2024 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic Field Revealed

Lincoln – The Nebraska men’s basketball team will spend Christmas week in Hawaii, as ESPN Events announced the field for the 2024 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic Tuesday afternoon. The eight-team event features the Huskers, along with Charlotte, College of Charleston, Hawai'i, Loyola Chicago, Murray State, Oakland and Oregon State. 

The 15th edition of the ESPN Events men’s college basketball tournament will be Dec. 22, 23 and 25 at the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu. Broadcast information and pairings will be announced closer to the tournament.

Nebraska makes its second Diamond Head Classic appearance after going 2-1 in 2014. The Huskers return seven lettererwinners and three starters from a team that finished 23-11 and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. The Huskers are led by seniors Brice Williams, who averaged 13.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, and Juwan Gary, who averaged 11.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.  The Huskers also gain the services of seven transfers who have combined for 264 starts and 3,478 career points, 1,753 rebounds and 759 assists at their previous schools. Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg, the reigning Big Ten Coach of the Year, won the event when he was at Iowa State in 2013. 

Field Highlights

• Charlotte (American Athletic) finished with 19 wins and a top- three conference finish for the first time in nearly two decades while being led by Aaron Fearne, a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Coach of the Year presented to the top first-year head coach in Division I basketball.
• The College of Charleston (Coastal Athletic Association) is coming off of back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and enter the year as the defending CAA regular-season and tournament champions under the direction of new head coach Chris Mack
• Tournament host Hawai’i (Big West) has recorded at least 20 wins in each of the last two seasons and extended its streak of consecutive winning seasons to seven, just one year shy of a program record. 
• Loyola Chicago (Atlantic 10) captured a share of the 2023-24 Atlantic 10 regular season title, earned a postseason spot in the NIT, and finished with its second 20-win season under third-year head coach Drew Valentine. 
• Murray State (Missouri Valley) has been one of the most consistently successful mid-major programs in the country, sporting a winning record in 34 of the last 37 seasons and finishing at the top of its conference in 11 of the last 15 years.
• Postseason darling Oakland (Horizon) makes its first-ever appearance in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic following a memorable 2023-24 campaign that was highlighted by a pair of Horizon League championships and a thrilling upset over Kentucky in the opening round of the NCAAs. 
• Oregon State (West Coast), which previously appeared in the 2013 edition of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, makes the transition to the West Coast Conference this season after nearly six decades of competition in the Pac-12.    

Tickets are expected to go on sale in October. Visit the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic web site at hawaiianairlinesdiamondheadclassic.com to sign up for special email offers and to find more information about the tournament. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Support for the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic is provided by Hawai‘i Tourism Authority through the Signature Events Program.

Today’s announcement is the third of the 2024 non-conference slate, as Nebraska will play Saint Mary’s in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Nov. 27 and travel to Creigton on Nov. 22. The remainder of Nebraska’s non-conference schedule should be announced in the very near future.