UK to play Oklahoma in first round of Maui Invitational

UK to play Oklahoma in first round of Maui Invitational

By Eric Lindsey on August 5, 2010 2:00 PM


Aloha, Oklahoma.

The bracket for the 27th annual EA Sports Maui Invitational Get Acrobat Reader, one of the highlights of the 2010-11 Kentucky men's basketball schedule and one of the premiere tournaments of the college basketball season, has been finalized. UK will play Oklahoma on Nov. 22 at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 in the first round of the tournament, which is hosted by Chaminade University.

UK-Oklahoma is the second game the 12-game tournament, all of which will be televised on ESPN's family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU). Wichita State-Connecticut will kick off the tournament Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2, followed by UK-Oklahoma at 5:30 p.m. ET, Michigan State-Chaminade at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU and Virginia-Washington at midnight ET.

The winner of the UK-Oklahoma game will advance to play the winner of the Virginia-Washington game on Nov. 23 at 9:30 p.m. ET. The losing teams of the UK-Oklahoma matchup and the Virginia-Washington matchup would face each other Nov. 22 at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

The championship game will be Nov. 24 at 10 p.m. on ESPN.

The return to Hawaii marks UK's first trip to the Aloha State since 2006. The Cats went 1-2 under former coach Tubby Smith with a win against DePaul and losses to UCLA and Memphis.

Kentucky is 2-0 all-time against Oklahoma, the last meeting coming in 1987, a 75-74 UK victory in Rupp Arena. Kentucky owns a 6-3 advantage all-time against Virginia and is 1-0 versus Washington.

Remaining game tickets for the 2010 tournament will be on sale for the general public Aug. 25 at 3 p.m. ET at www.mauiinvitational.com. Travel packages with game tickets and hotel accommodations are currently available through Oahu Travel, the tournament's official travel agency, by calling 1-800-826.3822.

The Maui Invitational is annually one of the top early season tournaments of the college basketball season. Four teams in the tournament field ranked in last year's final RPI top 50, and the average RPI of the seven Division I teams in the field (host Chaminade is not a Division I school) is 60.7, according to last year's NCAA numbers.

I like the draw. I'm hoping to see a UK vs. Michigan State match up in the finals.