No. 7 Tennessee focused on Syracuse to start play in loaded Maui Invitational
Rick Barnes was walking around the University of Hawaii campus on Friday when his mind went back to back to the 1986-87 college basketball season. He was an assistant coach at Ohio State at the time and in Honolulu in late December for the Rainbow Classic.
The Buckeyes lost to Arkansas on the first day of the tournament, then beat No. 12 Kansas and Florida the next two days. That’s the last time Barnes remembered a holiday tournament as loaded as this year’s Maui Invitational.
“I remember it being talked about that there was like four of the six teams who were all ranked,” Barnes said on Friday. “You know, I had forgot all about that until I walked back on campus and Deja vu kind of came back.”
During his head-coaching career, though, Barnes said nothing quite compares to this Hawaii trip.
The eight-team field consists of three teams ranked inside the top four of the Associated Press Top 25 and five of the top 11.
No. 7 Tennessee (3-0) opens the tournament against Syracuse (3-0) on Monday (2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN2) at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
The Vols will face either No. 2 Purdue or No. 11 Gonzaga on Tuesday. On the other side of the bracket, it’s No. 1 Kansas against host Chaminade and No. 4 Marquette facing UCLA.
“I don’t know if you can get one better than where the teams are playing right now,” Barnes said. “And all of them are geared up to have a pretty good year.”
Syracuse ranked No. 120 overall in KenPom.com ratings
For now, the Orange has all of Tennessee’s attention.
Syracuse, under first-year head coach Adrian Autry, opened the season with wins over New Hampshire (83-72) and Canisius (89-77) before having to come back from down 24 points at home on Tuesday to beat Colgate, 79-75.
Sophomore guard Judah Mintz leads Syracuse at 23.0 points per game. The Orange is No. 120 overall in the KenPom ratings, ranked No. 86 in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 170 in defensive efficiency.
“We know they have a really good team,” fifty-year senior guard Santiago Vescovi said. They have good guard (Mints) and a really big man. I believe he’s like 7-4 (Naheem McLeod). And we know it’s a team that is trying to figure out stuff, too. I think they have a new coach now. They’re trying to put all the pieces together so we know it’s gonna be a battle and, yeah, we’re ready to play them.”
The Vols are looking to win three games in three days and take home a Feast Week tournament championship for the second year in a row. Last November Tennessee won the Battle 4 Atlantis after taking down Butler, USC and Kansas in consecutive days.
Vescovi said having success in these tournaments comes down to two things: Avoiding distractions and focusing on recovery.
“Hawaii, it’s a beautiful place, like a paradise over here,” he said. “And I think that’s one of the main things. Like Bahamas was the same thing. I think the team did a great job of focusing on what it took. We’re here to play basketball and do our jobs, so I’m completely confident the team is gonna do great in that aspect again.
“And the second thing is recovery and just the loads of playing three games straight, managing that, which we also did great in the last tournament in the Bahamas. So I think those are the two, uh, main things. And I know this can take care of both of them.”
Maui Invitational Bracket
After Tennessee faces Syracuse at 2:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Purdue and Gonzaga will start at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The bottom half of the bracket will be played late Monday, with Kansas-Chaminade starting at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU and UCLA facing Marquette.
The Tennessee-Syracuse and Purdue Gonzaga winners will play Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The losers matchup at 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday on ESPN2.
The Kansas-Chaminade and UCLA-Marquette winners play at 10:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday on ESPN, after the losers matchup at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN 2.
The championship game will be played Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN. The third-place game is Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and the fifth-place game will be played at 12 a.m. ET on ESPN2. The seventh-place game will be played Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.
