This year’s Maui Invitational action has been sufficiently rousing and thoroughly entertaining. It concludes Wednesday night with a battle of unbeaten Tigers — No. 4 Auburn comes in as a big favorite over upstart Memphis.
No. 4 Auburn vs. Memphis
Venue: Lāhainā Civic Center — Lāhainā, Hawaii
Time: Wednesday, 5 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Streaming: Fubo (try for free)
On Monday, Auburn beat Iowa State, 83-81, in an early contender for college basketball game of the year. Yesterday, the Tigers thoroughly worked North Carolina in a 13-point win.
Johni Broome is a force of gravity. In two Maui games, he has averages of 22 points, 14.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 blocks, plus he had Monday’s game-winner. If Auburn wins Wednesday, Broome is almost certainly succeeding Zach Edey as Maui Invitational MVP.
Auburn looks like a complete force to start the season. They already have two top-five wins. The Tigers are first in KenPom rating — second in adjusted offense and fifth in adjusted defense. Broome leads the SEC in boards and blocks, and five of his teammates are double-digit scorers. Chaney Johnson is shooting 65 percent from the field while Miles Kelly and Chad Baker-Mazara are both better than 42 percent on 3-pointers.
Defensively, Bruce Pearl and Auburn like to goad its opponent into quick chaos, but Memphis has hoopers that should be able to hang. PJ Haggerty’s third program in three years looks like the right fit — he’s averaging 21.3 points on a 30 percent usage rate. And Tyrese Hunter is roasting from deep, at 52.6 percent on more than six tries a night.
Penny Hardaway’s group is 23rd in the country in adjusted offense, and they play enterprising basketball with aggressive players that win one-on-one. The spread has hovered over nine points, but four of the eight Maui games so far have been one-possession thrillers.
Neither program has won this tourney before. But Hardaway has a rich history in Maui. He was co-MVP of the 1992 run with Memphis State, sharing the honor with Bobby Hurley, whose Duke team claimed its first of five Maui titles.
The final isn’t closing out this year’s tournament. Auburn-Memphis is actually the second of four games on Wednesday, with the seventh-place (UConn-Dayton) and third-place (UNC-Michigan State) games following. That spares the East Coast from what is a 10:30 p.m. scheduled start time for the late game.
Memorable Matchup: Auburn 74, Memphis 71 on Dec. 12, 2020. On a neutral State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Auburn clawed out a close victory behind Justin Powell’s 26 points.
Auburn vs. Memphis odds
(Photo of Miles Kelly: Darryl Oumi / Getty Images)
