LAHAINA, Hawaii â This is how San Diego State Steve Fisher can shake off the nightmare that was Arizona's Stanley Johnson on Wednesday: The knowledge that he probably wonât have to see him again.
âHeâs pretty good. Pretty good. He'll make a pretty good NBA player in about six months,â Fisher said. âI saw him in high school a lot of times. We were early on involved in recruiting him.
âHe's no surprise. He's a terrific talent that competes like crazy and helps his team win.â
Fisher tried to recruit Johnson out of Mater Dei High School and not only failed but then had to deal with Johnson on the other side of the court Wednesday: Johnson had 18 points, nine rebounds and three steals while earning the Maui Invitational MVP award.
Whatâs scary for UA opponents: Johnson says heâs not fully adjusted to college yet.
âThere is still a lot of stuff that we do as a team that I'm not physically good at yet,â Johnson said.
But UA coach Sean Miller said Johnson has become âmore of a studentâ in the past month.
âHe practices hard, makes mistakes, tries to learn from them,â Miller said. âThat spurred him on to, I think, how he played in this tournament. If we would have played this tournament a month ago, he would not have been the MVP.â
Spitting image
Among the adjustments Johnson is making: Dealing with a mouthguard, which he was constantly flipping out Wednesday.
âIt's hard to talk, and sometimes hard to breathe, especially in a hot gym like this,â Johnson said. âI need to be able to communicate on defense, so sometimes I take it out at the beginning of the play.
âWe scout stuff, and if I see something coming, I'll say watch out for this, that, and the other. During the play I'll put it back in and I can grunt and moan or something like that and they can see me coming through or whatever.â
Different team
Arizona guard T.J. McConnell was asked this week how Arizona is dealing with the loss of Aaron Gordon.
Short answer: It hasnât been easy, though freshman Stanley Johnson is helping.
âYou canât replace a guy like Aaron Gordon, what he does on the court,â McConnell said. âHe works hard. He defends. He doesnât force shots. But (Johnson), we brought him in and heâs doing as good a job as anybody in the country. âĻ We have to move on. Itâs a new team.â
Good omen
Four teams who have won the Maui Invitational have gone on to win the NCAA tournament the following spring, the last Connecticut in 2010-11. Michigan won both tournaments in 1988-89, while North Carolina did it in both 2004-05 and 2008-09.
Overall, eight teams who have participated in the Maui Invitational went on to win the NCAA tournament.
Local flavor
The Maui Invitational went all-out with local halftime shows on its final day.
During halftime of the Pitt-Kansas State fifth-place game, the Wailele Polynesian Luau performers took the court at the Lahaina Civic Center, while local ukulele hero Derick Sebastian offered a riveting performance between halves of the third place game.
The championship game was greeted with more luau performers, this time from the Old Lahaina Luau, featuring traditional island dancing by men, women and children.
Perspective
Host Chaminade proved the Maui Invitationalâs punching bag again, going 0-3 after a 74-60 loss to Missouri in the seventh place game Wednesday, but Silverswords coach Eric Boviard still found it a valuable experience.
Unlike most Division II teams, which rarely play Division I teams except in exhibition games, Chaminade (2-3) had the three Maui Invitational games and also will play the University of Hawaii.
âThe thing I talked to these guys about is we have the best opportunity in Division II to play against good competition to make us better,â Boviard said. âAt Division II you don't get that opportunity. âĻ but we've got the chance to play three and the University of Hawaii. So it's definitely going to help us in our quest to compete for Division II national championship.â
