The 2011 EA Sports Maui Invitational

#1
Baller Vol

Baller Vol

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#1
The Republic - Maui Invitational will expand field in 2011, include Duke, Kansas, UCLA and Georgetown


LAHAINA, Hawaii — The 2011 EA Sports Maui Invitational will have its usual impressive field and four more teams.

Next year's tournament will feature defending national champion Duke, a four-time Maui Invitational champion, along with past national champions Kansas, UCLA, Michigan and Georgetown.

In addition to the 12 games played at the Lahaina Civic Center from Nov. 21-23, there will be 11 games played on the U.S. mainland, the first expansion for the Maui Invitational since it went from four to eight teams in 1986.

The four teams that will play in the mainland games from Nov. 11-17 will be announced at a later date.

The other schools playing in Maui next year are Tennessee, Memphis and Chaminade, the Division II host school.

"We are excited for the growth and expansion of the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational," said tournament chairman Dave Odom, the former coach at Wake Forest and South Carolina. "More teams from more conferences will now have a chance to show their best among the nation's top teams in the premier early season tournament.

"The 2011 field has the potential to be the best field in tournament history. The combination of rich basketball tradition and recent success should make for incredible competition."

Starting with 2011, the tournament will be played in three parts.

The opening games will be played at the seven Maui-bound schools with three of the four mainland teams playing two games and the other playing one.

The four mainland teams will play two doubleheaders at one of those schools on Nov. 19-20.

The championship round will remain the same at the Lahaina Civic Center with all 12 games shown on one of the ESPN networks.

This year's Maui Invitational will be Nov. 22-24 and features Kentucky, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Wichita State, Michigan State, Virginia, Washington and Chaminade.
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#9
#9
The expansion of the field looks pointless. There are smaller events already out there that have a four-team event at the championship site. Prior to that, the four teams play in preliminary games, but the designated four teams advance no matter what. That's basically what this is, only it's obviously eight teams.

But, the eight-team field is incredible, to the point that I'm happy just to be invited.
 
#10
#10
ukvols said:
The expansion of the field looks pointless. There are smaller events already out there that have a four-team event at the championship site. Prior to that, the four teams play in preliminary games, but the designated four teams advance no matter what. That's basically what this is, only it's obviously eight teams.

But, the eight-team field is incredible, to the point that I'm happy just to be invited.
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It gives each of the teams going to Maui an exempt home game. It gives the teams playing on the mainland some nice paydays. It's not hard to see the rationale.
 
#11
#11
I didn't realize the extra game gets exempt status. Because, beyond that, it's an extra home game against a bottom-feeder - the kind of game that would be on the schedule anyway. There has to be a limit on that kind of expansion, or else schedules would just keep getting bigger.
 
#12
#12
I don't like the new format too much. There's something unquantitatively fun about having all those elite teams play in what basically looks like a high school gym.

But good god, that field is absolutely amazing.
 
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