There were no more North Carolinas or Seton Halls to show off, but the unveiling of the complete Hawaii basketball 2016-17 schedule Tuesday was revealing nonetheless.
The highlights — UNC coming to town on Nov. 18 and UH’s participation in the Pearl Harbor Invitational and Diamond Head Classic — were already known.
UH BASKETBALL 2016-17 SCHEDULE
November
Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic — 11: SIU-Edwardsville. 13: Texas State. 14: Florida Atlantic
18 — North Carolina
22 — Hawaii Hilo
25 — Troy
27 — Arkansas-Pine Bluff
December
Pearl Harbor Invitational — 6: vs. Seton Hall. 7: vs. Princeton.
Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic — 22: Illinois State. 23: Utah or San Francisco. 25: TBA.
29 — Delaware State
January
5 — at Cal State Fullerton*
7 — at UC Irvine*
14 — Long Beach State*
18 — Cal State Northridge*
21 — UC Davis*
25 — UC Riverside*
28 — UC Santa Barbara*
February
2 — at UC Riverside*
4 — at Cal State Northridge*
9 — Cal Poly*
11 — UC Irvine*
16 — at UC Santa Barbara*
18 — at Cal Poly*
25 — Cal State Fullerton*
March
2 — at UC Davis*
4 — at Long Beach State*
Notes: All times TBA, *Big West Conference game
What wasn’t was what would fill the gaps. And it appears to be a set of opponents that offer the totally reconstructed Rainbow Warriors a good chance at some wins.
UH’s six new Division I nonconference foes announced Tuesday — SIU Edwardsville, Texas State, Florida Atlantic, Troy, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Delaware State — had a combined record of 53-135, for a winning percentage of .282 last season. Their NCAA RPI averaged 300 (there were 351 teams rated in 2015-16).
“Putting a schedule together is never easy,” UH coach Eran Ganot said of the 29-game slate that features 19 at the Stan Sheriff Center. “Proud of the balance in terms of the amount of home games we were able to get.”
UH opens against first-time opponent Edwardsville of the Ohio Valley Conference on Nov. 11 in the Outrigger Rainbow Classic. The Big West Conference season opens on the road, Jan. 5 at Cal State Fullerton.
The regular season ends at Long Beach State on March 4. Barring a last-minute reversal of UH’s postseason ban by the NCAA, that will conclude the season, as UH is ineligible for the 2017 Big West tournament.
“It’s tough to see a schedule that doesn’t include (the tournament) for all of us,” Ganot said. “The bottom line is we’ve got a really good group of guys who’ve been working and sacrificing, really proud to wear the uniform.”
Besides Hawaii Hilo (Nov. 22), UH could add a second Division II opponent as well as a preseason exhibition against some combination of Chaminade, Brigham Young-Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific.
Ganot hopes fans will show up to support a group with few familiar faces from the 28-6 team that won the program’s first NCAA Tournament game. UH had its first two sellouts in 12 years last season.
“(We’re) building off the momentum we came off of, for the fan base and the arena in general,” Ganot said.
Unless a D-II game is added on a neighbor island, it will be the first time since 1998-99 UH is not taking a nonconference road trip.
The last time UH did not travel out of state before conference play was in 2003-04; UH played in the Maui Invitational that year.
“The idea is to play one road trip every year in nonconference,” Ganot acknowledged. “That’s something we did last year with Texas Tech.
“This year we were going to follow the same model, we hope to in the future, and all of a sudden the Pearl Harbor event presented itself. It was supposed to be one game, then it became two games, and it took the window we were planning on playing on the road.”
Season tickets go on sale today, ranging in price from $465 for lower-level adult seats to $89 for upper-level youth (ages 4 to high school) seats. For more information visit etickethawaii.com or the Stan Sheriff Center box office, or call 944-2697.
