Men’s Basketball Contest At UC Irvine Slated For National Television

IRVINE, Calif. – The Big West announced the first of its five scheduled ESPN telecasts for the 2025-26 men's basketball season with the Rainbow Warriors slated for the first televised game. Hawai'I (13-3, 5-1 Big West) and UC Irvine (12-6, 5-1 Big West) will face off on Thursday, Jan. 29 on ESPNU in a rematch of their epic meeting earlier this month.

Tipoff for the Rainbow Warriors and Anteaters has been moved to 8 p.m. PT/6:00 p.m. HT at the Bren Events Center. ESPN's Dave Feldman and Austin Croshere will be filling the play-by-play and analyst roles, respectively.

The teams are currently tied for first in the Big West standings. In the first meeting on January 10 in Honolulu, UH clipped UCI, 67-66. The game featured 14 ties and 22 lead changes and was punctuated by Hunter Erickson's game-winning shot as time expired. This will be the last regular-season Big West meeting between the teams with UH's impending move to the Mountain West next season.

All five regular-season Big West contests appearing on ESPN Networks are selected through a "wildcard" format in which pairings are determined roughly 10 days prior to each game. The other wildcard games this year are on Saturday, February 7 (ESPNU), Saturday, February 21 (ESPNU), Saturday, February 28 (ESPN2) and Saturday, March 7 (ESPNU)

In addition to the regular-season games, both Big West men's semifinal matchups at the 2026 Big West Men's Basketball Championship on Friday, March 13 and the championship game on Saturday, March 14 will be available on ESPN Networks. Game times and networks to be announced at a later date.

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Players Mentioned

#0 Hunter Erickson: G; 6' 3"; Graduate Student

Players Mentioned

#0 Hunter Erickson
: 6' 3"; Graduate Student
: G

Players Mentioned

#0 Hunter Erickson

Players Mentioned

#0 Hunter Erickson