LAHAINA >> It was touted as the strongest field ever. And thanks to No. 1 Duke arriving as a juggernaut among three top-10 teams, the 2018 Maui Jim Maui Invitational tournament might be just that.
But it feels different, too, with Division II host Chaminade out for the first time since it helped spawn the event two years after the Silverswords’ upset of top-ranked Virginia in 1982.
The loaded Blue Devils, with the likes of freshman phenoms Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish, enter the three-games-in-three-days crucible at the Lahaina Civic Center as the prohibitive favorite, even with No. 3 Gonzaga and No. 9 Auburn in the mix.
The Blue Devils got the season started by spanking then-No. 2 Kentucky 118-84 in the Champions Classic, putting the rest of the college basketball world on notice, and followed that with routs of Army and Eastern Michigan.
Duke, 15-0 all-time on Maui with five previous Wayne Duke Trophy inscriptions to its name (1992, 1997, 2001, 2007, 2011), opens against San Diego State at noon today.
“Our guys have no clue about 15-0. They’re 0-0,” Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said Sunday. “Just like when people bring up the past from our program, it has no bearing on this group. Anybody who has kids knows that what their older brother did does not matter. When it’s their game or their recital or their play, it’s ‘mine.’ They’re very possessive, and they should be.”
Arizona, Xavier, Iowa State and Illinois round out the field. And to reiterate: There’s no Chaminade.
Gonzaga is without big man Killian Tillie, but the West Coast Conference team still has star forward Rui Hachimura and will look to pick up Chaminade’s mantle of giant-killer in a theoretical final with Duke if the Devils get past SDSU and, potentially, Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers. Zags coach Mark Few called the field “as good as it gets. Our fifth one, and probably the best we’ve ever been a part of.”
Few — a Maui regular with family during offseasons — was wistful on the absence of the tourney’s traditional titan slayer.
“Yeah (it’s weird), because they’re usually an inspiration watching them fly around in that first game they play,” Few said. “What you really gotta watch out for is that second or third game because they’re really dangerous in that. But yeah, it does seem different without them.”
Tourney organizer KemperLesnik sought to strengthen the field on an alternating-year basis in their TV partnership with ESPN. This year, SDSU of the Mountain West took the slot traditionally reserved for the host team, which will be back in 2019.
In exchange, Chaminade played preseason exhibitions at Arizona and SDSU, plus money guarantees. Curiously, the small Catholic school was still represented on the pre-tournament coaches’ podium on Sunday; Eric Bovaird gamely sat up there with the other eight coaches.
The eighth-year coach has consistently taken the high road about the situation since the change was announced in October 2016, and he remained respectful Saturday, even as his 3-0 team — it led in the second half of both road exhibition losses — won’t get a chance to shock somebody. The ’Swords did it to California in the seventh-place game last year and Texas in 2012, their most recent of eight all-time stunners here.
Bovaird had to settle for winning the “shooter’s challenge” free-throw contest against the other coaches who were teamed with Valley Isle youths.
“This is the year we could compete with some of the teams, without a doubt,” he acknowledged while saying he cherished the chance to play at top-notch venues. He will stay and watch the tourney with “a notepad and pencil” to pick up tips.
“I’m anxious to see, this is an incredible field, so it’ll be a lot of fun to watch,” Bovaird said.
Also notable: Arizona comes in unranked, a rarity for the elite Pac-12 team that’s made regular trips to Maui, as well as Oahu for the Diamond Head Classic.
If the field wasn’t tough enough, embattled Wildcats coach Sean Miller arrives with his own set of problems. He and former UA assistant coaches have been mentioned prominently in the college basketball recruiting corruption case that started with an FBI investigation of apparel giant Adidas last year.
In reply to a question of whether he’s following the ongoing case or taking refuge in games, Miller was short.
“I just coach Arizona,” he said.
