Off to its best non-conference season in the last five years, the Washington State men’s basketball team rolls into Honolulu for the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic this week, hoping to keep its momentum going into Pac-12 play.

The Cougars (7-2) will have to defy the odds in order to top the tournament-headlining No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners (8-0) today in the opening round of the competition.

Led by senior guard Buddy Hield, the Sooners were projected in preseason polls to finish second in the Big 12 behind the No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks and have picked up notable wins against Wisconsin, No. 17 Villanova and Creighton in their non-conference season. Hield, who is averaging 13.5 points per game, notched a career high in points Saturday in Oklahoma’s 87-74 victory over Creighton by dropping 33 points on the Bluejays.

WSU has only beaten one top-5 team in its history – against No. 4 Oregon State in 1980 – and is 0-53 against top-3 teams. The last time the Cougars played a top-5 team was in a 60-25 loss to Arizona, Jan. 2, 2014, in Tucson. The Cougars haven’t beaten a ranked team since they topped No. 23 UCLA in 2013.

Junior forward Josh Hawkinson has paced WSU to its seven wins in nine games, scoring 16.5 points per contest and leading the Pac-12 with 10.4 rebounds. Hawkinson recorded his fourth-straight double-double against Texas State Friday, and now has six this season.

The Shoreline product will likely matchup against Oklahoma senior forward Ryan Spangler, who is also averaging a double-double this season (11.5 points and 10.0 rebounds per game).

Auburn, New Mexico, BYU, Harvard, Northern Iowa and host Hawai’I will also compete in the Diamond Head Classic. All teams at the tournament are guaranteed to play exactly three games, which will be today, Wednesday and Friday.

After facing the Sooners today, the Cougars will either play UNI or Hawai’i Wednesday. The full bracket and tournament details can be found by searching for the Diamond Head Classic on ESPN.com.

Tipoff against Oklahoma is scheduled for 8 p.m. PT at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, and the game will be aired on ESPNU. If the Cougars win, they will play at 6 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN2, and if they lose they will play at 8:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

Reporting by Dustin Brennan