Wildcats to open against Missouri in Maui Invitational

[HiCat]

18 minutes ago • By Bruce Pascoe

2014 Maui Invitational bracket

The Arizona Wildcats will begin Maui Invitational championship round play against Missouri on Nov. 24 at 3 p.m. Arizona time.

The winner of that game will face the winner of the Purdue-Kansas State game at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 25, while the losers of those games will match up in the consolation bracket.

The brackets released today kept San Diego State on the opposite side, meaning the Wildcats could only face the Aztecs in the championship game or in a consolation matchup on the final day of the tournament. The other teams on the bracket opposite UA are BYU, Pittsburgh and Chaminade.

The championship game will be played on Nov. 26 at 8 p.m.

Arizona will also host Cal State Northridge in an "opening game" on Nov. 16 at McKale Center and UA will move on to Maui regardless of that result. The opening games give teams a chance to play four games over the course of the event for the "price" of three against the NCAA scheduling maximum.


http://tucson.com/sports/blogs/pascoe/w ... f887a.html

[Olsondogg]

So who wins Purdue/KSU?

I

[azcat49]

I think KSU struggles with Purdue's toughness(Webber and his teams are gutless). Surprised Chaminade didn't take a whack at us. Don't think we struggle at all in our bracket

[ElGatoBlanco]

Kansas State wins easily over Purdue.

[azcat49]

Either way I am sure it will be ugly. Always is when youy play Purdue and Painter's team

[PieceOfMeat]

Kinda feels like SDSU should just be in the pac12 at this point.

[cats101]

Kansas State wins easily over Purdue.

Agree

[ASUHATER!]

i think ksu will beat purdue as well.

missouri isn't going to be that great. most people have them in the 6-10 range in the sec, which isn't a good basketball conference as they are only seen to have maybe 4ish tournament teams this year. missouri's leading returning scorer scored like 5 ppg last year. they have a lot of talent (they have the most former rivals top 100 players of any team in the sec not named kentucky or florida), but they are a newly put together team with a new coach.

[azgreg]

[3goggles]

You mean our Starting 5? Thats pretty good. How many of the Kentucky players are in the 100?

[cats101]

I really hope we get SDSU, their fans truly believe they're elite.

[EVCat]

I really hope we get SDSU, their fans truly believe they're elite.

I don't know that regularly losing to us is an indicator that a team is not elite. They are west coast elite right now, probably passing UCLA and Gonzaga in actual on court play lately. Now, if their fans still, after numerous examples to the contrary, believe they are better than us? That is just silly.

IMO, they aren't "elite" by my interpretation of the word, but I have been very impressed with their toughness and effort against us the last few meetings. Fisher definitely has it rolling, and has built that with a lot of outcasts. If he can recruit "new" players off that success, he stands to continue to out-perform UCLA under Steve Alford and be Cali ' s best team

[cats101]

They benefit from mostly transfers.

By elite it means just that, not west coast (which they actually think they're #1 in that area too, which is another joke in its own), or California. They're not passing Arizona or UCLA. They're no where near elite and never will be. They have a nice little program like Gonzaga, minus the YEARS of sustained success. After old fart retires they'll barely be relevant.

[azcat49]

101, thats what alot of people were saying about AZ after its first FF

[EVCat]

Good point...we were supposed to go away quietly, too.

SDSU is a good program. They can be an elite program without history from my point of view...I guess I see elite and historic program in two different lights. They can be elite now, which I define as ready to win titles now and in the near future, without being a historic/power program. And they are definitely the best school in the west not named Arizona right now. UCLA has banners/history, but are far from fielding an elite team right now. SDSU is not elite, but their fans certainly have a reason to crow to everyone within arms reach...

...with the exception of Arizona fans. Because we are a historic and elite program. And because, well...scoreboard.

But I'd rather see SDSU win than UCLA. I think the thing that impresses me about recent SDSU teams is every time you think they have lost their true stars, (minus Thames, who was there roughly the same number of years that Carlos Huerta kicked for Miami, which is about 16), they still find a way to be competitive. I thought they'd take a big step back last year, but there they were...competing and achieving right up to when we got in the way.

That was the nice thing about last year...we got the opportunity to make clear our ungentlemanly intentions in the west. We beat UCLA when it mattered (conference title), then got to kick Gonzaga and SDSU in the nuts before Kamisknado...

[Olsondogg]

SDSU plays defense. Most teams don't, or more like they don't do it well. Defense will mask alot of things going not so well on the other end of the court, meaning that sometimes you can't control how your shot is falling--but you always can control how much effort you have on the defensive end.

That's the one thing I really respect about SDSU...they play defense, and they do it quite well. I fully expect UA to face them in Maui, but I feel that UA will have enough things figured out offensively by that time, to counteract. It will be interesting to see who SDSU has step up on the offensive end, as they always seem to have a player bust out.

BTW, the elite talk is complete crap. It may have been nice in the 80's and 90's, but that talk is largely going to go away. Too many good teams out there to worry about who is "elite" or a "blue blood".

As a fan, do you really care what they say as long as you win?

[84Cat]

I like SDSU and I always root for west coast teams. We got to mess with that east coast bias!

[azcat34]

Let's see how many people would rather have Marcus Foster (Kansas State) over Stanley Johnson when this tournament is over.

[EVCat]

By far my favorite pre-conference/holiday tournament, though NIT Finals in MSG is pretty cool. I used to take the Monday of Maui week off like I do the first two days of the NCAA's. I am not thrilled about all the extra games being called Maui Invitational games when the lesser teams don't have any chance of advancing with an upset, but whatever it takes to play the NCAA scheduling game. I am that basketball geek that would go all the way to Hawaii for the tournament and spend my days in that gym watching every game I could.

Working at home has its advantages, and Maui Monday on the company dime is one of them. I'll have to split attention for some of it, but not our game.

Has anyone here been out to Maui for one of our appearances? How do they handle the seating? Is it a complete empty/refill after every game, or can you get a couple of games from one ticket?