Auburn basketball drawing on those experiences for Maui Invitational games

On November 26, 2024By Littum

AUBURN – Auburn basketball forward Chad Baker-Mazara had always wanted to go to Hawaii.

However, he never thought it would be under these circumstances; heading to the Aloha State to play in one of college basketball’s premier early-season invitational games.

“You’re going to Maui, but at the same time you’re going to play basketball at a very high level,” Baker-Mazara said Wednesday. “It all makes me like a child when you give him some candy.”

The Tigers spent more than 12 hours on the road — technically in the air — Thursday to get to Maui, where they will participate in 2024 Maui Invitationalstarting with a top-five matchup against no. 5 Iowa State at 8:00 PM CST Monday.

Bruce Pearl’s Auburn team is no stranger to a season tournament. It is the 15th time in 11 seasons that the Tigers have traveled to play in a multi-team invitational, but another lineup quite like this is missing.

Seven of the eight teams in this year’s Maui field were either ranked or received votes in the latest AP and USA TODAY polls, with Colorado being the only exception despite its 4-0 record. Half of the field, including Auburn, has a number next to its name, with the third-ranked Tigers and fifth-ranked Cyclones joined no. 2 UConn and no. 10 North Carolina. And as the bracket shakes out, Auburn could take a crack at all three.

So what are the prospects Auburn is drawing on to handle such an intimidating field? Baker-Mazara and Pearl offered a couple.

“It kind of reminds me of the road to the Final Four in 2019,” Pearl said. “We looked at it as, ‘Man, somebody’s got to beat Kansas, or North Carolina, or Kentucky down the road.’ You know, somebody has to beat Iowa State, or North Carolina, or Dayton, or UConn, somebody along the way. That’s just how we approach it.”

Auburn’s run to its first and only Final Four appearance saw a fifth-seeded pack of Tigers go through the aforementioned mantle. They beat fourth-seeded Kansas in the round of 32 before earning a Sweet Sixteen win over a top-seeded North Carolina squad, then avenged a regular-season loss to second-seeded Kentucky in the Elite Eight, beating the Wildcats 77-71 in overtime for to punch a ticket to Minneapolis.

For Baker-Mazara, the comparison he draws is to last season — when Auburn went to Nashville and won the SEC Tournament.

“We’re taking it like we’re playing in Nashville,” he said. “Basically it’s one game after another. It’s just getting ready for it, just trying to get your body used to it before – back-to-back-to-back games – especially because it’s against teams of high caliber.”

The Tigers’ run through Music City saw it take down three teams — South Carolina, Mississippi State and Florida — for its conference tournament title. And they’ll have to do the same if they want to emerge victorious from Maui.

Should Auburn beat Iowa State on Monday, it will get a game against the winner of Dayton and North Carolina’s game on Tuesday. If it beats the Flyers or Tar Heels, it gets a chance against one of four teams — Colorado, Michigan State, Memphis or UConn — on Wednesday to decide first and second place.

That would be historic for the program, which has never finished in the invitational’s top-two, though this will be just its second appearance. It’s also not lost on the Tigers what a one-week win in Hawaii could do for their prospects on the national stage.

“It can help us become No. 1 in the nation,” Baker-Mazara said. “That’s a goal that I personally want for us, as a team, to get to No. 1 and be at the point where it’s like, ‘OK, we’re the best.’ Hopefully we can keep it up all season.”

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.