March 13, 2003
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's basketball team has been selected to join the eight team field that will compete in the 2003 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational hosted by Chaminade University and scheduled for November 24-26 in Lahaina, Maui, Hawai'i.
Santa Clara will join host Chaminade, Central Michigan, Dayton, Hawai'i, Ohio State, San Diego State and Villanova in the three-day tournament that will be played at the Lahaina Civic Center. Tickets and travel information for the tournament is available by calling 808/667-3865 or on the event's website at www.mauiinvitational.com.
"We are really pleased and honored to be invited to participate in the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational," said Dick Davey, who recently completed his 11th year as the head coach of the Bronco program. "As always, the tournament has a competitive field and will provide a great challenge for our team. Our players, coaches, staff and fans have always enjoyed travelling to Hawai'i and I'm sure our experience at the 2003 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational will be no exception."
Santa Clara has played in Hawai'i on 10 previous occasions, dating back to their first trek to the islands in the 1952. That season, head coach Bob Feerick led his eventual NCAA Final Four team to the first of three-straight appearances in Honolulu. The Broncos also played in Honolulu in 1953, 1954, 1968, 1973, 1986 and 1997 and in Hilo in 1999.
The 2003 appearance in the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational will mark Santa Clara's third ever in the event. The Broncos have a 4-2 record in its previous two appearances in 1990 and 1995. Overall in games played in Hawai'i, Santa Clara boasts an 18-9 record since that first appearance in 1952.
The last time Santa Clara played in the Maui Invitational, the Broncos upset fourth-ranked UCLA 78-69 in the tournament opener on ESPN. Marlon Garnett scored a team-high 21 points, while Steve Nash added 19 points and seven assists as the Broncos won its first game over a top-five ranked opponent in 23 years.
About the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational
The EA SPORTS Maui Invitational hosted by Chaminade University is perhaps the premier college basketball in-season tournament. Every year since the event's inception in 1984, it has brought together many of the nation's best teams and given fans some of the most exciting action of the season. At the same time, it has provided hundreds of talented student-athletes the chance to start the season against quality competition on an exotic island paradise. A total of 76 different institutions from 19 different conferences and 32 states (plus the District of Columbia) have competed in Maui.
Played at the 2,400-seat Lahaina Civic Center, a municipal recreation center located just 500 yards off the Pacific Ocean, the Maui Invitational has grown exponentially since the inaugural event on Thanksgiving weekend 1984. Then, the field consisted of three Division I schools from the mainland - Davidson, Providence and Virginia - and host Chaminade University, a private, Marianist 2,500-student (750 full-time) Division II school. Chaminade generated national headlines in 1982 when it beat then top-ranked Virginia, led by All-American center Ralph Sampson, 77-72.