Andy Katz at ESPN is reporting that the Maui brackets will be...
Kansas v. Chaminade
UCLA v. UNLV
St. John's v. Vanderbilt
Indiana v. Wake Forest
A Kansas-Indiana championship game seems the likely outcome of this tournament. It's not the deepest Maui field ever, but it should at least produce a nice challenge for KU, especially if they do play Indiana in the championship game.
@Texas-Hawk-10 I really want to play unlv.
Salivating to beat IU, again!!! As many of you know, my wife graduated from Indiana so this could lend itself to a trip to the 808 State!!!
St. John's should be a threat, because they have apparently given into the forces of darkness and so likely Chris will have a short stack of one kind, or another.
UNLV should have some ringers.
UCLA will likely have an adidas short stack.
Chaminade will have a recording of Iz singing "Over the Rainbow."
Vandy and Indy?
Both will be better than we expect.
In the end, all that matters is a steak at The Shore Bird, and making contact with wahines without gun-toting husbands with family in Sicily.
@Texas-Hawk-10 Wake Forest is going to be tough too. They are returning 4 of their top 5 scorers. They also played the following teams extremely tough last year: Louisville, Duke, Virginia, Syracuse, and NC State. They were inconsistent and struggled much of the year. But, they showed a lot of potential. They are also a very senior laden team this season. Look for them to be a much improved team from last year.
Not surprised KU is expected to draw Chaminade. KU figures to be the unofficial 1 seed of the tournament, so that makes sense. This tournament isn't officially seeded, but they still try to set it up so that the top 2 teams make the final.
The only change that I think may occur is the first round matchups on the other side of the bracket. Indiana and St. John's may flip in the 2/3 spots, or Vandy and Wake may flip in the 6/7 spots to switch those games, but I expect the bracket overall to break like Katz has reported.
UCLA is definitely the harder semi's game if both meet. St John's will be a mess, Wake Forest still isn't very good. Vanderbilt is expected to be a pretty good team but they have failed to live up to expectations more often than not. UCLA is a tourney team with more depth this year (4 star guards & SF type redshirt) so we definitely drew the tougher side. UNLV could be anything with its revamped roster that added Zimmerman & high-flyer Jones, the leading scorer from Mercer, & 2 quality transfers that sat-out. Either team will be a good early test..
I'd like to see us face Indiana for the experience it will give our guards. They will bring some big, talented guards.
Don't forget that Chaminade, which at the time was not even a Division I team but a NAIA team, beat #1 Virgina with Ralph Sampson in what is considered the biggest upset in college basketball ever. As a result of this game the Maui Tournament was born a couple of year later and Chaminade made it to the finals. Don't ever overlook Chaminade.
Good, last time we faced Crean it was 2003 and we were beating him 70-30 in a final four game.
@Texas-Hawk-10 Will playing Chaminade decrease our RPI and stuff this season?
@Texas-Hawk-10 I really think UNLV is going to be tough. They are like giants on that front line.
@Lulufulu I don't think it has any impact, but even if it does, KU could end up playing up to 15 ranked games before the NCAA tournament. Michigan St., Kentucky, Iowa St., and Oklahoma are projected preseason top 15 teams, SDSU, Baylor and Texas are all possible preseason top 25 teams and could all be ranked by the time KU plays them. In Maui, Indiana is a consensus top 25 team and UCLA is on quite a few preseason top 25 lists and I've seen St. John's on a couple as well. It's possible KU could play 15 games against ranked opponents prior to the NCAA tournament and will probably play north of 10 for sure this year so even if Chaminade counts against the RPI, KU's schedule is strong enough that it shouldn't be an issue.
@KUSTEVE UNLV still has to beat UCLA first and I don't think they'll do that. UNLV has underachieved quite a bit the past couple of years and that's probably not going to change much even with the class they brought in because Zimmerman doesn't have much interest in using his size to his advantage and would rather play away from the basket. Should they meet, Diallo is going to own Zimmerman just like he owned everyone else at the all star games in the spring. This Maui field really isn't very top heavy, but does have a lot of decent teams in it. There really isn't a reason why KU shouldn't win this tournament and possibly by double digits all 3 games. KU really is that much better than everyone else in the field on paper and they finally showed a killer instinct in Korea to shut down lesser teams late.
So UCLA is where the BIG softie Zimmerman landed? Not far from his mommie, I see. Between Landon, Perry, Hunter, Jamari...lets throw some real men at our opponents in the paint.
And if I was to bet on MickeyD Zimmerman vs. MickeyD's Diallo (or Bragg), I will pick the non-lazy ones (KU's two). Perry Ellis (another McDAA) is another good bet in such a matchup.
Count your Jayhawk blessings about Tarczewski, and now count them about Zimmerman...(tsk,tsk...)
@jaybate-1.0 I see what you mean about UCLA's "adidas stack" being 'shorted' : (Zimmerman)
Watched him in the McDAA game, it was painful. He's not in the same universe as Okafor was as an incoming frosh.
@Crimsonorblue22 Oh, good golly, yes, I meant UNLV, not UCLA...Thnx for the assist!
It isn't deep but the matchups are intriguing.
UCLA is a guard heavy team, especially when they added 2 4* guards and get back their other prized recruit from last year in Bolden eligible. Parker will be a tough matchup if he's locked in like he was in the NCAA tourney. Not worried about Welsch but he was a backup, now will be a starter I assume.
I also think they will beat UNLV because they are a more experienced and talented team.
UNLV has a lot of new faces, they could start 5 new guys if they wanted including "I'm only here for my one year Zimmerman".
If we meet Indiana in the finals it would be a very tough game. Between Yogi, Johnson, a healthy Blackmon & Williams they matchup very well with us. If they play the same style this year it will be a fast paced game, they will play a junk zone defense and will shoot everything from the perimeter. They have exactly 1 talented big man in Freshman Bryant so our advantage definitely is in the post. But the defense they will play may negate that advantage especially if we are not prepared for it.
I still think KU is a very likely winner of this tournament but we won't be handed it, especially if the better teams are ready this early in the season.