Leyton Hammonds and the Cowboys are headed to Maui.
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Do not underestimate any of the teams in this tournament, in particular UConn, Oregon and Tennessee.
The game, scheduled for ESPNU, will tip off at 8 p.m.at the Lahaina Civic Center in Maui. The Tar Heels also landed on the opposite side of the bracket from Wisconsin and OR, both of which may join North Carolina in the preseason top 10 next fall. Seven of the eight teams in next season’s tournament hail from major conferences and CT could easily give the Maui Invitational four preseason top 25 teams. Georgetown, Tennessee and host Chaminade round out the field. The Tar Heels reached the national championship game, and both North Carolina and OR were No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament. The two programs, along with Wisconsin, earned berths to the Sweet 16.
A potential game against Wisconsin would serve as the much hard of the two options, with the Badgers returning standout forward Nigel Hayes, along with junior Vitto Brown and sophomore Ethan Happ, who had one of the best freshman seasons in the country a year ago. The teams played in the Bahamas the year prior, a win for the Badgers. OSU won the only other matchup, 80-64, in Lafayette, La., on December 18, 1970.
North Carolina won the title in 1999, 2004 and 2008.
This will be OSU’s second trip to the Maui Invitational.
All 12 games of the Maui Invitational will be on the ESPN networks.
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The Cowboys open the 2016-17 season on November 11 at Gallagher-Iba Arena against Campbell.
