Gameday: Miami

Hawaii is no stranger to tough opening-round matchups in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.

Florida State. Auburn. Miami. Illinois State. And now, Miami again, this time with the Hurricanes ranked No. 6.

Miami-UH marks the first time in the nine years of the DHC that a first-round matchup is repeated. The Shane Larkin-led Hurricanes topped the Rainbows 73-58 in 2012, then dropped their next two to finish fourth.

This is Hawaii’s first ranked foe in the DHC first round. Tipoff is listed as 8 p.m. for the ESPNU-televised game, but realistically we’re looking at 8:30 or later.

These Hurricanes (9-0) of the ACC are one of four unbeaten teams in the country, along with No. 1 Villanova, No. 3 Arizona State and No. 15 TCU. Like UH, they spread the wealth on offense, with 6-foot-11 sophomore center Dewan Huell leading five players with double-figure averages with 13.3 ppg. Freshman Lonnie Walker IV has been one of the Hurricanes’ hottest players of late, averaging 17 points off the bench in the last three games.

But defense is where Miami has truly separated from its opponents. It allows just 56.3 ppg, and 34.7 percent on opponents’ field-goal attempts. Those figures are second-best in the NCAA.

Maybe the most ridiculous stat: Miami has not trailed in a second half this season.

UH (7-2) has won three straight, but dropped games by double digits against the two best teams it’s seen this year, Nevada and Utah. The Rainbow Warriors will have to play their best game of the year, and then some, to be in this one down the stretch.

But hey, that’s why they play the game, and UH has proven tough to beat against ranked foes in the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Hurricanes are 11.5-point favorites, after the line was 14 or 15 just a day ago.

UH is 1-2 against ranked teams in the DHC:

>> 2011, Hawaii 84, No. 14 Xavier 82, OT
>> 2014, No. 11 Wichita State 80, Hawaii 79, OT
>> 2015, No. 3 Oklahoma 84, Hawaii 81

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The 2018 Diamond Head field was announced today, and it’s a very respectable one. As of right now, TCU looks like the cream of the crop, but there’s several other reputable names. Four schools besides host UH are making return trips for the 10th year of the event — Colorado, Indiana State, Saint Mary’s and UNLV.

Rhode Island, Charlotte and TCU are will make their debut appearances in the DHC.

There’s been some talk that perhaps DHC officials are looking to shift the tournament sooner in the CBB season, say to mid-November. But having spoken to ESPN Events’ Pete Derzis courtside, I can say it sounds like there are no immediate plans to change the dates. ESPN still likes having the content right around the Christmas holiday when there aren’t a whole lot of games going on. At the same time, the Worldwide Leader is cognizant that the power conferences are moving their league games sooner and sooner (the Big Ten was playing some in early December). So we’ll see.

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In the early games Friday:

Middle Tennessee topped Princeton 69-67 on Giddy Potts’ pull-up 17-footer with 2.3 seconds left. It was a tight ballgame the whole way, and the Tigers had just tied it up at 67 on a tough step-back 3 prior to Potts’ shot. (I still can’t get enough of that name. You might say I’m giddy about it.)

USC pulled itself out of some recent doldrums with a resounding 84-53 win over Akron in the second game of the day. The Trojans, who were coming off an overtime home loss to Princeton on Tuesday and the news that De’Anthony Melton is ineligible for the season, still had to rally after forward Bennie Boatwright was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul late in the first half.

The Trojans went on a 26-2 run early in the second to pull away convincingly. They face MTSU at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.