Michigan State faces Colorado in a men’s basketball game on Monday, November 25, 2024 at the Lāhainā Civic Center in Lahaina, Hawaii.

How to watch: Fans can watch the game with a FREE TRIAL of DirecTV Stream and FuboTV.

Here’s what you need to know:

What: College basketball

WHO: Michigan State vs. Colorado

When: November 25, 2024 (25-11-24)

Where: Lāhainā Civic Center

Time: 5:30 PM ET

TV: ESPN2

Live stream: DirecTV stream and FuboTV

Here’s a recent college basketball story from the AP:

Lea Miller-Tooley called to welcome the Baylor women’s basketball team to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, where 80-degree temperatures made it easy for the Bears to settle in on Paradise Island a week before Thanksgiving.

About 5,000 miles west of the Caribbean country, similar climates awaited the Maui Invitational men’s teams in Hawaii. They were often greeted with leis, the traditional Hawaiian welcome of friendship.

College basketball teams and fans look forward to this time of year. The holiday week tournaments undoubtedly offer exciting matches and all-day TV coverage, but there is a sense of familiarity as they help ward off the November chill. For four decades, these basketball-filled beach vacations have become a beloved mainstay of the sport itself.

“When you see (ESPN’s) ‘Holiday Week’ of college basketball on TV, when you see the Battle 4 Atlantis on TV, you know college basketball is back,” said Miller-Tooley, the founder and organizer of the Battle 4 Atlantis men’s league. and women’s tournaments. “Because it’s a saturated time of year with the NFL, college football and the NBA. But when you see these beautiful events in these beautiful places, you realize, ‘Wow, hoops are back, let’s get excited.’

MTE madness

The Great Alaska Shootout was the premier multi-team event (MTE) nearly fifty years ago. The brainchild of late Alaska-Anchorage coach Bob Rachal sought to increase his program’s profile by introducing national power programs, which could take advantage of NCAA rules allowing them to exceed the maximum number of regular season games if they played the three games . tournament outside the contiguous 48 states.

In the first edition, called the Sea Wolf Classic, NC State defeated Louisville 72-66 for the title on November 26, 1978.

The Maui Invitational followed in November 1984, emerging from the hustle and bustle of NAIA program Chaminade’s shocking upset of high-ranked Virginia and 8-foot-1 star Ralph Sampson in Hawaii two years earlier.

Events kept coming, with warm-weather locations joining in on the action. The Paradise Jam in the US Virgin Islands. The Cancun Challenge in Mexico. The Cayman Islands classic. The Jamaica classic. The Myrtle Beach Invitational competes with the Charleston Classic in South Carolina. Numerous tournaments in Florida.

Some events have disappeared, such as the Puerto Rico Tipoff and the Great Alaska Shootout, the latter in 2017 amid event competition and schools opting for warm-weather venues.

Atlantis rises

Miller-Tooley’s attempt to build an MTE for Atlantis began as a doubleheader in December 2010, with Georgia Tech defeating Richmond and Virginia Tech defeating Mississippi State in a proving moment of tournament viability. It also required a change in NCAA law to allow MTEs in the Bahamas. Approval came in March 2011; the first eight-team Atlantis men’s tournament followed in November.

That tournament quickly earned major status among big-name fields, with Atlantis champions Villanova (2017) and Virginia (2018) later winning that season’s NCAA title. The games are played in the resort’s ballroom-turned arena, where players can also view enormous pools, water slides and inner tube rapids, surrounded by palm trees and the Atlantic Ocean.

“It’s just the value of getting your passport stamped, it’ll never get old,” Miller-Tooley said. “When I look at some of these kids, this may be the first and last time — and the staff and their families — that they ever travel outside the United States. … Through the eyes of these kids you can see that it really is an incredible experience.”

ACC Network analyst Luke Hancock knows that firsthand. His Louisville team finished second to Atlantis in 2012 and won that year’s vacated NCAA title, with Hancock as the Final Four’s standout player.

“I remember (then-coach Rick Pitino) saying something like, ‘Some of you may never get this opportunity again. We stay in this incredible place, you do it with people you love,” said Hancock.

“It was a business trip for us there over Thanksgiving, but he definitely had the tone of ‘We should enjoy this too.’”

Popular question

Maui offers a similar atmosphere, although 2024 could be a little different as Lahaina recovers from the deadly 2023 wildfires that forced the event’s relocation last year.

North Carolina assistant coach Sean May played for the Tar Heels’ 2004 winner Maui and was part of the UNC staff for the 2016 champions, with both teams later winning NCAA titles. May said “you just feel the peace” of the area — even when you’re focusing on games — and cherishes memories of the team taking a boat out into the Pacific Ocean after its title run under now-retired Hall of Famer Roy Williams.

“Teams like us, Dukes and UConns – you want to go to places that are very well managed,” May said. “Maui, Lea Miller with her group at Battle 4 Atlantis, that’s what keeps teams coming back because you know you’re getting standard A quality, not just from the preparation, but from the tournament and the way it’s done is being executed. Everything is great. And I think that’s what brings guys back year after year.

That’s why Colorado coach Tad Boyle is so excited about the Buffaloes’ first appearance in Maui since 2009.

“We’ve been trying to get into the tournament ever since I got here,” said Boyle, who is now in his 15th season.

And of course those warm weather conditions certainly don’t hurt.

“When you talk about the Marquettes of the world, St. John’s, Providence, they don’t want that cold weather,” said NBA and college TV analyst Terrence Oglesby, who played for Clemson in the 2007 San Juan Invitational in Puerto Rico. “They will have to deal with that throughout January and February. Might as well get a taste of what the sun feels like.”

Full schedule

The Baha Mar Men’s Championship in Nassau, Bahamas, got things going last week, with No. 11 Tennessee routing No. 13 Baylor for the title. The week ahead could boast matchups worthy of the Final Four, with teams having two weeks of action since any hiccups on opening night.

“It’s a special kickoff to the college basketball season,” Oglesby said. “It’s just rust-free.”

On the women’s side, Atlantis began its fourth eight-team women’s tournament on Saturday with No. 16 North Carolina and No. 18 Baylor, while nearby Baha Mar resort follows with two four-team women’s tournaments, including No. 2 UConn, No. 7 LSU , No. 17 Mississippi and No. 20 NC State.

Then come the headliners for the men.

The Maui Invitational turns 40 and opens Monday in Lahaina. It features second-ranked and two-time reigning national champion UConn, No. 4 Auburn, No. 5 Iowa State and No. 10 North Carolina.

The Battle 4 Atlantis opens its 13th men’s tournament on Wednesday, led by No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 16 Indiana and No. 17 Arizona.

Michigan State Hall of Famer Tom Izzo makes his fifth trip to Maui, where he debuted as Jud Heathcote’s successor at the 1995 tournament. Izzo’s Spartans have competed at Atlantis twice, the last in 2021.

“They’re important because they give you something exciting in November or December,” Izzo said.

Any disadvantages?

“It’s a 10-hour flight,” he said of Hawaii.