Road update // Eyes on Diamond Head Classic

The Hawaii men’s basketball team transitioned safely from Honolulu to San Luis Obispo, Calif., in preparation for its first road game of the season on Wednesday.

UH (5-0) takes on Cal Poly (2-3) in a return game of last year’s BracketBusters event, won by the Mustangs in Honolulu. The game will be on KKEA, 1420-AM.

The Rainbows arrived in Los Angeles early this morning then bused north for a little over 3 hours. The team had a weightlifting session upon their arrival, then practiced in the Mustangs’ arena in the evening.

“We’ll treat (tomorrow) kind of like a school day, where we’ll get up in the morning, have breakfast as a team, then we have study hall and things like that for a few hours,” UH coach Gib Arnold said over the phone. “Then we’ll break off, start watching film, and head over to practice. Try to keep it as normal as possible, and the same as any other day like they were home.”

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This comes from an official with the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic:

There are expected to be 18 NBA scouts in attendance for this year’s tournament held Dec. 22, 23 and 25 at the Stan Sheriff Center. For last year’s inaugural tournament, there was just one scout.

A pretty good jump for a strong field. Here’s an update on how the other seven teams (besides host Hawaii) in this year’s field have fared so far.

No. 11 Baylor: 5-0

Mississippi State: 4-0

Washington State: 4-0

Florida State: 5-1

Butler: 3-2

Utah: 3-2

San Diego: 1-4

On a related note, DHC officials are still working to get the last two teams for 2011-12 in place. Sounds like there’s a good chance a Pac-10 team will be one of them. The 2011-12 field so far: Clemson, Long Beach State, Texas A&M, UTEP, Xavier and host Hawaii.