Gonzaga heads to Hawaii for a loaded Maui Invitational

  As I write this, a thick blanket of fog looms outside my window. The forecasts show upcoming lows in the 20s and 30s. It is cold and it is gloomy in Spokane, but the Zags are lucky. They’re about to get away to Hawaii.

They’re not just lucky because they’re heading to a tropical paradise, but because they’re heading to an event in which they've been quite successful over the years.

Next week, the Zags take part in the Maui Invitational — normally held in Lahaina, though this year’s edition will take place in Honolulu due to the devastating wildfires that ravaged the area in August.

Long considered one of college basketball’s premier early-season tournaments (for my money the only contender to that throne), this year’s edition is as stacked as ever.

Joining 11th-ranked Gonzaga in the field are No. 1 Kansas, No. 2 Purdue, No. 4 Marquette, No. 7 Tennessee, a UCLA team that is just outside of the AP Top 25, a Syracuse program with an incredibly proud hoops history, and Chaminade, the Division II host school responsible for starting the tournament back in the early 1980s.

Combined, those eight teams have had just one loss so far this season... with the lone loser being Chaminade.

  Winning the tournament, as Gonzaga did in the 2009 and 2018, would mean running through a gauntlet and coming out unscathed. It would be the most impressive Maui performance Gonzaga has put together to date, and the Zags have had some big moments on the islands.

In 2018, the third-ranked Zags beat Illinois and Arizona en route to a date with top-ranked Duke (the loaded squad highlighted by Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish). Led by an MVP performance from Rui Hachimura, the Zags earned their first-ever win over a No. 1 ranked team.

The 2009 tournament saw Steven Gray and Matt Bouldin share MVP honors as unranked Gonzaga took down Colorado, Wisconsin, and Cincinnati in a two-point overtime thriller to claim the trophy.

While they ultimately fell short, by the slightest of margins, 2005 was as splashy as any of the Zags' trips to the tournament.

Adam Morrison announced his presence to the sports world with a 43-point eruption in the semifinal against Michigan State, ranked 12th at the time, in a game that Gonzaga won 109-106 after three overtime periods. It remains one of the greatest games in program history. Connecticut would upend the Zags in the title game, but it took a shot with 1.1 seconds remaining to give the Huskies a two-point victory.

  For this year’s trip to be as memorable as years past, the Zags will need to get a big result early against a very, very big man.

On Monday, all 7-foot-4 of Zach Edey, the reigning National Player of the Year, will stand in Gonzaga’s way. The Boilermakers made easy work of the Zags last November at the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland (a 88-64 drubbing) before going on to earn a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Edey is averaging a strong 21 points and 10 rebounds this season, while his sophomore point guard Braden Smith is a triple-double threat at 12 points, six rebounds and eight assists per contest.

While Edey may be a mountain of a man, Purdue’s rotation lacks size around him. So there is at least a recipe for an upset here considering the skill set of Gonzaga’s four rotation big men. If Edey is forced to switch out onto the perimeter, his defensive strength will be negated against the ball handling and mobility of the Zags’ bigs. The rim will be left defended by smaller guards who can only hope to get in the way. If Edey stays home and protects the paint, opting to let the smaller guards man up against a big on the perimeter, all four can fire away from deep (all four bigs hit at least one three in the last game against an admittedly overmatched Eastern Oregon squad).

After Purdue, the Zags will face either Syracuse or No. 7 Tennessee. If they can pull off the win on Monday, Tuesday’s opponent will likely be the ranked Volunteers. A loss likely sends them to face Syracuse.

That potential matchup against the Orange, assuming it is on the consolation side of the bracket, would be about as close to a “must-win” game as a team can have this early in the season. A loss there almost puts them in the last-place game, almost certainly against Chaminade.

  As a quick aside: I love that Chaminade is in this event. The Silverswords used to be in it every year, but since 2018 Chaminade takes part only every other season. It’s better when they’re in it because they’re the ultimate underdog. The Maui Invitational exists only because Chaminade pulled off the greatest upset in college basketball history.

In 1982, the Silverswords, an NAIA team at the time, hosted No. 1 Virginia as the Cavaliers returned from a tournament in Tokyo. The nation’s top-ranked team, with two-time defending National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson, should have cruised to an easy victory.
Chaminade shockingly won 77-72, making that game pretty undeniably the greatest upset in college basketball history. Two years later, the Maui Invitational was born.

Considering the history, you have to love it when Chaminade is in this event. You also have to hate it when your team has to play Chaminade in this event.

As a Division I team, facing DII Chaminade is essentially meaningless — unless the Silverswords win, at which point it becomes embarrassing. If your team wins, it counts as such, sure, but not much more. The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee completely ignores the result when they’re comparing teams and putting together the bracket in March. It’s about the only time that a close win can actually hurt a team.

This was the case in 2013, when Gonzaga got upset by Dayton in the first round and had to face Chaminade in the consolation bracket. While the Zags won, it did nothing at all to help their standing in the metrics.

Fortunately this year, the Chaminade game — if it happens — can only happen on the final day of the tournament. If the Zags find themselves in that position, they’ll have had to lose back-to-back games to get there. They’ll deserve it.

That said, I don’t want to end this on a negative note. This is a tournament taking place on Thanksgiving week, after all. The fact that Zag fans get to watch their team take part in such a historic event with such a loaded field of teams is something to be thankful for... even for those of us stuck in gloomy Spokane, sitting through shots of palm trees and sandy beaches after every commercial break.

NEXT UP

Men

MAUI INVITATIONAL

Gonzaga vs. Purdue • Mon, Nov. 20 at 2 pm • ESPN2

Gonzaga vs. Tennessee or Syracuse • Tue, Nov. 21 at TBD • ESPN or ESPN2

Gonzaga vs. TBD • Wed, Nov. 22 at TBD • ESPN Networks

Women

Gonzaga vs. Wyoming • Sat, Nov. 18 at 2 pm • ESPN+