,” Arnold said. “I believe we represent all the islands and we want to take our team to our loyal fans throughout the state. The goal is to not only play games, but also to possibly perform coaching clinics as well. This is something we are all very excited about.” 

Christmas week will bring the third annual Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic (Dec. 22-23, 25). Postseason teams from the 2011 field include three squads that earned NCAA Championship berths in Clemson, Kansas State and Xavier and two NIT squads in Long Beach State and UTEP. The Rainbow Warriors, who earned a spot in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, will face Auburn of the SEC in the first round. Southern Illinois of the Missouri Valley Conference rounds out this year's field.

Following the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, UH will host South Carolina State on Dec. 29 and UNLV in a New Year's Eve game on Dec. 31. The game with UNLV is part of a home-and-home agreement as Hawai'i will play a return game in Las Vegas next season.

“With Gonzaga, UNLV and the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic there is a possibility we will play four Top 25 teams before we open up league play,” Arnold said. “In building this program, we will always seek opportunities to play against the best competition possible.”

UH begins its 33^rd and final season in the Western Athletic Conference on Jan. 7 with a home game against San Jose State and will play its conference road opener at Fresno State five days later. The Rainbow Warriors will play a total of 14 league games, two less than years past, due to the departure of Boise State.

Following a non-conference home game against New Orleans on Feb. 15, UH will again participate in the ESPNU BracketBusters with UH playing a non-conference road game on Feb. 18. Match-ups will be announced by ESPN in early February. UH closes the WAC regular season at home with a huge match-up against defending league champion Utah State on March 3.  

The 2012 WAC Tournament will again be held at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., and begins Mar. 7.