Logo of the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational |
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| Sport | College Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1984 |
| Title sponsor | EA SPORTS |
| Host | Chaminade University |
| No. of teams | 12 |
| Venue(s) | Campus Sites (Opening & Regional Games) Lahaina Civic Center Maui, Hawaii (Championship Round) |
| Most recent champion(s) | Duke Blue Devils |
| Most titles | Duke Blue Devils (5) |
| TV partner(s) | ESPN |
| Official website | mauiinvitational.com |
The Maui Invitational Tournament is an annual early-season college basketball tournament that takes place Thanksgiving Week in Lahaina, Hawaii at the Lahaina Civic Center on the island of Maui. It is hosted by Chaminade University of Honolulu, which participates yearly along with a field of seven NCAA Division I men's basketball teams. EA Sports has served as the title sponsor since 2001. The tournament, broadcast by ESPN, began in 1984. It was inspired by a 1982 upset by Chaminade over Virginia, considered by some to be the greatest upset in college basketball history.
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The tournament began because of what is considered the greatest upset in the history of college basketball. On December 23, 1982, Chaminade, then an NAIA school and now an NCAA Division II member, defeated the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers, led by Ralph Sampson, in Hawaii.[1] 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 finals 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. Associated Press college basketball editor Jim O'Connell calls the Maui Invitational, "the best in-season tournament in the country – the standard by which all others are compared." Some 82 schools representing 21 conferences and 37 states have competed in the Maui Invitational. Four times the winner of the Maui Invitational Tournament has gone on to win the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship later that season: Michigan in 1988–89, North Carolina twice—in 2004–05 and 2008–09, and Connecticut in 2010–11.
Of the eight teams which play in the Maui Invitational, generally there is one from each of the six major conferences (the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, ACC, and the SEC), one from another conference such as Conference USA, the Missouri Valley Conference or the Atlantic 10, and Chaminade. Beginning with the 2011 tournament, the field will include four additional mainland teams that will 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.[2]
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 in general—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 nearly $130 million to Maui's economy since the tournament's debut in 1984.
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