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Get your Thanksgiving plans ready, Cougar fans. BYU Basketball now knows their path in one of the premier non-conference tournaments.
The Maui invitational bracket was released Thursday morning, and BYU will play UCLA in the first round. The entire bracket is below. The 3-day tournament will be November 25-27.
A look at the full @MauiInv bracket, which has @BYUbasketball playing the nightcap on Day 1 in Lahaina (9:30 pm MT): pic.twitter.com/NnXXzqfVt1
— Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) July 11, 2019
UCLA is coming off a 17-16 season where they finished just outside of the KenPom top 100. They fired Coach Steve Alford and hired former Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin. UCLA is a big brand and a good first round opponent, but they are a beatable team.
The next round will feature either Kansas or Chaminade, depending on the results of the games. Kansas in all likelihood awaits the winner of BYU-UCLA, so BYU should be plenty motivated to beat the Bruins so they have a chance to face one of College Basketball’s elite programs. Kansas is projected by many as a preseason top 5 team.
The Cougars are no strangers to the Maui Invitational, having played in the event on three previous occasions. BYU squad last made the trek across the Pacific in 2014, when they suffered two tough overtime losses to San Diego State and Purdue, and witnessed a record-setting performance by Chase Fischer in a victory over Chaminade.