Maui tourney won’t be same
Chaminade had been in field since 1984 start.
The announcement wasn’t much different from the several dozen that are sent out each summer ballyhooing early-season college basketball tournaments.
It officially unveiled the field for November’s Maui Invitational. The eight teams had been announced earlier, but this release included the first-round matchups and a quote from tournament director Dave Odom that this looked like the strongest field in tournament history.
Every field in every tournament is the strongest in history — until next year. This one, though, had a twist. If you read down the list of schools — Arizona, Auburn, Duke, Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa State, San Diego State and Xavier — there was one conspicuous absence. Chaminade.
The tiny Division II school (1,500 undergraduates) in Honolulu is the reason the Maui Invitational exists. The Silverswords have played in every Maui Invitational since it began in 1984, and their upset of then-No. 1 Virginia on Dec. 23, 1982, led to the creation of the event.
“When I tell people we’re not playing this year, they look at me with a question mark on their face as in, ‘How is that possible?’ ” Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird said. “It’s definitely disappointing, but that’s the way life is sometimes. You have to accept it for what it is and move on.”
As recently as November, Chaminade upset a Division I school in the event, when it beat California 96-72. Five years before that, the Silverswords stunned Texas. Bovaird was Chaminade’s coach for both of those wins.
“We don’t beat those DI teams very often,” he said. “But whenever we play them on Maui, we feel like we have a chance. We like to say that Maui is about mystique and magic and history. Anything can happen on Maui. Every once in a while, it does. Believe me, a win like that over a Pac-12 team or a Big 12 team is one our guys will remember the rest of our lives.”
Bovaird believes television played a role in the change. ESPN televises every game of the tournament, and Bovaird heard rumblings that the network wasn’t thrilled with the ratings of the Silverswords’ games, especially when they played the seventh-place game on the third day.
“I’d actually like to see those numbers because I think Chaminade is a part of basketball history,” he said. “I would think there would be people interested in seeing us play.”
Dave Odom, who won 406 games as the coach at East Carolina, Wake Forest and South Carolina, now runs the event for KemperLesnik out of Chicago.
“We always have a post-tournament meeting to discuss what we can do better the next year and to start looking at teams for a couple of years down the road,” Odom said.
“We try to figure out ways to enhance the Maui Jim Maui Invitational brand. A couple of years ago, we also talked about what we could do to help Chaminade out because they’re a partner in the event.
“We thought giving them the chance to play a couple of games on the mainland every other year would be a win-win for everybody involved. Division II teams don’t get to play games like that very often.”
Odom said ESPN had no say in the decision but added, “I’m sure they were aware of what we were considering.”
Odom was involved in the game that led to the creation of the Maui Invitational. He was Virginia Coach Terry Holland’s top assistant in 1982 when the Silverswords stunned the Cavaliers, led by three-time national player of the year Ralph Sampson. Holland suggested to Chaminade that it capitalize on the name recognition that came from the upset and start a tournament.
The University of Hawaii had hosted an eight-team tournament in Honolulu for years. Chaminade, which is located about a mile from Hawaii’s campus, eventually took its event to Maui. Soon after, ESPN became involved, and the rest has been early-season basketball history.
Chaminade will play in the “mainland bracket” of the tournament this year at Arizona and at San Diego State. It will be paid a guarantee to go and play those two games. As part of a new 10-year contract, Chaminade will play on Maui in odd-numbered years and on the mainland in even-numbered years.
“It is an opportunity for our kids to play at some cool places, I’m sure,” Bovaird said. “I’ve never been to a game at Arizona or Kansas or Kentucky, where we might get to go play down the road.
“But the truth is when I told the kids about the change, they weren’t too fond of the idea. Let’s face it, Chaminade is known for two things: the upset of Virginia and the Maui Invitational.
“One of the first things we’ve always told kids in recruiting is, ‘Hey, we play three games on ESPN in November every year. No other DII school does that. Now we have to spin it differently. Tell them every other year we’re on TV three times and the other two times we get to go to some pretty cool places.”
The bottom line, of course, is the bottom line. Big-time teams are never thrilled to play Chaminade on Maui because there’s nothing to gain: You either win a game you’re supposed to win, or you join an ignominious list of upset victims.
What’s more, ESPN would rather have 12 games involving Division I teams than three of the 12 involving a Division II team.
Bovaird didn’t schedule any games this November in the three days before Thanksgiving, when the tournament is being played, but he intends to be in Maui.
“I just thought it would be awkward for us to be playing those three days,” he said. “Of course it’ll be awkward for me to be there, too, since people will be saying, ‘So why aren’t you guys playing?’ ... I know I’ll look over at the two coaches during games and wish I was on one of those sidelines.”
He paused. “We tell our kids that we don’t complain when things go wrong; we just play through them. So I’m not going to complain. I’m going to find a bright side in all this.
“Who knows? Maybe we’ll go in and beat Arizona.”
That would be an upset almost in the same category as the one over Virginia.
Even so, the Maui Invitational won’t be the same without Chaminade.