Incremental advancements in quality could be seen in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic field over the last three years.

The Hawaii men’s basketball team hopes to prove itself similarly capable of progress tonight vs. Auburn in the opening round of UH’s eight-team holiday tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center.

A nationwide audience will be the judge. All 12 games in the third-year tourney will be on ESPN2, ESPNU, or the ESPN3 live-streaming service today, Friday and Christmas Day.

UH (5-4) boasts a three-game winning streak, true, but it was deaf to sound offensive execution against three teams the Rainbow Warriors were expected to beat handily — UC Davis, Hawaii-Hilo and North Carolina A&T.

That no longer figures to hold up against the resurgent, athletic Tigers (7-1) of the Southeastern Conference, who have beaten up similarly inferior competition, albeit all at the comforts of home in Alabama. Tip-off is 8 p.m., or about 30 minutes after the 6 p.m. Xavier-Long Beach State game ends.

"They’ve got 10 guys that can run and jump and fly around. (Tony Barbee) is a second-year coach, so he’s turning the program around," second-year UH coach Gib Arnold said. "They’re pressing (fullcourt) … and they’re getting out and running. They’re scoring a lot of points. Those are things we’ve got to be ready for."

Senior shooting guard Zane Johnson pledged to do his utmost to bust out of a slump; he’s made just seven of his last 30 3-point attempts (23 percent). With or without a slump-busting night from Johnson and sometimes-erratic point guard Shaquille Stokes, UH will turn to its team defense (.387 field-goal percent allowed) to cage the Tigers. Another positive: Junior center Vander Joaquim has upped his numbers lately to average a near double-double.

"It’s still early in the year. It has been ugly, but we’ve been winning," Johnson said. "That’s a good thing. It shows that we can win through different circumstances. I think the more time we’re together and guys figure out what shots to take and what shots not to take, stop taking bad shots and taking great shots, and to know their roles, it always takes time. Just give us some time and I think we’ll get better."

The Tigers have certainly improved; they were 11-20 in Barbee’s first year coming over from UTEP, when many called them the worst power-conference team in the country.

"One of the things we struggled to do last year was score the ball. We didn’t have a lot of guys who could put the thing in the hole," Barbee said.

That hasn’t been a problem this year. With an infusion of transfers and experienced returnees, the Tigers have five starters averaging double-figure scoring. But Barbee is wary of the ‘Bows.

"We kind of drew the short straw, getting the host team on their home floor," Barbee said. "Hawaii’s a good team."

UH could say the same for its side of the bracket — it’s loaded. The Rainbow Warriors will face either No. 14 Xavier or Long Beach State — a future Big West Conference opponent that annually boasts one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country — on Friday. The ‘Bows will face a team from the opposite side of the bracket — Clemson, UTEP, Southern Illinois or Kansas State — on Christmas.

Should UH meet UTEP, Arnold will be reunited with his former boss at USC, Tim Floyd, whom he coached under for four years. Other connections abound: Clemson coach Brad Brownell and SIU coach Chris Lowery were high school classmates. Barbee built his reputation at UTEP before coming to Auburn.

CBSSports.com rated the DHC the third-best of all exempt tournaments in 2011, with the entrenched EA Sports Maui Invitational at No. 1.

Such lofty consideration represents serious progress. Having the national runner-up of the last two years, Butler, win the 2010 DHC certainly helped.

"I think it’s going to be some great basketball," tournament executive director Dave Matlin said. "Really when we started this tournament, we’re heading in the direction we said we’d get to with some top-flight competition.

"You’re going to have teams from the SEC, Big 12, ACC. There’s 14th-ranked Xavier. Kansas State is playing great basketball at 7-1. Auburn’s also 7-1. A lot of people have heard about Long Beach State with the tough schedule they’ve played."

Xavier, still a legitimate top-10 team, saw its ranking plummet after a loss to Oral Roberts heading into the tournament. The Musketeers were missing their top three scorers due to a brawl with Cincinnati earlier this month, but would be back to near-full strength for a potential Friday matchup with UH.

UTEP and Clemson kick off the tournament at 9:30 a.m. today.