Invitational surprises all with games’ outcomes

By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

MAUI, HI. “”mdash; At the conclusion of the third game of the
Maui Invitational, the implausible suddenly seemed possible.

Houston, a team that had lost its two exhibition games, had no
one in its starting lineup taller than 6-foot-8, and finished 9-20
last year, actually had a chance against No. 5 UCLA.

The Cougars, who appeared to be a record-padding opponent given
to the Bruins as a token of goodwill by tournament organizers,
couldn’t have looked more dangerous as they took the floor
for their pregame warm-ups on Monday night.

And how could they not, after what had happened earlier that
day?

Day one of the Maui Invitational saw the upset of No. 7 Kansas
and the near-upset of No. 1 Duke.

Kansas was taken down 93-91 on a last-second lay-up by Ball
State guard Patrick Jackson while Duke could have found itself in
the consolation bracket as well had it not been for a few calls
that left fans looking up at the rafters for Don King in its 80-79
victory over Seton Hall. Even South Carolina found itself in a
surprisingly tight contest against Chaminade though it pulled away
late to win 74-61.

“We definitely talked about that (before the game),”
senior forward Matt Barnes said. “We knew coming in this was
a business trip. Hawaii is a beautiful place and you can get caught
up in the scenery. You saw Kansas let up and Duke get pushed to the
wire.

“We talked about that with the younger guys and got the
point across.”

Against the Bruins, Houston came out in a fashion similar to its
underdog predecessors. At half, the Cougars trailed by only 3,
30-27. It wasn’t until UCLA made a run to start the second
half that it had control of the game.

“The lesson here is that there isn’t the gap that
there used to be between the major programs and the mid-major
programs,” Bruin head coach Steve Lavin said following his
team’s 71-60 victory. “We talked about what we could
control ““ that’s great effort.”

In the week leading up to the tournament, the Bruins said they
were only thinking of Houston. Duke and Kansas, they said, would be
dealt with later.

Those statements were met with cynicism by those that heard them
at the time (some even laughed), but once the games in Maui began
to unfold, the Kings of Cliché couldn’t have sounded
wiser.