It was once considered the premier multiple-team event in collegiate basketball, now modern conversations surrounding the Maui Invitational involve the tournament not having the funds to compete with some of its counterparts.
In years past, the Lahaina Civic Center, seating just 2,400, was home to an intimate college basketball setting for blue bloods in the sport. Teams such as Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Connecticut and more would pack the gym with their respective fanbases, as well as eager fans from the Valley Isle.
Tradition has taken a backseat in the name, image, and likeness (NIL) era of collegiate sports. The 2025 Player's Era Festival, like the Maui Invitational, will run during Thanksgiving week. While the 2025 Maui Invitational will not dole out NIL prize money, the Player's Era festival promises to hand out over $20 million to teams in its second year as a tournament.
To the Chaminade men's basketball team, the Maui Invitational still means the world.
"It's a huge honor. You know, it's what we're known for throughout the world," Chaminade head coach Eric Bovaird, a Pennsylvania native in his 15th year at the helm of the program, told Aloha State Daily. "We take it incredibly seriously, and we're so incredibly appreciative to have this. It's a huge reason why I decided to come to Chaminade. It's a huge reason why my student-athletes decided to come — to have that opportunity to play there, and to play against top level teams is incredible.
"We know that there's other tournaments out there, but nothing compares to the Maui Invitational, especially on Maui. We have an incredible history. I think we have proven longevity. There's been tournaments that come and go, but I think the Maui Invitational will live on for a long time."
On Dec. 23, 1982, the Silverswords shocked Virginia, the No. 1 team in the country at the time, at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center. The game is still considered the greatest upset in collegiate basketball history by many. Chaminade was merely an NAIA school at the time but matriculated to NCAA Division II status in 1989, where it's currently a member of the Pacific West Conference.
Chaminade's upset over Virginia sparked the creation of the Maui Invitational, which debuted as the Maui Classic in 1984. The Silverswords have consistently been the lone annual exemption in a field chock-full of notable Division I teams. That changed in 2018, when tournament organizers decided that Chaminade would play in the tournament every other year.
The Silverswords went 0-3 in the 2019 Maui Invitational, the last time they got to play in Lahaina. In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic moved the tournament to Las Vegas. Then in 2023, the Lahaina wildfires prompted the tournament to be held at the Stan Sheriff Center in Mānoa.
In addition to Chaminade, the 2025 Maui invitational field will include Arizona State, Boise State, North Carolina State, Seton Hall, Texas, USC and Washington State.
"Just incredibly excited," Bovaird said. "We've been excited for a long time, this whole group. I don't have one guy on my team that has played in the Maui Invitational in Lahaina, and so it's going to be a new experience for them. And in some ways, it's a little bit new for me, too. It's been so long since we played over there."
When his team competed at the 2021 Maui Invitational in Las Vegas, Bovaird recalled how his entire team tested positive for Covid-19 upon returning to O‘ahu, calling it an unpleasant memory. That seemed like a minuscule inconvenience compared to what Maui wildfire victims had to endure two years later.
"I remember that day, and I felt just so helpless and just felt so, so bad about what was going on. So many people lost their lives, and so many people that we knew were affected in one way or another," Bovaird said. "It was incredibly sad, there's no doubt about it. We, fortunately, were able to go over and provide a little bit of support and also a little bit of entertainment, doing some clinics for kids that were affected. ... Maui has been so great to us over the years."
As Bovaird noted, no player on Chaminade's current roster has played a Maui Invitational in Lahaina. Senior forward Brycen Shackelford is the only player on the roster who played at the 2023 Maui Invitational at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Silverswords got the Maui treatment on O‘ahu in 2023, staying in a hotel despite many players living closer to the arena compared to where the hotel was located. Shackelford says his teammates can hardly wait to experience the real thing, which begins for Chaminade with a 4 p.m. game against Washington State on Nov. 24.
"Everyone dreams of playing in the Maui," Shackelford said. "This year, being on Maui, it's a lot more exciting, and we think we got a good chance this year."
The 2025 Maui Invitational is also the first edition of the tournament since the passing of Merv Lopes, the coach who guided Chaminade to the historic victory over Virginia. Lopes passed away on May 8. He was 92.
"He was a mentor for me. He was one of the first people I met when I arrived in Hawai‘i," Bovaird said. "His name is synonymous with Chaminade, synonymous with the creation of the Maui Invitational. If it wasn't for him in particular, then I probably wouldn't even be in Hawai‘i right now. We can't wait to have a special tribute for him when we're over there. He's a legend that we'll never forget."
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
