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The Hawaii men’s basketball team will participate in ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon for the fourth straight season, it was confirmed on Thursday when the network released its schedule for the event.
UH will host South Alabama of the Sun Belt Conference in a late-night Nov. 14 game televised at 11 on ESPN. The marathon is a full day of basketball games chained consecutively on the ESPN networks. Hawaii has the third game on the docket, following Washington State-Gonzaga and Northern Iowa-Saint Mary’s.
In such games over the past three seasons at the Stan Sheriff Center, the Rainbow Warriors have lost to Northern Colorado and beaten Idaho State and Central Michigan. UH has drawn crowds smaller than a typical home game, but those that go have provided a raucous home-court advantage nonetheless.
UH coach Gib Arnold has declined comment on specific teams on the 2011-12 schedule until it is released in its entirety. UH is believed in need of one more opponent.
The Rainbow Warriors will have at least four nationally televised games this season. All three of the Rainbows’ contests in the third annual Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic will be on either ESPNU or ESPN2.
The South Alabama game will be part of UH’s Rainbow Classic tournament, which has been in a four-team round-robin format since the advent of the eight-team DHC.