Maui Jim Maui Invitational Preview

As always, the Maui Jim Maui Invitational will feature a stellar field of teams. Regarded as one of the best in-season tournaments, it will keep that title this year as five of the eight teams are currently ranked in the AP Top 25, with Ohio State on the cusp. The Buckeyes will be competing for the title against No. 9 Arkansas, No. 10 Creighton, No. 14 Arizona, No. 17 San Diego State, No. 21 Texas Tech, Cincinnati, and Louisville. 

The first matchup of the tournament, also the only first-round matchup with two ranked teams, will feature Creighton and Texas Tech. Creighton, the preseason favorites in the Big East, are looking the part so far, with four players averaging double-digits and crushing opponents by an average of 26.3 points per game.

Texas Tech, picked T-5th in the preseason Big 12 poll, is a perfect 3-0 to start the season. Kevin Obanor, who returned for one last season, and De’vion Harmon are the only double-digit averaging scorers on the team. However, Mark Adams is spreading the minutes around to start the season. 10 players on Texas Tech’s roster are averaging more than 10.0 minutes per game, but we’ll see if he decides to cut the lineup a little shorter during Maui. In their first challenge, Thursday against Louisiana Tech, only seven players got 12 or more minutes. 

Arizona opened as the favorite in August, but Arkansas is the current favorite to win the tournament. Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks are rolling so far this season, outscoring opponents by an average of 19.7 points a game. They are even doing this without five-star freshmen guard Nick Smith, who is currently suffering a knee injury, but is listed day-to-day heading into the tournament.

Arkansas opens against Louisville, who has not had the start expected heading into the season. Louisville is one of the high profile programs with a new coach this season. Kenny Payne, who played for Louisville from 1985-89, has taken over the reigns after an abysmal last season of the Chris Mack era. After building some hope for a competitive season at least in the off-season, the Cardinals are 0-3 to start, losing all three games by a single point. 

Ohio State, as mentioned earlier on the verge of cracking the AP Top 25, has one of the toughest roads ahead of any team. They won their first three games pretty easily to start 3-0. However, they now have three games in Maui against a tough field, then No. 7 Duke in their first game back from Maui, and then No. 1 North Carolina a couple of weeks later. It would be quite the feat to go 5-0 in those games, but stranger things have happened. If the Buckeyes can walk out of that gauntlet 2-3, and win every other game, including their only December Big Ten game against Rutgers, then Chris Holtmann will have his team sitting at 9-3 heading into January with a couple of quality wins.

San Diego State, the heavy favorite in the Mountain West, is playing well due to stellar play from transfers Jaedon LeDee and Darrion Trammell. SDSU is consistently one of the best mid-major programs in the nation, and they will have a chance to justify their ranking and praise in Maui. 

Cincinnati potentially will get to play one of its future conference foes in Texas Tech as the Bearcats are moving to the Big 12 next year. Until then the Bearcats will continue to perform well in the AAC. They suffered a tough loss against Northern Kentucky, but secured double-digit victories in the previous three matchups.

Arizona has been pounding their competition to start the season, averaging a nation-leading 105.3 points per game. It is doubtful they will be able to keep that up during Maui, but either way they’ve been one of the most impressive offensive teams in the country thus far. Kerr Krissa is averaging 8.0 assists per game, which is top 10 in the country, and Azuolas Tubelis is one of the leading scorers in the nation at 20.0 points a game. After a 0-2 weekend for Pac-12 rival UCLA, Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats have a chance to take the title as the best team in the Pac-12. 

A quick nugget about the field this year: It will be the second time ever without Chaminade in the bracket. However, Chaminade still has a connection to the tournament this season. The Silverswords played Ohio State and Louisville in exhibition play before the season, and played Cincinnati in the first game of the regular season for both teams. So although there will not be a Silverswords team competing, the connection is still there. 

2022 Maui Jim Maui Invitational Schedule

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