Maui Invitational Tournament
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The Maui Invitational is an annual early-season
college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
tournament that takes place
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week, normally in Lahaina, Hawaii, at the Lahaina Civic Center on the island of
Maui Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of ...
. It is hosted by Chaminade University of Honolulu, an NCAA Division II school. Seven or eight
NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...
men's basketball teams are invited to Maui to compete in the field, with Chaminade competing every other year. The Maui Invitational has been played since 1984 and is carried by
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. As of 2024, the title sponsor of the tournament is Novavax. Previous sponsors include Maui Jim,
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,
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, and Allstate.


History

The tournament had its roots in a
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that is considered one of the greatest upsets in college history. On December 23, 1982 the top-ranked and undefeated
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
made a scheduled trip to Honolulu for a game. Originally seeking to play the
University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, Virginia agreed to play Chaminade, which at the time belonged to the NAIA, on the trip instead. In a game that was not televised and only covered by one sportswriter from outside the local media ( Michael Wilbon of ''
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'', who was in Honolulu to cover the
University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
's performance in the inaugural Aloha Bowl), Chaminade defeated the Ralph Sampson-led Virginia squad 77–72 in front of 3,300 spectators at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center. Shortly after the upset, Virginia head coach Terry Holland congratulated Chaminade's athletic director, Mike Vasconcellos, and suggested to him that he consider beginning a Hawaii tournament. Two years later, the Maui Classic was inaugurated with Chaminade reaching the final and losing to Providence. Today the tournament provides schools an opportunity to compete on a neutral court with some of the top basketball programs in the country.
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college basketball editor Jim O'Connell called the Maui Invitational "the best in-season tournament in the country – the standard by which all others are compared." Some 108 schools representing 26 conferences and 40 states have competed in the Invitational. Five times the winner has gone on to win the
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the Division I level ...
later that season:
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in 1988,
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three times—in
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,
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, and
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, and UConn in 2010. Of the eight teams which play in the tournament, generally there is one from each of the six major conferences (the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East (before its 2013 split), ACC, and the SEC), one from another conference such as the
American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...
, Conference USA, the Mountain West Conference or the Atlantic 10, and Chaminade. Beginning with the 2011 tournament, the field includes four additional mainland teams that play the Maui-bound teams at home. The four mainland teams will then play each other in regional games. The winner from each game will square off in the championship contest, preceded by the consolation game between the losers. Beginning in 2018 and continuing with every even-numbered year, Chaminade will play games on the mainland, and eight Division I schools will compete in the championship bracket on Maui. In odd-numbered years, Chaminade will compete in the championship bracket. Due to
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issues, the 2020 and 2021 tournaments were both moved to the US mainland. The 2020 event was held at Harrah's Cherokee Center in
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, while the 2021 event was held at Michelob Ultra Arena on the Las Vegas Strip. Due to the city nearly being destroyed by a fire, it was announced on September 15, 2023 that the tournament games would be relocated to the island of O'ahu and be played at the Stan Sheriff Center on the campus of the University of Hawai‘i from Nov. 20 to 22. The tournament returned to Maui in 2024.


Effect on local economy

Each year more than 4,000 out-of-state visitors—boosters, players, officials, team and game personnel, media representatives, sponsors, production crews and basketball fans—attend. The 2007 Maui Invitational Tournament ranked among Hawaii's top revenue-generating events, bolstering the local economy by more than $8 million according to financial data released by the Maui Visitors Bureau. The tournament has brought more than $110 million to Maui's economy since the tournament's debut in 1984 (through 2005).


Yearly champions, runners-up, MVPs, & Locations

* Indicates game won in overtime


Multiple appearances and championships

Source:


Future tournament fields


2025

* Arizona State * Boise State * Chaminade * NC State * Seton Hall *
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
*
USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...
*
Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...


2026

*
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
* BYU *
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
* Notre Dame * Ole Miss * Providence * VCU * TBA


References


External links

* {{Thanksgiving College men's basketball competitions in the United States College basketball competitions Lahaina, Hawaii Recurring sporting events established in 1984 1984 establishments in Hawaii