Maui Jim Maui Invitational Announces Powerhouse Field for 2019

PC: Maui Jim Maui Invitational

The 36th annual Maui Jim Maui Invitational announced its 2019 field on March 28, 2018, with programs that boast a combined 198 NCAA Tournament appearances, 44 Final Four berths and 16 national championships.

BYU, Dayton, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan State, UCLA and Virginia Tech will join host Chaminade in 2019, which will be contested November 25-27 at the Lahaina Civic Center.

“The Maui Jim Maui Invitational has earned a reputation for showcasing powerhouse teams year over year, and we are thrilled to continue that tradition in 2019,” said Tournament Chairman Dave Odom. “The Lahaina Civic Center will host some of college basketball’s best programs, coaches and players when these eight teams converge in Maui.”

Prior to the 2018 season, UCLA held the record for consecutive Division I regular season conference titles with 13, only to have that record broken by fellow Maui contender, Kansas, this past season.

Four programs – Kansas, Michigan State, UCLA and Virginia Tech – earned NCAA Tournament berths this season. The Jayhawks will compete in their 15th Final Four in program history, fifth-most in tournament history, this weekend.

The Kansas Jayhawks battled back from a first-half deficit to defeat Vanderbilt and win the 2015 Maui Jim Maui Invitational, 70-63. It was the Jayhawks second MIT title. Photo by Joel B. Tamayo.

The Lahaina Civic Center will once again feature the game’s top coaches in 2019. Kansas’ Bill Self and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, both Hall of Fame inductees, along with Georgia’s Tom Crean, UCLA’s Steve Alford, Virginia Tech’s Buzz Williams and BYU’s Dave Rose will make return trips to the island. Dayton’s Anthony Grant was an assistant coach with Florida in 1999, and will make his first head coaching appearance in the Tournament. Self, Izzo, Crean, Alford, Rose, Grant and Chaminade’s Eric Bovaird have played or coached in the national semifinals.

Three coaches from the 2019 field have taken multiple teams to the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, including Alford (Iowa, UCLA), Crean (Marquette, Indiana), and Self (Illinois, Kansas). Williams will join that list in 2019, having coached Marquette in 2012, while Crean is poised to become just the second coach in history to bring three programs to the Maui Jim Maui Invitational (Rick Barnes: Providence, Texas and Tennessee).

Since the inception of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational in 1984, 124 schools representing 26 conferences and 40 states have competed in the event. Teams that have participated in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational throughout the event’s history own 68 of the 79 NCAA championships. Seven schools have gone on to win the national championship after competing in Maui earlier in the season.

For details on the 2019 All-Tournament travel packages, good for access to all 12 games of the 2019 Tournament, click here. mauiinvitational.com/2019travel School Booster travel packages for the 2019 Maui Jim Maui Invitational will be available at a later date.

About the 2019 Championship Round Teams

Kansas

• Hall of Fame coach Bill Self is in his 15th season with Kansas, boasting an overall win percentage of .823
• Kansas currently has the most regular season conference championships of any team (61), and holds the active streak for most consecutive NCAA tournament appearances (29)
• The Jayhawks hold the record for number of current consecutive winning seasons (34)
• This will be the seventh Tournament appearance for Kansas, having won titles in 1996 and 2015

Michigan State

• The longest tenured coach in the Big Ten, Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo completed his 23rd season as head coach of the Spartans
• Michigan State has appeared in each of the last 21 NCAA tournaments
• The program has enjoyed a winning season every year since 1996
• The Spartans have one Tournament championship under their belt (1991), and 2019 will be their fourth appearance

In this Nov. 22, 2006 photo, UCLA coach Ben Howland, second from left, and his team is presented with the championship trophy by Wayne Duke, tournament chairmen emeritus, after UCLA defeated Georgia Tech 88-73 in the championship game at the Maui Invitational college basketball tournament in Lahaina. AP File Photo/Michael Conroy.

UCLA

• Head Coach Steve Alford completed his fifth season with the Bruins
• UCLA holds the record for most NCAA titles (11) and most consecutive NCAA titles (7)
• The Bruins also hold the record for consecutive winning seasons (54) and total undefeated seasons (4)
• UCLA clinched a Tournament championship in 2006, and will be making its sixth Maui Jim Maui Invitational appearance in 2019

Chaminade

• Head Coach Eric Bovaird completed his seventh year of coaching the Silverswords
• In 2017-18, Bovaird became the second-winningest coach in program history, boasting 105 wins with the Silverswords
• All-time, Chaminade has appeared in five NCAA Division II Tournaments
• Chaminade owns eight all-time victories at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, knocking off the likes of Texas, Oklahoma, Stanford and Villanova

BYU

• Dave Rose recently completed his 13th season, and holds a .729 winning percentage
• 2019 marks BYU’s fourth Maui Jim Maui Invitational appearance, having previously appeared in 1992, 2004 and 2014
• Under Dave Rose, BYU has never had a season with fewer than 20 wins
• BYU owns 30 conference championship titles

Dayton

• Anthony Grant completed his first season as Flyers head coach, his alma mater
• Dayton has appeared in four of the last five NCAA tournaments (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), and 18 overall
• Dayton will be seeking its second Tournament championship title, with the first coming in 2003
• The Flyers will make their fourth Maui Jim Maui Invitational appearance (2000, 2003, 2013)

Georgia

• Tom Crean was named Georgia’s new head coach on March 16
• The Bulldogs have a total of 10 official NCAA tournament appearances
• Georgia has three conference regular-seasons titles and three conference tournament titles
• This will be Georgia’s first appearance in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational

Virginia Tech

• Buzz Williams completed his fourth season as Hokies head coach
• He has coached his programs to eight 20-win seasons in his 11 years as a head coach
• The Hokies have 10 NCAA tournament appearances, including two consecutive berths in 2017 and 2018
• This will be Virginia Tech’s second Tournament appearance, with the last coming in 1985

About the Maui Jim Maui Invitational

In December 1982, then No. 1 ranked Virginia, led by National College Player of the Year Ralph Sampson, played little-known NAIA Chaminade University in Honolulu while on the way back from a trip to Tokyo. The Silverswords stunned Virginia 77-72 in one of the greatest upsets in college basketball history.

Two years later, in 1984, Chaminade University hosted the first Maui Jim Maui Invitational and it has proven to be the premier early-season college basketball tournament for 34 years running. Each year, the Maui Jim Maui Invitational attracts the top programs, best-known coaches and most outstanding players to compete in an exciting atmosphere at the Lahaina Civic Center near the beautiful beaches of Maui.