HONOLULU — Mark Few is always amazed at how few of his players have been to Hawaii, or have even been in the ocean.
Trips to Maui are an annual Few family tradition in addition to the once-every-four-year excursions he takes to the Valley Isle with his Gonzaga Bulldogs for the Maui Invitational basketball tournament.
Whether it was Front Street restaurants he’d visit for team dinners or stops at gelato shops with his family, Lahaina held a special place for him for decades. Slightly north, jumps off Black Rock in Kaanapali have endured as a team rite of passage.
When Lahaina was devastated on Aug. 8, so was Few.
“I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it,” he recalled of his reaction to the sudden wildfires that destroyed thousands of structures, killed 100 people and left countless other souls scattered. “It was all the places, so many places that we’ve been and walked through.”
Few spoke somberly Sunday on the rooftop of the Hawaii Convention Center, the makeshift site for the 2023 Maui Invitational’s pre-tournament press conference. He was there because the traditional site of the tournament, the Lahaina Civic Center, is still in use for wildfire relief efforts. The event has shifted to Oahu this year as Lahaina community members begin to pick up the pieces of their past lives.
As is tournament tradition, coaches spoke together about the loaded field, then paired with local keiki for a free-throw contest and broke off individually for media interview sessions. It was as close to normal as it could be — a vibe that tournament operator KemperLesnik wants to replicate at the University of Hawaii’s SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center over the next three days.
With only a matter of weeks to make it work, KemperLesnik struck a deal with UH to host the prestigious, nationally televised event on campus during one of the busiest periods on the UH sports calendar. It won’t be perfect; there will be no on-campus parking for the tournament as students and faculty carry out regular school days. And not all of the eight teams’ fans who planned to go to Maui successfully switched their trip to Oahu. But factoring in local fans who, as of a few days ago, could buy $60 upper-bowl tickets for a two-game session starting a few days ago, the 10,000-seat Sheriff is expected to draw crowds larger than the 2,400-seat LCC.
Even by Maui’s standards of loaded fields, its 40th edition stands out. It has three of the top four teams in the Associated Press Top 25 poll in No. 1 Kansas, No. 2 Purdue and No. 4 Marquette. Then there’s No. 7 Tennessee and No. 11 Gonzaga, with the Bulldogs poised to move into the top 10 with Monday’s new poll. UCLA is just outside the top 25, Syracuse is still a nationally respected program and host Chaminade always has its sling at the ready.
The reigning Naismith Player of the Year, Purdue center Zach Edey, will be in action among 10 players in the field named to the 2023-24 Naismith preseason watch list.
The action begins at 9:30 a.m. Monday between Tennessee and Syracuse, with Purdue-Gonzaga at noon, Kansas-Chaminade at 4 p.m. and UCLA-Marquette at 6:30 p.m. All 12 games over the tournament’s three days will be televised on the ESPN family of networks.
Maui Invitational Tournament Director Nelson Taylor said some of the biggest challenges for the KemperLesnik team were arranging Waikiki hotels for the teams’ fan bases and making their Lahaina Civic Center tickets transfer to the Sheriff’s lower bowl. But so far, so good.
"We expect some great crowds … and a great atmosphere," Taylor said.
A special, elevated floor has been imported to the Sheriff floor from the Convention Center with familiar Maui Invitational branding added.
“Our fans have been super patient, our sponsors have been patient,” Taylor said. “It’s been a two-month sprint but we’re excited to get the ball in the air on Monday morning.”
Some games could approach sellout status, Taylor said, with an adjusted capacity of about 8,000 so that teams’ fan bases can relocate from behind their team’s bench during its games, to the upper level for the day’s next game.
Taylor said that 90% of the visiting fans who had tickets on Maui made the switch to Oahu. Even with that level of success for a difficult operation, he said KemperLesnik stands by its commitment to returning to Maui for the 2024 field.
Few’s feeling Sunday was gratitude that the tournament would remain in the Islands, unlike in 2020 and 2021 when it relocated to the mainland during the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Anywhere over here is so much better than the mainland,” Few said. “That was my overwhelming feeling after the disappointment of not being able to pull it off at the Civic Center.”
It was a sentiment echoed by Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird, who played in the Las Vegas edition of Maui in 2021. Chaminade, which plays in the tournament every other year, holds a special place in college basketball lore for its 1982 upset of No. 1 Virginia at the Blaisdell Arena. That game led to the creation of the Maui Invitational a year later.
The Silverswords last pulled off a stunner in their signature event against Cal in 2017.
“We were all disappointed that we didn’t (get to play on Maui),” Bovaird said. “For me, I wanted our guys to experience that Maui magic and to play in such a historic place. But hey, student-athletes this day and age, they’ve been thrown a lot of curveballs over the years here, and they can quickly adjust. They’re excited about the opportunity they have in front of them and they’re excited about the amount of people, family and friends who will be able to attend this event.”
Despite his given name, Marquette coach Shaka Smart traveled to the Islands for the first time this week. He said Golden Eagles fans have traveled well, and his team had dinner with notable alum Dwyane Wade in Waikiki on Saturday night.
Smart’s Texas team won the 2020 Maui Invitational that was moved to Asheville, N.C., during the pandemic. He joked that he is now 0-for-2 for actually making it to Maui, but he wasn’t complaining after taking in the beachside accommodations.
“It’s a beautiful place. Grateful that so many Marquette folks have been able to come down here with us,” Smart said. “We had a big plane full of people, so it’s fun to experience this not only with our players, but so many of the folks that make our program special.”
Taylor said that tournament expenses remain about level with a typical year on Maui. Less infrastructure has to be brought to the Stan Sheriff Center than the Lahaina Civic Center, but one added expense on Oahu are tournament shuttles to alleviate the parking situation. There will be pickup sites from the Convention Center and Ala Moana Center.
UH Athletic Director Craig Angelos told Spectrum News that he wanted to help KemperLesnik as it mulled its options in the aftermath of the Lahaina tragedy, while taking into account adjustments the athletic department would have to make to accommodate the tournament.
UH expects to net about $200,000, depending on concession revenue plus a flat fee for arena use. That does not include KemperLesnik’s expenses for parking and other operations. UH’s arena staff, led by manager Rich Sheriff, will work the tournament and provide support for the Chicago-based Kemper team.
“I think it’s a fair deal for both parties considering the unique circumstances surrounding the changeover at such a late date,” Angelos said. “Both parties have stepped up and made it happen and now it’s going to be a great event.”
He noted that the NCAA’s March Madness digital reporter, Andy Katz, promoted UH’s refurbished practice facility and the Sheriff on social media as one example of a perk for hosting duties.
Katz has called this year's Maui "the best ever non-conference tournament."
“You have national exposure on Hawaii now that maybe we haven’t had in the past, especially for our basketball programs,” Angelos said. “I think that’s going to be great for our brand, show that we have great facilities out here for basketball. … The whole country’s going to be able to see it.”
Taylor said UH was a “great partner” in helping arrange for the relocation.
“We added 12 games to their schedule and I believe they had 13 events already in a span of 15 days,” Taylor said. “For that crew to be able to come together to help us to get everything figured out, it’s been a great response on Oahu.”
The Maui Invitational also recently switched title partners from Maui Jim to Allstate.
KemperLesnik launched a Maui fundraiser, Hoops for Ohana, featuring an auction for memorabilia from the event’s past notable coaches and players, including the surfboards signed by the eight head coaches going into this tournament. The auction concludes Wednesday night, after which KemperLesnik plans to announce a figure for money raised.
UH apologized for the parking inconvenience and asks that local fans allow extra time to get to the games via shuttle or rideshare. Taylor said fans should download their tickets on mobile devices ahead of time, if possible.
Correction: Chaminade beat Cal in the 2017 Maui Invitational. An incorrect year was listed in a previous version of the story.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.