LAHAINA– The 36th edition of the one of the nation’s premier early season NCAA basketball tournaments, the Maui Jim Maui Invitational Tournament will take place Nov. 25-27, at the Lahaina Civic Center on the island of Maui. Of special interest is the free youth clinic on Saturday November 23. The Chaminade University men’s team will do the instructing. The activities will start at 2:00 PM. with check in at 1:30 PM. The first 100 participants will receive a Nike Basketball t-shirt.
First round matchups will feature Georgia squaring off against Dayton, and Virginia Tech taking on Michigan State in the top half of the bracket. In the bottom half of the bracket, Kansas will face Chaminade and BYU will go head-to-head against UCLA.
One of the most unexpected human elements of the highly ranked Michigan State season is the unexpected tragedy that happened to befall their top guard, Cassias Winston. Cassius’ brother, Zachary Winston, was a sophomore guard at Division III Albion College. Zachary died Nov. 9, after he was struck by a westbound Amtrak train. The incident turned the Winston family’s lives upside down. Cassius Winston didn’t slow down from the pain.
“I told myself that if I could play at my lowest, at the most difficult time to play that the next time it hits me, the next time it’s hard to get out there, it won’t be as hard as that first time,” Winston said. Cassius said he appreciated the constant support Coach Tom Izzo gave he and his family.
Michigan State is making its fifth all-time appearance in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, boasting an 8-4 record and a Maui Invitational title in 1991.
All 12 games of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational will be televised on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU, and streamed on ESPN3. The tourney is produced by Kemper-Lesnik out of Chicago.
Clinic preregistration: www.mauiinvitational.com/clinics