Men's Basketball to Debut at 2011 Maui Invitational

Submitted by Geaux_Blue on

Will face rough competition against fellow competitors Duke, Kansas, UCLA, Georgetown, Tennessee and Memphis.

HartAttack20

October 14th, 2010 at 1:20 PM ^

I'm glad the team feels the need to play top notch competition throughout the season (See Kansas, Duke), but that is a ridiculous tournament. This can only mean they are as good as all those teams listed, right?

Ziff72

October 14th, 2010 at 1:25 PM ^

That is for next year correct?   Next year we will have a pretty god team and that will be a good measuring stick.  If Smotryz and Hardaway progress this year, next years team will be pretty good and it will be a fun tournament

Raoul

October 14th, 2010 at 1:59 PM ^

You may need to go to Crisler first. The opening games will be played at the seven "Maui-bound" teams. See this AP article, although if someone could make it clearer exactly how this tournament will be set up, I'd appreciate it. I found the following confusing:

Starting with 2011, the tournament will be played in three parts.

The opening games will be played at the seven Maui-bound schools with three of the four mainland teams playing two games and the other playing one.

The four mainland teams will play two doubleheaders at one of those schools on Nov. 19-20.

The championship round will remain the same at the Lahaina Civic Center with all 12 games shown on one of the ESPN networks.

EDIT: This seems somewhat clearer after reading the article again. It seems that four more schools will be part of the tournament but will not go to Maui. They will play games at the "Maui-bound" schools and against each other. So Michigan's first game will be at Crisler against one of those schools, which have not yet been named.

lilpenny1316

October 14th, 2010 at 1:28 PM ^

If we are at worst on the bubble that season, playing two or three of those teams could really boost our chances like the UCLA and Duke did for us a couple years ago.  Memphis would be beatable and who knows about Tennessee with all the scandals they have going on.

jtmc33

October 14th, 2010 at 1:43 PM ^

Interesting match-ups considering UM has recent history with Georgetown and Kansas (including this year) and long-standing history with Duke and UCLA.

Polisci

October 14th, 2010 at 2:26 PM ^

Next year's team looks like it will be able to compete at that level:

Senior: Novak and Douglas

Junior: Morris and Vogrich

RS Soph: Morgan, McLimans

Soph: Hardaway, Smotrycz, Horford, Christian

Fresh: Brundidge, Burke (and Pointer?)

Not a bad team in my opinion.

ldoublee

October 14th, 2010 at 3:06 PM ^

they always invite a couple pushovers to the tourney so the good teams can get wins.  I mean look you have Duke..no.  Well Memphis should be an easy...nevermind.

Wait a minute.

Crap.