Maui Jim Maui Invitational First Round
WHEN: Monday, 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Lahaina Civic Center in Lahaina, Maui
RECORDS: Georgia 4-0; Dayton 3-0
TV/Radio: ESPN2 (Dan Shulman, play-by-play; Jay Bilas, analyst); Georgia Bulldog Sports Network Flagship: WSB AM 750 Atlanta. XM & Internet: 374. (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone).
A trip to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational has been circled on Georgia’s calendar for almost a year, but according to Bulldog junior Rayshaun Hammonds, there won’t be any time for fun in the sun.
“It’s going to be fun but a business trip. We are trying to win it all,” Hammonds said. “We’ve got to play great teams so that’s the main focus, going out there and playing hard.”
First up for the Bulldogs (4-0), a date with Dayton (3-0) in what will be just the second matchup between the two programs since 1973.
For the Bulldogs, it represents a tremendous opportunity to see just how good they are. Georgia will play either Michigan State or Virginia Tech in Tuesday’s second round, with a third game Wednesday against either Kansas, BYU, UCLA or tournament host Chaminade.
Bulldog head coach Tom Crean knows all about the tournament and it’s like to play in. This will be Crean’s fifth trip to the Maui Invitational, with previous trips as the head coach at Indian (2008 and 2015) and Marquette (2007) along with Michigan as an assistant in 1995.
“The level of basketball that you have to be at in this, the level of competing that you have to be at … I'll use that term urgency again, that urgency that you have to have in this is unlike anything these guys have ever been a witness to in this point in their career."
Georgia is coming off an 82-78 win over Georgia Tech, thanks to Hammonds’ second-straight 26-point performance.
His 19 first-half points to help the Bulldogs build a 35-27 advantage at the intermission. He scored five more points in the first 4:10 of the second stanza as Georgia pushed its lead to 49-33 before foul trouble pushed him to the bench for the rest of the game.
Fortunately for Georgia, freshman Anthony Edwards was there pick up the slack by scoring 14 of his 18 points in the final 14:26 of the contest.
The Bulldogs led 77-67 with 1:18 left and 80-72 with 30 ticks on the clock. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Michael Devoe in the final four seconds trimmed the final margin in half.
Crean’s looking forward to seeing how his team responds to more big tests this week.
“To able to take your program to a prestigious tournament like that, and then be able to measure yourself against those programs that are there, and see what you got to do against -- to find ways to win and see what you got to do to be able to win long-term,” Crean said. “I’ve left there losing by three or four in the championship game to Duke at Marquette, I left there 1-2, left there underdogs, left there favorites’ it didn't make any difference. When you get there, none of it matters. You have got to be at a high, high level of competition, of competitiveness; if you want to succeed in that tournament. I'm looking forward to that."
