HONOLULU — A familiar face could be back for the holidays.

Among the eight-team field for the 2022 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic basketball tournament announced Tuesday, one name in particular stood out.

It was Iona, a small, private Catholic college in New Rochelle, New York. It wasn't so much that Iona itself was remarkable, but who coaches the Gaels: Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Pitino.

Pitino, who has led three different schools to a Final Four — Kentucky, Louisville and Providence — got his college coaching start at Hawaii, a fact often overlooked.

Pitino was an assistant coach under the late Bruce O’Neil in Manoa for the 1975-76 season, when Pitino was only two years removed from college himself. When O’Neil was fired amid NCAA violation allegations, Pitino took over the rest of the season, going 2-4 in his official coaching debut.

The 69 year old is in his second year with Iona, which is 25-6 out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

If Pitino stays put with Iona this summer and comes to SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, it could make for an interesting reunion. After UH was tagged with violations under O’Neil, Pitino was later implicated in some of the infractions. Pitino, it has been noted locally, rarely mentions Hawaii when he speaks about his past coaching stops.

Iona is joined in the 2022 DHC by 2014 champion George Washington of the Atlantic 10; Pepperdine of the West Coast Conference; Seattle University of the Western Athletic Conference; Southern Methodist of the American Athletic Conference; Utah State of the Mountain West; Washington State of the Pac-12; and host Hawaii.

As has been the case every year of the DHC going back to the first tournament of 2009, the dates are the same — Dec. 22, 23 and 25.

The 2021 Diamond Head Classic saw game cancelations due to the COVID pandemic health and safety protocols. The championship was awarded to Vanderbilt after Stanford had to back out of the title contest. Hawaii nixed its seventh-place game against Northern Iowa, as well.