The Diamond Head Classic is expected to announce shortly a field that will include Pacific-10 Conference champion Southern California in addition to the College of Charleston, Nevada-Las Vegas and host Hawai'i for its inaugural men's basketball tournament this year.

The eight-team tournament, owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television, will debut Dec. 22, 23 and 25 at the Stan Sheriff Center, sandwiching another ERT property, the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, on Dec. 24.

Pete Derzis, vice president of ERT, declined to comment on the makeup of the tournament until the entire field is announced. He said seven teams are under contract and an eighth is "close."

Moreover, he said the 2010 field is "not far from completion" and the 2011 lineup is "three-quarters" finished while work has begun on 2012.

The Diamond Head Classic is the fifth of ERT's holiday men's basketball tournaments and is expected to benefit from ESPN's ability to offer schools a smorgasbord of options with events here as well as in Orlando, Fla. (Old Spice Classic), Anaheim, Calif., San Juan, Puerto Rico and Columbia, S.C.

Champions of ERT's events this season were Wake Forest (Anaheim), Clemson (Charleston), Xavier (San Juan) and Gonzaga (Orlando).

Under NCAA rules, schools may play in one so-called "exempted" tournament each year and the same tournament once every four years but may play in different ones each year.

The Diamond Head Classic takes over a slot held for most of its 44-year run by the Rainbow Classic. The Rainbow Classic, formerly an eight-team event, will move to earlier in the year and involve just four teams, including Hawai'i, which still owns and operates it.

With the Diamond Head Classic, Derzis said "our first goal is to build a quality event with staying power." He said the tournament also hopes to bring to Hawai'i teams from diverse areas of the country.

Derzis said between the 2009 and subsequent tournaments all the major conferences are expected to be represented in the Diamond Head Classic.

David A. K. Matlin, executive director of the Diamond Head Classic and Hawai'i Bowl, said ESPN is scheduled to televise 10 games from the inaugural Diamond Head Classic. In its contract with UH, ESPN promises "best efforts" to include UH games.

A look at the early names from the expected field suggests ERT is going for name coaches as well as schools. USC, coached by Tim Floyd, went 21-12 in the regular season and won the Pac-10 Tournament. UNLV, coached by Lon Kruger, was 21-10 in the regular season. College of Charleston, of the Southern Conference and coached by Bobby Cremins, was 26-8.

Derzis said the Diamond Head Classic hopes to build a reputation quickly. "A lot of the success (in building tournaments) is by word of mouth and we're hoping they (coaches) will tell their friends if they have a good experience."

Matchups are expected to be announced before the summer.

Ticket information will be announced later.