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    • Auburn basketball drew from these experiences for Maui Invitational play
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    Auburn basketball drew from these experiences for Maui Invitational play

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

    However, he never thought this would happen under these circumstances; heading to the Aloha State to play in one of college basketball’s top early-season invitationals.

    “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. “That combined makes me like a kid when you give him some candy.”

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    The Tigers spent more than 12 hours on the road Thursday — technically in the air — to reach Maui, where they will compete in the 2024 Maui Invitational, starting with a top-five matchup against No. 5 Iowa State at 8 p.m. pm CST Monday.

    Bruce Pearl’s Auburn teams are no strangers to a seasonal tournament. This is the 15th time in 11 seasons that the Tigers have traveled to play in a multi-team invitational game, but there hasn’t been a lineup like this yet.

    Seven of the eight teams in this year’s Maui field were ranked or received votes in the latest AP and USA TODAY polls, with Colorado the lone 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 by No. 2 UConn and No. 10 North Carolina. And the way the bracket is shaking out, Auburn could crack all three.

    So, what are the perspectives Auburn is drawing from to tackle such a tough field? Baker-Mazara and Pearl offered some.

    “It kind of reminds me of the road to the Final Four in 2019,” Pearl said. “We looked at it like, ‘Man, somebody’s got to beat Kansas, North Carolina or Kentucky on the road.’ You know, someone’s got to beat Iowa State, or North Carolina, or Dayton, or UConn, someone on the way.

    During Auburn’s run to its first and only Final Four appearance, a fifth-seeded group of Tigers went through the aforementioned gauntlet. They defeated fourth-seeded Kansas in the Round of 32 before earning a Sweet Sixteen victory over a top-seeded North Carolina squad, and then avenged a regular-season loss to second-seeded Kentucky in the Elite Eight, losing defeated the Wildcats by 77. 71 in overtime to score a ticket to Minneapolis.

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

    “We treat this like we’re playing in Nashville,” he said. “Basically it’s one game after another. You just prepare for that, try to get your body used to it sooner – back-to-back-to-back games – especially because it’s against high caliber teams .”

    During the Tigers’ run through the Music City, three teams – South Carolina, Mississippi State and Florida – were eliminated from the conference tournament title. And they’ll have to do the same if they want to emerge victorious from Maui.

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

    It would be historic for the program, which has never finished in the top two of the invitational, although this will be only the second time. It’s also not lost on the Tigers what a week of winning in Hawaii could mean for their prospects on the national stage.

    “It could help us become No. 1 in the country,” Baker-Mazara said. “That’s a goal that I personally want to achieve for us as a team, is to be No. 1 and get to the point where it says, ‘Okay, we’re the best.’ Hopefully we can keep that going all season.”

    Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colerporter.

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