HONOLULU — As the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic college basketball tournament gets underway on Wednesday, there will be more than a few fingers crossed in and around SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The University of Hawaii men’s basketball team’s signature non-conference event, in partnership with ESPN Events, is expected to be a full go with its eight teams until a champion is crowned on Christmas Day. But as recent events around the sports landscape — be it at the high school, college or professional level — have shown, the coronavirus pandemic still has a way of disrupting the best-laid plans.
Daryl Garvin, the DHC executive director, acknowledged to Spectrum News on Tuesday night that there are concerns amid the emergence of the omicron variant, the explosion of COVID case numbers in Hawaii and the postponement or cancellation of multiple college games on the Mainland.
Spectators will be allowed at this week’s DHC, which was not played at all in 2020.
“Safety’s the first and foremost concern, not only to the athletes but to the spectators,” Garvin said. “We’re following what UH has laid out as the policies … approved by the city and county.
Just a handful of blocks down University Avenue, the Iolani Prep Classic basketball tournament, which is scheduled to conclude Wednesday, has seen several games for local schools canceled due to COVID protocols over the last few days.
If a team in the DHC has to pull out due to virus issues, that could force ESPN Events into a place where it must decide how — or if — to proceed. The tournament has a straight winners-and-losers bracket format; each team is meant to get in three games.
“We see the world around us, we see what’s happening,” Garvin said. “If a team can’t play, we’ll figure that out when that happens.”
The visiting teams, who hail from all around the country, arrived in the last handful of days and went through Hawaii’s Safe Travels protocols.
Host Hawaii opens against Vanderbilt of the SEC at 7 p.m Wednesday. The ESPN-televised tournament is the last pre-conference action for UH and most teams in the field.
UH coach Eran Ganot has observed the recent effect on games nationally, and within UH’s Big West Conference; in the last three days alone, members Cal Poly, UC Riverside, UC Irvine and Long Beach State have seen games canceled or moved.
“Certainly it’s concerning because I feel like so many people have done such a good job over the last couple of years,” Ganot said. “And here we are, the last kind of tournament going on. You’re at the mercy in some ways about one team, but we have seven teams here. Eight teams including us.”
The visiting teams, who stay in Waikiki, have practiced and prepared on the Manoa campus like normal leading up to the tournament.
Ganot noted his team has been fully vaccinated since May.
“Your hope is that you stay vigilant and do everything in your power because sometimes you can do things right and some things can happen outside our control,” he said. “But you certainly want to hope that when you get into conference play there can be some flow again.”
Tournament precautions for spectators include the requirement of a full vaccination or negative COVID test within the last 48 hours; face coverings; a check-in with the LumiSight UH Health Check app; and a limit of one clear bag per spectator.
Garvin said that while some of the lead-up events for the EasyPost Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve have been altered, the game itself was still a go.
Wednesday’s other first-round matchups are: Liberty vs. Northern Iowa, 10 a.m.; Stanford vs. Wyoming, 12:30 p.m; and BYU vs. South Florida, 4:30 p.m.