College hoops' original 'Cinderella' program relishes trip to mainland, McKale Center

If early season college basketball had a Cinderella, her middle name would be Chaminade.

Longtime fans and college basketball historians alike probably know well how the tiny Catholic school from Honolulu beat top-ranked Virginia and star center Ralph Sampson back in December 1982, a game many consider the sport’s biggest regular-season upset ever.

Then there’s the tournament that the monumental upset led to: the Maui Invitational, arguably the most prestigious early season event in college basketball, when two or three blue bloods and several other high-major teams line up for three games in Lahaina — and every few years or so, one of them loses to host Chaminade.

The Division II Silverswords beat Villanova on Maui in 2002. Oklahoma in 2010. Texas in 2012. And last season they blew out Cal, 96-72.

Overall, Chaminade has gone 8-92 in 34 years of Maui Invitational games, a low-percentage record that can look impressive considering the resources and restraints the Silverswords play with.

Chaminade will play an exhibition game at Arizona on Sunday in part because they no longer regularly host the Maui event. The team is still overachieving: It took a six-point lead at San Diego State on Thursday before losing 68-63.

“Without a doubt, if you play for Chaminade, you know you can beat anybody on any given day because it’s already been done,” Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird said. “We had the win over Virginia in 1982 and eight wins over Maui teams, and we’ve had a lot of close ones too.

“Minnesota, UConn, Missouri — we’ve had a lot of games that went down to the final minutes and I know how hard it is to get to that point. To be in the game with five minutes to go is a goal I have personally.”

The Silverswords met that goal on Thursday, even though they lost three starters from last season’s team and had just two weeks to prepare.

Chaminade had a scoreless stretch of over eight minutes Thursday, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Take that away, and the Silverswords outscored SDSU 63-50. They remained within one possession with 90 seconds to go.

“I have confidence and faith in our guys and I know we have good system in place,” Bovaird said. “But we officially can’t start official practices until Oct. 15. We’re going into the game and a couple hours before I’m thinking, ‘Man, I haven’t even put in a zone offense.’

“So I give our guys credit in our game. We were able to make several adjustments on the fly. To go into a great environment like San Diego State, against a program that has done well, and have a chance to win, I’m definitely pleased with that.”

But this year, for the first time ever, the Silverswords won’t get a chance to pull off an upset in the actual Maui Invitational.

They are now scheduled to only host the event during odd-numbered years.

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The Maui Invitational has already been arranging an add-on campus games for participants, since NCAA rules allow multi-team events to contain up to four games while counting for only three against the scheduling maximum. Before playing in the 2014 Maui Invitational, for example, Arizona beat Cal State Northridge in a “Maui” game at McKale Center.

The problem is: Arizona simply can’t play the Silverswords during the regular season anymore. The Pac-12 unanimously passed a rule in May 2017 limiting all regular-season games to Division I opponents.

Ryan Reynolds, who coordinates Arizona’s schedules as its director of basketball operations, said he alerted Maui organizers to that issue and instead agreed to host Chaminade for an exhibition game. Arizona then received a waiver to schedule a different add-on game. Arizona will host Houston Baptist on Wednesday.

San Diego State scheduled Chaminade three days earlier, so that the Silverswords could at least get two Division I experiences out of the extra trip to the mainland.

Chaminade will also make a few bucks, too. Arizona is paying the school $50,000 to play Sunday night’s game. San Diego State paid $10,000. Chaminade also will take two extended mainland trips during the PacWest Conference season, and athletic director Bill Villa says those cost more than $20,000 apiece.

“We try to stay in Hampton Inns or hotels that include a breakfast to save on the per diem,” Villa said.

The overflow this time, Villa says, means more funding for Chaminade’s other sports while the basketball team gets a pair of unique experiences.

Bovaird said the Silverswords typically play before crowds of 100 to 300, “if that much.” These games allow West Coast-based Chaminade boosters and family to attend.

“It worked out well,” Villa said. “It was a great experience for us. We got to play in a beautiful huge arena, which we never do. We played a great game. It was a little bit different experience for us, but a lot of people got to share in it.”

For Bovaird, there’s also a personal bonus. A native of the Pittsburgh area who went on to become a Division II All-American player at West Liberty University, Bovaird said he used to take extra ball-handling drills because he saw how well Sean Miller could handle the ball.

“I have a lot of respect for Coach Miller,” Bovaird said. “I was a Pitt basketball fan growing up and I loved watching him play. Anybody from Western Pennsylvania knows that the Miller family is associated with good basketball.”

The only thing better, for Chaminade, would be playing high-major Maui Invitational teams during the regular season. Bovaird said he’s hopeful that future mainland games against Maui participants would be regular-season contests, but isn’t complaining over this year’s arrangement.

“The part of the tournament that is played on Maui is, in my opinion, the best in the world,” Bovaird said. “I’m sure I’ll be a little bit sad when I’m over there and we’re not playing in it. But there’s definitely some positives in the format we have now and we’re gonna relish in the positives.”