The Maui Invitational Bracket Has Been Released And It's Time To Freak Out Over The Major Change
The Maui Invitational is the most storied early season tournament in college basketball. It’s given us some awesome moments with Chaminade beating Virginia and Ralph Sampson. We saw Kemba Walker start his ridiculous year with a Maui win. We’ve seen absolutely loaded fields and players like Glen Rice, Penny Hardaway, Kerry Kittles and Adam Morrison all win MVP. It sets the tone for the early part of college basketball and gives us hoop heads a chance to talk about something that isn’t football.
But, this year marks a new start to the Maui Invitational. Yes, the loaded field is still there, but something is missing. That something is Chaminade – the host school and the reason the tournament takes place in Maui. This is the first year they won’t be playing in the main event but rather the secondary tournament. Chaminade will rotate years that it plays in the main event vs the mid major one.
I don’t know how I feel about it. On one hand you get another big time school to enter and 3 more games that are worth watching. Chaminade is typically the blowout team or the buy game if you will. We typically lose one of the first round games where a team like Duke gets matched up with Chamindae so they automatically end up in the semis. On that hand I like the idea. Give us the 8 schools from different conferences that the casual fan all knows.
On the other hand, we miss out on the all time upset. That Chaminade win over Ralph Sampson is still talked about to this day – even with UMBC beating Virginia. It’s one of the all time memories in college sports not just college basketball. We miss out on the great story. We miss out whenever it’s a close game in the second half and college basketball is wondering if we’re going to see an upset. Chaminade got a win last year over Cal, they beat Texas back in 2012.
So, yes, part of me is old man screaming at the cloud here about not getting to watch the Silver Swords. But, at the same time this Maui Invitational is absolutely loaded and stealing the spotlight back from Battle 4 Atlantis. Would be a real shame if I had to go there to cover the event up close. A real shame.