The marquee nonconference names on the 2013-14 Hawaii men’s basketball schedule have emerged.
Three, and possibly four, 2013 NCAA Tournament teams are on the docket, with the possibility of encountering more in another stacked Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic field.
The Rainbow Warriors play a road game at Missouri of the Southeastern Conference on Nov. 16 and host former Western Athletic Conference foe New Mexico State during the season-opening Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic, UH head coach Gib Arnold and assistant Benjy Taylor said over the weekend.
RAINBOW WARRIORS BASKETBALL
Known 2013-14 nonconference games
Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic: Western Michigan, Tennessee State, New Mexico State
Others: at Missouri, Montana, at Northern Arizona
Possible: Akron
Likely: TBA opponent on Kauai
Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic field: Akron, Boise State, George Mason, Hawaii, Iowa State, Saint Mary’s, Oregon State, South Carolina
Source: UH
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UH is also trying to play Mid-American Conference champion Akron in a stand-alone game after the Zips come to Honolulu for the Diamond Head Classic in late December.
UH is obligated to host Montana of the Big Sky, another 2013 NCAA Tournament team, as a return game from an ESPN BracketBusters contest in Missoula, Mont., two seasons ago.
"We’re a little ways away from making (the schedule) official, just until we get the neighbor island (game) shored up," Arnold said. "We know where everything fits. I signed off on everything."
That contest will likely be on Kauai during UH fall graduation week in mid-December.
Arnold said NMSU will be the annual late-night game as part of ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon, likely on or near Nov. 11. Arnold and Aggies coach Marvin Menzies go back to their early days of college coaching in California.
NMSU, which won the past two WAC tournament championships, has the best profile of any team to appear in the Rainbow field since it went to a four-team round-robin tournament in 2009.
The other Rainbow Classic teams are Western Michigan and Tennessee State, Taylor said. WMU appeared in the 2013 CBI and TSU in the CIT.
"It’s a very good field. All three teams played postseason last year. It’s our toughest one," Taylor said.
Other 2013 NCAA Tournament teams UH might face in the eight-team DHC are Boise State, Iowa State and Saint Mary’s. If UH works out a separate game with Akron, the Zips would appear on the opposite side of the DHC bracket from UH, Arnold said.
From there, three-time Big West champion Long Beach State will headline 16 games of conference play.
With road games at Missouri and Northern Arizona (Dec. 5) weeks apart, it will be the first time UH has taken two separate trips to the mainland strictly for nonconference play under Arnold.
Missouri went 23-11, including a 17-0 mark at the Mizzou Arena, and finished its season with a loss to Colorado State in its first game of the NCAA Tournament.
UH is 1-4 against the Tigers, with the last meeting coming in Honolulu in the 1995 Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic. The Rainbow Warriors’ only previous trip to Columbia, Mo., was in January 1974, an 86-74 loss under Bruce O’Neil.
Arnold said the scheduling of the Tigers is unrelated to UH’s pickup of Mizzou transfer Negus Webster-Chan. Chan must sit out games in the upcoming season per NCAA Division I transfer rules.
The ‘Bows NAU game is a return game from last year’s BracketBusters contest in Honolulu. UH is looking at playing another road game as part of that trip if the Akron game doesn’t work out.
The neighbor island games in the three most recent seasons were on Molokai, Maui and Hawaii island.
