Late-night basketball will return this season for the University of Hawaii, which will participate in ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon.

UH’s game against Central Michigan on Nov. 15 will tip off at 11 p.m. Hawaii time.

"It’s fun, a little different atmosphere," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "Looking forward to it. (Near the) start of the season, it’ll be an exciting time and I don’t know how many people will be up at 11, but I hope enough to come and scream us on."

The UH game will be the third of 12 live games that ESPN will telecast over 24 consecutive hours to celebrate the start of the season. It will begin Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. Hawaii time with Miami at Memphis, followed by St. John’s at Saint Mary’s (9 p.m.) and Central Michigan-UH.

In all, ESPN’s celebration of the opening of the college basketball season will include 20 live games — 19 men’s and one women’s — in a minimum of 25 1/2 hours across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. ESPN3.com will offer two exclusive games as well as a simulcast of every ESPN and ESPN2 telecast.

The Rainbow Warriors have had the same late-night affair the last two years, pulling off a dramatic overtime win over Idaho State in 2008. Last year, Hawaii and Northern Colorado squared off in the championship of the Rainbow Classic, with the Bears holding off the Rainbow Warriors.

UH has at least three nationally televised games this season, with the possibility of nearly doubling those appearances throughout the year. UH will have its first two games in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on the ESPN family of networks, and could also have additional games telecast during the final day of the Diamond Head Classic, the ESPNU BracketBusters event and the 2011 Western Athletic Conference tournament.