PonyFans.com

Pretty good field. Might be a signal that Doherty thinks they will be better.

SMU M-Basketball: Will Play In ESPN's Inaugural Diamond Head Classic Dec. 22-25 In Honolulu

Tournament Includes USC, UNLV, St. Mary's, College of Charleston , Hawaii and Western Michigan


Coach Matt Doherty will lead the Mustangs in the inaugural Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu




April 30, 2009

DALLAS (SMU) --- SMU men's basketball will be one of eight teams in the inaugural Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu , Hawaii , Dec. 22-25, 2009, as announced by ESPN Regional Television, Inc., (ERT) a subsidiary of ESPN, on Thursday, April 30. The field includes Hawaii , College of Charleston , Saint Mary's ( Calif. ), UNLV, USC, Western Michigan and one team to be determined. The games will be played Dec. 22, 23 and 25 at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu .

"This is a great opportunity for SMU basketball," says head coach Matt Doherty. "We are excited to be part of the inaugural Diamond Head Classic and to have the chance to face outstanding competition in this event. The media exposure as well as the total experience of the event will be incredibly beneficial to our student-athletes and our program."

This will be the Mustangs' fourth trip to Honolulu for a tournament, but first since the 1987-88 season. SMU won the 1983-84 Rainbow Classic with victories over Duke, UAB and Hawaii . The Ponies, then ranked No. 7, finished second in the 1984-85 Chaminade Classic; defeating No. 11 Oklahoma before falling to Chaminade in the final. In the 1987-88 Rainbow Classic, the Mustangs fell to Louisville before knocking off Creighton and Texas A&M to finish third in the eight-team field. SMU also played at Hawaii seven times from 1998-2005 while a member of the Western Athletic Conference.

Four of the teams in this year's field reached the postseason in 2008-09, with USC playing in the NCAA Tournament, UNLV and Saint Mary's in the National Invitation Tournament and College of Charleston playing in the College Basketball Invitational. USC won the 2008-09 Pac-10 Tournament, and the Western Michigan Broncos claimed their second straight MAC West regular-season title. Saint Mary's, which advanced to the NIT quarterfinals in March, was ranked among the nation's top 25 teams for a good stretch of the regular season. UNLV notched 20-plus wins and gained a postseason berth for the third straight year. College of Charleston , meanwhile, is coming off a 27-win season.

The Diamond Head Classic will feature 12 games through three days - Dec. 22, 23 and 25. The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, also owned by ESPN Regional Television, will be played Dec 24. The historic Rainbow Classic, formerly played during Christmas week, will now be a four-team, round-robin event played earlier in the season.

Each team will compete in one game per day, advancing through a bracket-tournament format. The two teams that remain undefeated



SMU, the only Division I athletic program in Dallas , Texas , sponsors 17 sports and has been ranked as the top school in its conference for 10 of the last 11 years in the Director's Cup overall athletic rankings. More information about SMU and its coaches, student-athletes and teams is available at www.SMUMustangs.com.

those are some tough teams. tourney will be litmus test

Isn't the hawaii bowl on the 24th? Man, just think how great it would be if the football team played their first bowl game and you got to see the basketball team play too.

ponydawg wrote:Isn't the hawaii bowl on the 24th? Man, just think how great it would be if the football team played their first bowl game and you got to see the basketball team play too.

That would be great, I would be there in a second. I've done the xmas in Hawaii thing before and it's good times...a snow filled xmas is way overrated!

This Release is just in time to attract recruits for the coming year!!!!!!! Oh wait-never mind.

SMU football in the Hawaii Bowl, SMU basketball playing in the tournament? June Jones would have a field day!

I hope to hell we don't play Chaimanade again. They could ruin our "fan-tastic" season again!!!!!!!

very entertaining field. We don't need to play Duke, just a slew of OOC games like this. Most of those teams are fairly small in the frontline, so that's a plus.

I'm sure the players are pumped about this.
I nice upgrade to the schedule.

Why are we playing in Hawaii, shouldnt we play in a tournament in DFW somewhere only?

Stallion wrote:I hope to hell we don't play Chaimanade again. They could ruin our "fan-tastic" season again!!!!!!!

Chaminade must have had a hell of a team back then...they beat Virginia (with Ralph Sampson) in that era as well.

Either that, or the Chaminade tournament officials favored the home team like crazy.

CalallenStang wrote:

Either that, or the Chaminade tournament officials favored the home team like crazy.

I have this was true of Vince Goo the old womens coach from Hawaii, if he felt he was getting bad calls at home he would black ball refs from working hawaii games and there arent a whole lot of other officiating opportunities over there.

White Helmet wrote:Why are we playing in Hawaii, shouldnt we play in a tournament in DFW somewhere only?

I heard we have "backed out" of the Hawai'i tourney - too long of a flight - swine flu threat - gotta take precautions - have we disinfected our balls?

Bergermeister wrote:have we disinfected our balls?

TWSS

This is a fantastic addition to the schedule. The TV exposure playing on ESPN plus the allure for recruits of going to an annual tourney in Hawaii should be great. Also, I think that GSP is right that its a sign that Doherty expects to be a significantly better team this season. Link to the release on the SMU website below.

http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/m-ba ... 09aaa.html