<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) -- NCAA runner-up UCLA will play host Chaminade in the opening round of the 2006 EA Sports Maui Invitational. The matchups for the eight-team tournament to be held Nov. 20-22 were announced Thursday. The winner of the UCLA-Chaminade game will advance to a semifinal against the winner of the Kentucky-DePaul first-round game. The other bracket has Oklahoma, under first-year coach Jeff Capel, against Memphis, and Purdue playing Georgia Tech.</div> Full Story
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheFreshPrince:</div><div class="quote_post">no more zaga or msu?</div> New teams are picked for the tournament every year, except for Chaminade, who hosts the tournament. As for the bracket, here are my predictions - <u>1st Round</u> UCLA over Chaminade - This one's a no-brainer. Chaminade has pulled off the miracle upset in the past, but the odds of it happening again are overwhelming slim. DePaul over Kentucky - This is my big upset pick. I actually like this Kentucky team, but I'm also really high on this DePaul team, who all of the 'experts' are sleeping on. They return every player who matters, including senior star Sammy Mejia and bigman Wilson Chandler, who in my opinion was the top freshman in the Big East last season outside of Dominic James. Chandlers extremely long, lengthy, and is a hell of a rebounder and shotblocker. His game should also be complimented by the addition of Keith Butler, Temple's former starting center who transferred to DePaul and will be eligible for this season. Memphis over Oklahoma - As much as I don't like Memphis, they've got a lot of talent returning with Chris Douglas-Roberts and Antonio Anderson. It's not enough talent for me to give them a ranking or anything like that, but against a depleted roster like Oklahoma's which loses all five of its starters and brings in a less-than-spectacular recruiting class after Kelvin Sampson's departure, this was an easy pick. Georgia Tech over Purdue - I may have picked Georgia Tehc, but this one could easily go the other way and surprise a lot of people. Purdue may have struggled with an inexperienced core this year, but now with a year under their belt together with Matt Painter as head coach, Carl Lowry (the Big 10's top rebounder) returning from injury, and an apparently slimmer Nate Minnoy, they've got a real chance of being the fourth or fifth Big 10 team to make the tourny this year, and it wouldn't shock me in the least to see them take advantage of this young and inexperienced Georgia Tech team, but I'm still predicting the more talented Yellowjackets to get the win. <u>2nd Round</u> UCLA over DePaul - This matchup, if it were to happen, would probably be one of the closest of the year. On one hand, I'm concerned about how the loss of Farmar will effect the Bruins who relied so much on his play, as a scorer, a leader, and a playmaker. From what I've seen of Darren Collison though, he has the talent to fill Farmar's shoes, and Luc Richard, while I feel he still has a long way to go in terms of development, is one of the most promising players in the nation with his length and quickness. DePaul's got a great roster defensive, but I don't know if they have the offensive firepower to stay with the talent-stacked Bruins. Georgia Tech over Memphis - An interesting storyline here will be Thad Young playing his hometown team, one which he almost commited to and which boasts a lot of his former AAU and high school teammates. I've been both watching and competing against Young for a while now, and if there's one thing that he shows up for, it's competition. One of the big knocks on him is that he tends to get bored in the 'easy wins' and plays unmotivated, but with the motivation that playing the Tigers will give him, I expect this game to be his coming out party. <u>Finals</u> Georgia Tech over UCLA - There are a lot of question marks on this Bruins roster, like Josh Shipp's health, the development of Luc Richard's offensive game, and the playing time and overall impact that freshman forward James Keefe will have. I'm also concerned about how Afflalo will keep up with Thaddeus Young, who's about three inches and ten pounds bigger and much more athletic, so I'll give the edge in this one to the Yellowjackets. Overall, I think this season's Maui Invitational is considerably weaker than last season's. Still, we're probably going to see at least three or four entertaining games. The potential matchup which I'm most looking forward to is UCLA and DePaul. There you have two teams with a pretty much equal talent level on paper and about the same amount of experience on their respective rosters. It's got all the makings of Gonzaga-Michigan State Part II.
This doesn't have the packed talent that it contained last year with MSU and Gonzaga, where we were talking about both teams potentially in the NCAA Championship back then, but there's still some talented teams in here. The UCLA verses DePaul potential matchup is going to be interesting. DePaul may surprise some teams this year, Sammy Mejia can flat out score for DePaul and I really like the physical pressence inside with Keith Butler, who I got to saw with Temple for a bit. When it's all said and done, Georgia Tech verses UCLA is going to be one hell of a match. Just the talent that Georgia Tech brought in may be enough against the talent UCLA is returning. It's going to be a good one.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post"><u>Finals</u> Georgia Tech over UCLA - There are a lot of question marks on this Bruins roster, like Joe Shipp's health, the development of Luc Richard's offensive game, and the playing time and overall impact that freshman forward James Keefe will have. I'm also concerned about how Afflalo will keep up with Thaddeus Young, who's about three inches and ten pounds bigger and much more athletic, so I'll give the edge in this one to the Yellowjackets.</div> I think UCLA has the talent to beat Georgia Tech still. Josh Shipp will be healthy because it'll only be the beginning of the year. You forgot to mention D. Collison will be a sophomore for UCLA next year, and now that he's got a year under his belt he'll be much better than he was last year, and that's going to be pretty darn good. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute will be ok offensively, there's nothing wrong with him. UCLA still has the guys like Aboya, Mata, and Rolle that can suprise people.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting J_Ray:</div><div class="quote_post">I think UCLA has the talent to beat Georgia Tech still. Josh Shipp will be healthy because it'll only be the beginning of the year. You forgot to mention D. Collison will be a sophomore for UCLA next year, and now that he's got a year under his belt he'll be much better than he was last year, and that's going to be pretty darn good. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute will be ok offensively, there's nothing wrong with him. UCLA still has the guys like Aboya, Mata, and Rolle that can suprise people.</div> The last time Shipp played a game was back in early January. You don't know how his game has been effected and how his overall health is. I did mentioned Collison, earlier on in the post, and I know all about Luc Richard and company, so there's no need to just read me off their roster. Still, I think that Georgia Tech not only has more talent but is more athletic, and athletic teams should give the Bruins trouble this year now that they're going to be anchored offensively by Afflalo and Shipp.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Voodoo Child:</div><div class="quote_post">I did mentioned Collison, earlier on in the post, and I know all about Luc Richard and company, so there's no need to just read me off their roster.</div> Well, there depth is pretty much their whole roster......
This field isn't as deep as last year, but there's potential to make for some extremely entertaining games. Georgia Tech could make a big early statement if the young guys can gel quickly, and DePaul is better than most people think. Memphis and UCLA were big-time last year, and Kentucky's never down for long. Like VC said, cross those fingers and hope for another instant classic. That Zaga/MSU game last year is still the most entertaining game I've seen in about 5 years.
