Some pre-Diamond Head Classic notes
Oklahoma is ranked No. 3 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll. If the Sooners remain at that spot (or perhaps even move up to 1 or 2, pending this weekend’s outcomes), they will be the highest-ranked team to ever participate in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. A new Top 25 Poll will be released on December 21 – one day before the start of the Classic.
The eight-team tournament is set for December 22, 23 and 25 at the Stan Sheriff Center. Opening day games on December 22 are: Auburn vs. New Mexico, 9:30 a.m.; BYU vs. Harvard, 11:30 a.m.; Oklahoma vs. Washington State, 6 p.m.; Hawai’i vs. Northern Iowa, 8 p.m.
The Diamond Head Classic started in 2009, making this the seventh annual edition. In the previous six years, six teams (out of a possible 48) entered the Diamond Head Classic ranked in the Top 25. A few more notes on the history of the tournament:
* The highest-ranked team to participate in a past Diamond Head Classic was No. 4 Arizona in 2012. The Wildcats won the Diamond Head championship that year with a thrilling victory over No. 18 San Diego State.
* Of the six previous teams to enter the Diamond Head Classic as a Top 25 team, only two took home the tournament title – the aforementioned No. 4 Arizona in 2012, and No. 17 Iowa State in 2013.
* The worst showing by a ranked team in the Diamond Head Classic was a seventh-place finish by No. 14 Xavier in 2011. Long Beach State and Hawai’i both upset Xavier in that tournament.
* Hawai’i is still seeking its first Diamond Head Classic championship, and has an all-time record of 10-8.
* The Warriors did not make it to the championship game in the six previous tournaments, and a third-place finish last year is their best showing.
* The list of Diamond Head Classic champions: USC (2009), Butler (2010), Kansas State (2011), Arizona (2012), Iowa State (2013), George Washington (2014).
* Dwain Williams of Hawai’i holds the single-game scoring mark with 36, set against Saint Mary’s in 2009.
* The most points scored over three games in a single Diamond Head Classic is 79 in 2010 by Washington State’s Klay Thompson, who is now an NBA All-Star guard with the Golden State Warriors.
Nice Heritage for a Short Life…
IF Anyone, Dave Maitlin ‘could’ restore Riley-Type seeding of Hawai’i
The “Late” Game 7, 8, 9, Is Beyond Mainland Prime-Time
AND Should help Boost Attendance…
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Dave ,,,IF You have anyone passing you info/feedback from This Site…
Please Appeal to (OR Even “Shame”) OC-16 to RELEASE and Re-Negotiate (Terminate, Re-Open and R-Bid) the TV and Pay-Per-View Contracts — “Should” Help the Bottom Line…Times Are Critical, approaching Desperate And Disparate with The Governor’s LACK of Leadership, Responsibility, Vision and Foresight – “They Priced ME Out of Season Tickets?” V.Hard to take HIM OR LASSNER As Serious OR Visionary…V.FEW UH Programs Have Capacity OR Prospects for A FULL Return-On-Investment…
Finals are over ! Hope everyone did well !
UH not just show well, WIN DHC.. will set them up for BWC great run..
eagle, good points.. times HAVE changed..
the average, and / or New fan of UH MBB.. will opt either for TV coverage or do something else, even if UH were ranked top 30 team. And playing number 3 Oklahoma in semi finals.
Different times, hard economically, and That loyal first Fab Five generation fans, are in Care Homes, being cared for, or have passed on, leaving their children , now in their Sixties, or late Fifties, to carry on..tough for all..
I think that magic Turnstile number might be 5800.. in house attendees, every SSC home game , with 6700 tickets purchased.. that missing 2000, I guess residual effect from previous years.. just guessing, however.. very tough to get 9000 out to SSC..
Be creative,.. open up general admission seats.. or 10 minutes into game, let ones come in at cheaper priced tickets. wait , fill empty seats where they may be, and move around the SSC, by half time.. sit in permanent seat.. Sound like FB at Aloha Stadium.. or else the Ben Jay thing.. have All the in house attendees move to lower loge and bowl of SSC.. create impression of Full house more noise.
Go Bows !
Warrior time. Oh wait and Gov. Ige , no more freebies to you remember you don’t care for athletics. So pay up like the rest of us. You and your wife make over $400k so you should have money to burn for tickets. That’s if you want to show face after the ill conceived comments made in the SA. Comparing apples to oranges. Does he think he can run an athletic dept better than the state of Idaho ? Boise st. …. Idaho yes the little state of Idaho funds their university in athletics and academics and they do it the right way. Open your mind and look at the big picture Ige
If I was Matlin I’d have a web site devoted to fan input as to how UH Athletics could make money. After all fans are just like employees and they have a lot of good ideas. For instance, some of the lower seating could be arranged where you have a clearer view of the floor and not seeing the guys head in front of you. I think fans would pay for those premium seats. Another one would be to more aggressively market the UH clothing line. $5 parking? That’s enough to turn some people off from even coming to see the game. Let’s see now, $5 plus $18 ticket for upper section plus $7 beer. I think I’ll stay home and watch it on tv. Add a couple 100 people thinking this each game and it adds up. And free wifi for 2 hours? How about 3 hours? The last half hour of the game you are without wifi because you used up the 2 hours. Small kine stuff la dat. But then if Athletics are like where I work, they say that they are the thinkers and we are the doers. And they wonder why they never have any money.
Any word on Bryce Canda…
Could he be eligible once the Fall semester is done?
Customer feedback is always good, but the people at UH need to be willing to listen and make adjustments and they don’t do that a lot. servante, you are not the first person I hear complain about the lower seating having bad views.
servante, when is the last time you went to a game? I only went to two so far this year and the parking is $6 and the beer is more than $7. I think I paid $8.50 or something like that. You right though, it is so much cheaper and easy to stay home and watch on TV.
eagle’s idea for pay per view for all home games should be considered strongly by UH and especially for basketball and wahine volleyball. We just had a elite 8 volleyball team and never came close to even one sellout.
Servante, all good points. I don’t think UH will ever agree to your 1st point but as far as total cost for 1 game, yes, it’s pretty high. There are a number of things to remedy this issue for example, more promo discounts, military discount, senior citizen discount, discount parking….you get my point.
Oh yeah, and how about making the very top rows (top 5 or 6) half-price or something like that? Most of those seats are empty anyway and it would guarantee draw in a few hundred more fans. They should do this for at least the non-marquee games, which are a lot considering our strength of schedule
Regarding status of Bobbitt: Per Brian Mcinnis on his blog Court Sense:
“Since his absence from action against HPU, point guard Roderick Bobbitt has steadily played back into his usual role in practices this week.
He was a second-unit guy on Wednesday, but in Thursday’s practice in Gym 1 he wore the green jersey of a first teamer.”
Good news and looks like he should be starting again for the DHC.
The problem with only using pay preview is that we need to remember who foots up most of the bill. You take away most of ability to see these games a large % of people would rather just do away with athletics!!! If people don’t watch the program they will not be tied to it. I gave up on football 1-2 season after Jones they were still doing ok but it baca me to expensive to watch and to watch the game the next day was just too removed. People wonder why no one goes to the games… They are too removed. Change tv coverage for football to live, then play the free 1/2 to 1 hr late on non HD. You could do something similar for basketball. Something needs to be figured out because attendance has been slumping in everything but women’s basketball. Pay preview numbers are lower as well. Not sure if that is a correlation to the teams lack of wins or not.