Indiana will play in the 2020 Maui Invitational
Indiana will play in the 2020 Maui Invitational, tournament chairman Dave Odom announced on Thursday afternoon.
It will be the first appearance in the event for Indiana since 2015, when the Hoosiers finished the trip to Maui 1-2 in Tom Crean’s eighth season in Bloomington.
Indiana is 10-8 all-time in the event with one title (2002).
Joining the Hoosiers in the 2020 field: Alabama, Davidson, North Carolina, Providence, Stanford, Texas and UNLV.
Here’s the full release with more details:
Maui, Hawaii (April 4, 2019) – The Maui Jim Maui Invitational announced its 2020 field today, a collection of programs that boasts a combined 214 NCAA Tournament appearances, 39 Final Four berths and 13 national championships.
Alabama, Davidson, Indiana, North Carolina, Providence, Stanford, Texas and UNLV will convene in Maui for the 37th annual Tournament, which will be contested November 23-25 at the historic Lahaina Civic Center on the island of Maui.
“Each year, the Maui Jim Maui Invitational prides itself on bringing the best college basketball teams and talent to the island of Maui,” said Tournament Chairman Dave Odom. “2020 is no different, with the Lahaina Civic Center hosting some of the game’s most historic programs of all time.”
Three of the 2020 participants are ranked in the top 20 all-time winningest schools, including North Carolina, Indiana and Texas. Prior to the 2019 season, UNLV, Indiana, and North Carolina each ranked in the top 15 programs with the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the AP Poll. North Carolina and Indiana also rank in the top ten programs for most ever NCAA Tournament appearances, with 50 and 39 respectively. The Tar Heels will compete in their 34th Sweet Sixteen appearance this week.
Each team in the 2020 field will be making a return appearance in Maui, including four members of the 2008 field: Alabama, Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas. The upcoming event will also feature attendees from the inaugural 1984 Tournament, Davidson and Providence; the Friars took home the Maui championship that year. Previous Tournament champions also include Indiana (2002) and North Carolina (1999, 2004, 2008, 2016). After winning the Maui Invitational in their most recent appearance, the Tar Heels went on to win the NCAA Tournament title later that same season.
The Maui Jim Maui Invitational is excited to announce a new element of the 2020 event. The Tournament has a longstanding tradition of presenting each team with its very own hand-made, customized surfboard, and will now be hosting a contest that sources the surfboard designs directly from the students of the participating schools. Contest winners will be announced in the fall and honored at the schools’ surfboard presentations in 2020.
Since the inception of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational in 1984, 126 schools representing 26 conferences and 40 states have competed in the event. Teams that have participated in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational throughout the event’s history own 68 of the 79 NCAA championships. Seven schools have gone on to win the national championship after competing in Maui earlier in the season.
All-Tournament travel packages and school Booster travel packages for the 2020 Maui Jim Maui Invitational will be available at a later date.
Filed to: 2020 Maui Invitational