Coaches excited for stacked field as Maui Invitational makes return

KAANAPALI -- Sunday morning marked the return of a familiar sight that had been sorely missed by Valley Isle sports fans for three calendar years.

For the first time since 2019, the eight coaches here for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational men's college basketball tournament gathered for their traditional press conference wearing Maui Jim shades, posing with tournament surfboards and teaming with local intermediate school children for a free-throw contest.

Due to pandemic concerns, the 2020 tournament was moved to Asheville, N.C., and the 2021 event was held in Las Vegas.

"As everybody here knows, it's been a long three years since we were here at the rightful home of the best preseason or early-season tournament there is," press conference moderator Dan Shulman said as he opened the event on the grassy area in front of the beach at the Hyatt Regency in Kaanapali. "And I know I speak for everybody, these eight gentlemen and all of us as well, we are so happy to be back here in Maui."

Tournament chairman Dave Odom is not in attendance this year for an undisclosed reason, but Shulman said "I know he's here in spirit and I know he's going to be back here next year."

The coaches on hand were all delighted to be in a loaded field that had five of eight teams ranked in last week's Associated Press Top 25 poll: No. 9 Arkansas, No. 10 Creighton, No. 14 Arizona, No. 17 San Diego State and No. 23 Texas Tech.

Creighton and Texas Tech are making their first-ever trips to the event, which allows teams to come no more than once every four years. Those two teams will meet in the first game this morning at the Lahaina Civic Center at 9:30 a.m.

"Just happy to be here and wake up in the morning and see this beautiful ocean and the mountains and just the ocean view," Texas Tech coach Mark Adams said. "This is such great weather, it puts you in such a great mood until I remember I've got to play Creighton on Monday and then reality sets in."

It was that kind of light atmosphere that lit up the dais with the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop on Sunday morning.

"It'll be a memorable experience for these guys that they'll never forget," Adams said. "We're excited to be here and we know that we're going to get better, we've got a lot of young players, we've got seven underclassmen. So, it's a work in progress."

If Creighton wins the opener and Arkansas can beat Louisville in the second game that begins today at noon, Tuesday's first semifinal at 3 would likely be a top-10 matchup, depending on how the rankings come out today.

Creighton coach Greg McDermott echoed the excitement when he followed Adams.

"First of all, we're excited to be here," he said. "It's the first trip ... for our institution, the fans have been excited about this since we made the announcement four or five years ago, looking forward to this week, and I think we'll be here in full force. I really like my team."

The other two openers today are Ohio State against San Diego State at 4 p.m. and Cincinnati vs. Arizona at 6:30.

Louisville is coached by Kenny Payne, who is in his first year and won a national title there in 1986 as a player. The 2022 Cardinals are the first NCAA Division I team since 1980 to lose its first three games of the season by one point each time and now have the assignment to open here against the No. 9 team in the nation in the Razorbacks.

"First of all it's just a joy to be (in) a field like this so that these kids can see the elite talent across the country that's in this tournament," Payne said. "When we play a team like Arkansas we are not walking away and saying that we win or lose. We're walking away saying this is an elite team, a well-coached team, probably should be in the NBA, but we're going to learn from it.

"We've got a bunch of great kids and this is good for us to be here where we can be isolated where it's just us and talk about becoming a team."

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com

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Maui Jim Maui Invitational

At Lahaina Civic Center

Today's Games

Quarterfinals

Texas Tech vs. Creighton, 9:30 a.m. (ESPN2)

Louisville vs. Arkansas, noon (ESPN2)

Ohio St. vs. San Diego St., 4 p.m. (ESPN2)

Cincinnati vs. Arizona , 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Tuesday's Games

Consolation semifinals

Texas Tech-Creighton loser vs. Louisville-Arkansas loser, 9:30 a.m. (ESPN2)

Ohio St.-San Diego St. loser vs. Cincinnati-Arizona loser, noon (ESPN2)

Semifinals

Texas Tech-Creighton winner vs. Louisville-Arkansas winner, 3 p.m. (ESPN)

Ohio St.-San Diego St. winner vs. Cincinnati-Arizona winner, 5:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Wednesday's Games

Fifth-place game, 9:30 a.m. (ESPN2)

Championship, noon (ESPN)

Seventh-place game, 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU)

Third-place game, 5 p.m. (ESPN2)