On December 23, 1982, the #1 Virginia Cavaliers, led by 2-time reigning National Player of the Year Ralph Sampson (he would be a 3-time POY by the end of the season) traveled to Hawaii to play NAIA Chaminade University of Honolulu. The Silverswords were only in their 8th year of existence but came into the game with a 10-1 record. Virginia had originally wanted to play Hawaii but got Chaminade instead. Chaminade (who would go 33-2 that year) defeated the Cavaliers 77-72 in the greatest upset in college basketball history. After the game, Virginia coach Terry Holland congratulated the Chaminade athletic director and suggested that he start a Hawaii tournament. Two years later the Maui Classic was born.
The eight Maui Invitational participants usually consisted of one team each from the Big 6 conferences (ACC, Old Big East, SEC, Big 12, Big 10 and Pac-12) a bonus team from a different conference and host Chaminade. There is a loser bracket so every team is guaranteed to play three games. By beating Chaminade in the first game, Pitt can finish no worse than 4th in the tournament.
The 2014 participants are:
Pitt (ACC)
Arizona (Pac-12)
Missouri (SEC)
Kansas Sate (Big 12)
Purdue (Big 10)
BYU (West Coast)
San Diego State (Mountain West)
Chaminade (Pacific West, DII)
The results from the first round are as follows:
#3 Arizona 72 Missouri 53 - Arizona is far and away the best team in this tournament. They'll win unless TJ McConnell transfers back to Duquesne today. Actually, he could leave and they'd still be the favorite. They'll play Kansas State at 7:30 tonight in the first semi-final.
Kansas State 88 Purdue 79 - Kansas State is a decent enough team, but they'll lose to Arizona. Joe Lunardi had them as an 8th seed in his pre-season bracketology (Arizona is a #1 seed btw).
#15 San Diego State 92 BYU 87 2OT - In the best game of the night, San Diego State outlasted their former Mountain West rivals. The Aztecs will tip-off against Pitt around 10 pm this evening.
Okay, now that the background is covered, we can talk about last night's game.
The big takeaways from this game are that Chaminade rebounds worse than my 3rd grade rec team and that Pitt let another team shoot over 50%. The Camburglar's return will help, but their defense is a concern. Wright should hopefully be back sometime in early December.
Now here are the grades:
Michael Young - Simply put, Young has taken a HUUUUUUUUUUGE leap forward. After only scoring in double figures five times his freshman year, he's averaged 20 over the last three games. He had a career high 27 points and 15 rebounds (his first career double double). He's shooting an absurd 67% (up from 41% last season). That will naturally fall as the competition gets better, but Zanna shot 58% last season and I imagine Young will be around that number this year. He has been working mostly inside this season and it's hard to argue with the results. Jamie should make him do 20 push-ups every time he attempts a 3 in practice. He's not a bad long-range shooter (10-28 last season) but he can be an All-American inside.
Grade: A+
Derrick Randall - There have been about 385 games played in the Maui Invitational the last 30 years and no player ever had more rebounds in a game than Derrick Randall had last night. He put his own spin on a triple double with 11 points, 10 offensive rebounds, and 11 defensive rebounds. He was shining glass all night. Randall is only relevant when the competition is awful. Remember he had 12 and 12 in the season opener against Savannah State in 2013 and then only scored in double figures once more the rest of the year. I predict he will turn back into a pumpkin tonight, but for now he is THE WINDEX MAN!
Joseph Uchebo - He missed a layup, committed a foul and didn't return after only one minute of action. He is the John DeGroat of this year's team in that he would start the game and then disappear seconds later never to be seen again. DeGroat started 26 games in 2005 for reasons still unknown to Pitt fans.
Grade: Incomplete
Pitt is trying their hardest to keep Young from having to play center, but with Randall's lack of improvement, Uchebo's limited mobility, and Tyrone Haughton being nowhere near ready, Dixon may have to eventually go with Young at the 5. This would force Jeter and Artis to play power forward, which is probably a bad thing.
Chris Jones - Jones has alternated good games and bad games so far this season. After being the lone bright spot against Hawaii (19 points, 5 threes) he missed all four of his shots and didn't score in this one. If the pattern continues he'll probably score 15 tonight in a Pitt win.
Grade: D
Jamel Artis - After averaging 13 in the first two games, Artis has somehow gone ice cold in Hawaii. he didn't score against the Rainbow Warriors and had only 4 points tonight. He's shooting 1-10 the last two games.
Grade: D
So let's see, three of Pitt's starters combined for 4 points. I'm no mathematician (wait, yes I am) but that is not good.
James Robinson - Lost in the shuffle of Young and Randall's rebounding effort, Robinson had a quiet 17 points on 5-12 shooting. He did have 4 turnovers, but two of those came in the last 90 seconds after he had already played 37 minutes. When Wright returns both of them should play around 30 minutes a night with Newkirk somewhere around 20-25. Jones will return to the bench.
Grade: A
Ryan Luther - He made his only shot (a 3-pointer) but committed 3 fouls in only 11 minutes. He'll get better with Dixon.
Grade: C
Sheldon Jeter - He played three minutes and didn't do much other than commit three fouls. He was held scoreless for the first time this season.
Grade: D
Josh Newkirk - Newkirk had a very solid game with 10 points and 8 assists. I could see a smaller lineup of Robinson, Newkirk, Wright, Artis and Young being very effective in short bursts.
Grade: A
Cameron Johnson - He scored nine points (all on 3's) and has been a pleasant surprise so far this season.
Grade: B+
Joshua Ko - Playing in his home state, Ko missed his only shot attempt.
Grade: C
Mike Lecak - He did not register any stats.
Grade: I
Alright that's it. San Diego State is next.
Hail to Pitt,
J.O.
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