Hawaii men’s basketball: 2019 Rainbow Classic field revealed
A tip of the cap to Florida A&M University for pulling back the curtain on another chunk of Hawaii men’s basketball’s 2019-20 nonconference schedule.
The Rattlers of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference posted their full schedule online recently, and there at the very top of the list was the field for the 2019 Rainbow Classic.
The latest edition of the four-team, season-opening, round-robin version of UH’s old tournament begins on Nov. 8, a few days after the national start of college basketball Nov. 5. This year’s opponents are Florida A&M, South Dakota and Pacific.
(Now, it’s worth noting that Florida A&M lists Pacific University, the Division III school in Oregon. It would be very surprising if it was in fact the Boxers, instead of the Division I Pacific Tigers, even granting that UH brought in Division II Humboldt State last year. For the moment, we will surmise it is the Tigers coming and that Florida A&M simply uploaded the wrong logo. It happens.)
Florida A&M of the MEAC was 12-19 last season with a KenPom rating of 318 of 353 Division I teams. South Dakota of the Summit League went 13-18 with a KenPom of 229 and Pacific of the West Coast Conference was 14-18 with a KenPom of 216.
UH is to play Florida A&M on Sunday, Nov. 10. It is as-yet unknown which of the other two UH will open against; those teams have not posted their schedules.
UH has never faced the South Dakota Coyotes nor the Florida A&M Rattlers. It is 5-5 all-time against Pacific, with the last meetings a home-and-home split the one year the teams overlapped in the Big West in 2012-13 (the Rainbows later had to vacate the win).
It sounds like the official release of UH’s schedule is quite close, so the dates and opponents here should be shored up in short order. With the other known dates of New Orleans (Nov. 25), San Francisco (Nov. 29), UTEP in the Diamond Head Classic (Dec. 22), and Maine (Dec. 29), there’s not much left of the nonconference slate to learn. Expect a couple of Division II games sprinkled in between and maybe one or two more D-I opponents.
—————
Here’s the most recent accounting of the Division I schools, by conference, that it’s known UH will NOT face, based upon their own schedule releases:
(UPDATE: This list more or less current as of Aug. 8.)
American Athletic
Central Florida
Connecticut
Houston (DHC possibility)
Temple
Tulane
Tulsa
Wichita State
America East
Binghamton
Hartford
Massachusetts-Lowell
New Hampshire
Stony Brook
Vermont
Atlantic 10
Dayton
George Mason
La Salle
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Atlantic Coast
Boston College
Duke
Florida State
Louisville
Miami
North Carolina
Notre Dame
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest
Atlantic Sun
Liberty
Big 12
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech
West Virginia
Big East
Butler
Georgetown
Marquette
Providence
Seton Hall
St. John’s
Xavier
Big Sky
Eastern Washington
Idaho State
Montana
Northern Arizona
Sacramento State
Big South
Hampton
Big Ten
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Northwestern
Penn State
Purdue
Rutgers
Wisconsin
Colonial Athletic Association
College of Charleston
Delaware
Hofstra
James Madison
Towson
UNC-Wilmington
Conference USA
Charlotte
Old Dominion
Rice
Western Kentucky
Horizon League
Green Bay
Oakland
Wright State
Ivy League
Brown
Columbia
Harvard
Yale
Metro Athletic Athletic
Canisius
Fairfield
Marist
Quinnipiac
Siena
Mid-American
Miami (Ohio)
Western Michigan
Mid-Eastern Athletic
Norfolk State
Missouri Valley
Bradley
Indiana State
Missouri State
Mountain West
Air Force
Colorado State
Nevada
San Jose State
UNLV
Northeast
Bryant
Central Connecticut State
Fairleigh Dickinson
LIU Brooklyn
Sacred Heart
St. Francis (PA)
Ohio Valley
Jacksonville State
Murray State
Pacific 12
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Utah
Washington (DHC possibility)
Washington State
Patriot League
Boston University
Bucknell
Colgate
Southeastern
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Missouri
Tennessee
Texas A&M
Southern
Chattanooga
VMI
Western Carolina
Wofford
Southland
Central Arkansas
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Southwestern Athletic
Alabama A&M
Texas Southern
Summit League
Oral Roberts
Sun Belt
Appalachian State
Arkansas State
Texas-Arlington
Texas State
West Coast
Pepperdine
Santa Clara
Western Athletic
Cal Baptist
O maybe scheduling the schedule went in the back burners because we’re losing a coach now.
Good Luck, Adam. (Today’s article)
Wow, just landed Ali to complete the roster and now we need a new coach. … aiyah yah yah.
This level of scheduling for the Rainbow Classic won’t attract large crowds. But then again, I suppose it depends on the objective. Maybe coach is looking to give a lot of players more PT to open the season – a way to make adjustments in time for the Diamond Head Classic later in December.
The schedule is again a joke under Ganot. $940 for 2 season tickets plus parking to watch this line up of teams is embarrassing for a program that has such a rich history of bringing in some of college basketball’s finest programs. North Carolina, Kansas, Indiana, Oklahoma, St. Johns, … Even bringing in former WAC opponents like SDSU, New Mexico, BYU, Wyoming, CSU, … would be a huge upgrade to the recent schedules.
3
I agree with you 100 percent. At the same time, fighting some of the seriously tough schools that have been well-known to making it to the NCAA more times than not is kind of hard to attract nowadays. I mean, in a giant nutshell, having to face 1 or 2 ranked opponents is not a bad idea just to get some quality experience for the players to understand and see what it’s like to face a tough opponent. But likewise, most schools that’s listed on there probably just feel like Hawaii’s not worth their time. That’s not true. We CAN be competitive against a ranked opponent. Under Ganot’s tenure, we saw that against No. 3 Oklahoma, though lost 84-81, but that right there shows that we can be tough against an opponent like that. That being said, having lost to North Carolina and Miami by double-figures on the other hand, though…that’s a different story. It’s just…we’re not the same adage as we once were, and yet you wonder if we’re just being outclassed by teams better than us and teams weaker than us. It’s like a cloak-and-dagger type of situation with this program. Ultimately, I think what this team is trying to go for is balance, but it’s not easy, considering that there are probably BWC teams that will probably be facing much tougher teams than the ones Hawaii faces. It’s just a matter of how we handle the pressure and see how this team can do to prepare for conference play with the games we have.