Earlier this season, freshman guard Alec Burks struggles past the Golden Lions' defense. Burks kicked off his collegiate career with 13 points. No first-game fear stopped him from driving to the basket. The team is headed to Hawaii 3-0. (CU Independent file/Ilana Finer)
As far as early-season tournaments go, it doesn’t get much bigger than the 2009 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational.
And as far as games go, it may not get bigger for Colorado than a showdown with a perennial NCAA Tournament team on national TV.
The 3-0 Colorado Buffaloes men’s basketball team will head to Hawaii where they will face the Gonzaga Bulldogs of the West Coast Conference in the opening game of the 2009 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational at 1 p.m. MST Monday on ESPN2.
This is the 26th year of the tournament, which was first held in 1984 in honor of perhaps the greatest upset in college basketball history.
Chaminade University, a tiny Hawaiian school, knocked off three-time National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson and the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers 77-72 to shock the college basketball world. Two years later, the first Maui Classic was held.
As the hosts, the Chaminade Silverswords have been a regular participant of the tourney as well as a team from each of the six major conferences (Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC, ACC, and Big East). This year, Colorado is the Big 12 Conference’s representative, but would probably like to replace Chaminade in the role of Cinderella.
The Buffs will have their hands full right off the bat as they face a Gonzaga team that took second-ranked Michigan State to the wire before succumbing 75-71 in East Lansing, Mich. on Tuesday. The Zags led for most of the game, but fell victim to having their big men in foul trouble late in the contest.
It’s those same big men, 7-foot Robert Sacre and 7-foot-5 Will Foster, who will give Colorado trouble on the glass.
“They’re big, so we are going to have to rebound the ball,” said junior guard Cory Higgins after the team’s win over Texas Southern on Wednesday night. “That’s what it’s going to come down to. I think if we play our game, we’ll be fine. We just have to rebound the ball.”
Colorado wasn’t originally scheduled to participate in Maui, but after Kansas bowed out, head coach Jeff Bzdelik was the first to volunteer.
“They needed a team from the Big 12, I raised my hand,” Bzdelik said. “To me it’s like, ‘Let’s go do it. Let’s go play.’”
The rest of the tournament field is interesting, to say the least.
Gonzaga and Arizona made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament last year while Maryland and Wisconsin were knocked out in the second round. Vanderbilt and Cincinnati joins Colorado as teams who didn’t make a postseason appearance last year, including the NIT. Chaminade is a Division II school and is therefore in a league of its own.
The Wildcats (Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger), Commodores (Shan Foster) and Bulldogs (Josh Heytvelt and Jeremy Pargo) all lost main contributors from a year ago, and everyone else isn’t expected to make a huge leap in the standings.
This means it’s a pretty even playing field, which means the Buffaloes aren’t just going into it looking to compete, the coach says.
“Everybody there is good,” Bzdelik said. “That’s why you play the game, and we’re good, too.”
For senior guard Dwight Thorne II, the trip to Hawaii isn’t a vacation.
“We are not going there to go 2-1 or 1-2, we are going to try and win,” Thorne said. “It’s a business trip.”
Although the Buffs will look to be all business on the court, it was clear the players were looking forward to enjoying their time off the court as well.
“I’m going to get a ukulele and sit out by the beach and play it a little bit,” Higgins said. “I’m definitely going to enjoy it.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer David Starcer at David.starcer@colorado.edu.
