Putnam City High School is located in Oklahoma City, Okla., but it will have a reunion of sorts today in Riverside, Calif.

When the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team plays a nonconference game at UC Riverside today in the Student Rec Center, three Putnam City graduates will be directly involved.

It is scheduled to start at 3:05 p.m. (HST), and will be broadcast on ESPN 1420 AM.

Hawai'i senior point guard Matt Gibson and sophomore forward Bill Amis are recent graduates of Putnam City.

UCR head coach Jim Wooldridge is also a graduate of Putnam City. One of his teammates was Mike Tabor, who is Amis' stepfather.

Tabor and Amis' mother, Sue, will attend tonight's game, and stay at the Wooldridge house after.

"They know they still have to cheer for Hawai'i," Amis said.

The Rainbow Warriors are 11-13; the Highlanders, who are in the Big West Conference, are 6-17.

The game was announced Feb. 4, but Wooldridge said he already had an advanced scouting report on Amis and Gibson.

"Bill's (stepfather) and I continue to be best friends," Wooldridge said. "So I was keeping up with Putnam City games through the years. I knew Gibson and Bill were really good players from when they were in high school."

Amis said he also knew a little about UCR because of Wooldridge. When Amis was a teenager, he attended several basketball camps run by Wooldridge in Kansas.

"When Coach Wooldridge was at Kansas State, we'd drive over there every year for his camps," Amis said. "I've known him since I was 5 or 6 because of my stepdad. Even before they announced this game, I would check up on Riverside every once in a while to see how they were doing because of Coach Wooldridge."

Wooldridge, who is in his first season as head coach at UCR, said he even tried to recruit Amis to Riverside.

"It just couldn't work out," Wooldridge said. "But I know Hawai'i got an awfully good player. I wish we had him."

But today's game will be about much more than the Putnam City alums.

Hawai'i is looking to bounce back after a disappointing 70-65 loss at Fresno State on Wednesday. The 'Bows blew a seven-point lead in that game's final three minutes.

"We let one slip away," Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said. "But we're correcting our mistakes, and putting that loss behind us because we have to be ready for this game."

UCR is coming off an 85-76 home victory over UC Irvine on Wednesday.

"That was a good win for our team," Wooldridge said. "But are we good enough to beat Hawai'i? I don't know. Obviously, they're favored."

The Highlanders have just one senior on their roster — 6-foot-2 shooting guard Larry Cunningham. He is averaging 15.1 points per game, and needs 28 points to become the school's all-time leading scorer.

He is in his fourth season at UCR, and has 1,359 career points.

"We've relied on him to help some of our younger guys," Wooldridge said. "In all honesty, we're a rebuilding program here. We're still taking baby steps, but a win over Hawai'i would be a big step."