Arizona’s visit to the Maui Invitational this week is the eighth time a UA team has played a holiday tournament in Hawaii. That’s a record for the Pac-12. UCLA has played six events in Hawaii. ASU two.
How times have changed.
Before becoming attractive enough to be invited to Hawaii, Arizona played in the 1983 Kettle Classic in Houston, where it unwittingly was paired against Houston’s Phi Slama Jama powerhouse and lost 104-63 in the opener. That was the beginning of the end for first-year coach Ben Lindsey.
A year earlier, in Fred Snowden‘s final UA season, the Wildcats accepted a berth in the Pillsbury Classic in downtown Minneapolis a few days before New Year’s. Who would willingly go there to play basketball in December?
Arizona was crushed by host Minnesota, and Snowden was forced to resign two months later.
But Lute Olson changed all of that, beginning in 1985 at the Hawaii-Pacific Classic. Since then Arizona has played in “classics” in Madison Square Garden seven times; in the Wooden Classic in Anaheim, Calif., three times; and in such prestigious (but discontinued events) as the Tournament of Champions in Charlotte, N.C.; the Great Eight in Chicago; and the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass.
The other day, I asked UA assistant coach Damon Stoudamire about the UA’s classic showdown in the 1993 Maui Invitational, in which the Wildcats lost 93-92 on a buzzer shot to No. 5 Kentucky.
“We lost” he said, and walked away.
Nothing about sun and surf and an instant classic replayed by ESPN. “We lost.”
Arizona isn’t in Maui to get some sun this week.
