Diamond Head Classic

um gary josh good to

see you looking for we play you last game of the season in hawaii yeah and i want you guys to know we played hawaii if you remember when i was a head coach at georgia tech yes in the diamond head classic yes and it was such an intense rivalry of that of the game of the atmosphere the fans were incredible we won at the end of the late game jose alvarado i had jose alvarado moses wright he was acc player of the year that year too so We know how hard it is to go to Hawaii and try to win a game at that place.

Do you miss the Diamond Head? I'm disappointed Diamond Head's not still going on.

I think it was a great tournament.

They're having a difficult time for whatever reason.

And obviously not having the Diamond Head Classic is a huge factor in this because that would be three pretty quality games that were just slated every year.

Automatic ESPN would take care of that.

And so to not have that as sort of a crutch as one of the pillars of your non-conference scheduling, I think we are seeing for, again, whatever reason that it is very difficult to convince teams to come all the way out here and for non-conference games when there are a smattering of other tournaments that are available out there obviously at the upper echelon of things you're talking about the players era tournament in Vegas and that has peeled off a bunch of programs here in recent years I mean heck even the Maui Invitational which actually has a really strong field this year even they have been having to guard themselves against the temptation of teams deciding to opt out of the Maui and go to Vegas or take up other options.

I think some of the coaches actually have told me they prefer one road trip.

one road game at least before conference play so they see how the team traveled instead of playing 12 home games and then going on the road it's a little bit different so maybe there's some benefits of playing on the road also

yeah i would love to see and this this is like you know the the canoa wish list thing but um i would love to see because i think the opportunity now presents itself with the fact that there isn't the diamond head classic now uh I would love to see there be some kind of band of support behind trying to build up the Rainbow Classic into being something really significant again.

And this isn't to disrespect Bethesda and UT Arlington and Portland.

I have no idea

... you know, certainly the, uh, assignment for the men's team in scheduling games got a little bit tougher because of the fact that we don't have the, uh, Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, uh, anymore.

And that took care of three games, usually pretty good ones, too, from an RPI standpoint.

Right, right, right.

And Hawaii, unfortunately, does lose two of them.

As far as the Diamond Head Classic, the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, it's not happening this year.

Nothing official has been stated about the future.

I get the impression that there won't be a future.

Again, we lost a Pro Bowl even earlier, and I wish we could have kept it.

I understand why the NFL moved it, and obviously now it's not even being played.

And then we lose Diamond Head.

At least for now.

I went overseas three times for FIBA.

I spent seven straight Christmases in Honolulu to referee the Diamond Head Classic.

The fact that we get paid to run them out of basketball court, and I was fortunate at that level, is like still unbelievable.

Because clearly at 5'7", there was no hope for me to play at the next level.

And it's like, okay, this is one of those defining games you normally don't get prior to New Year's Day and after Christmas.

We maybe used to have the Diamond Head Classic out in Hawaii.

There normally wasn't much basketball to watch that was premier heading into New Year's Eve, unless it's some random conference matchup.

But UCLA getting San Diego State here? Is Cronin preparing his team for the Big Ten gauntlet that's going to go? Maryland expected to be better than Rutgers.