Saturday, November 20, 1999

Three ranked teams in
Maui Invitational

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

The 16th Maui Invitational gets under way Monday at the Lahaina Civic Center with three teams ranked in Associated Press' Top 25.

The tournament runs through Wednesday.

ESPN will televise six games live in the tournament hosted by Chaminade. This will include three opening round games, both semi-final games and the championship game.

Last year, Syracuse beat Indiana, 76-63, in the final.

Heading the field next week will be No. 5 North Carolina, which returns four starters from a 24-10 team.

One of them is 6-8 Jason Capel, MVP of the Iolani Classic three years ago when he played for St. John's at Prospect Hall (Md.).

The Tar Heels are led by the Atlantic Coast Conference's best point guard, Ed Cota.

North Carolina will meet USC of the Pac-10 at 4 p.m. Monday.

No. 7 Florida takes on Utah State Monday at 11 a.m.The Gators (22-9 last season), who return three starters, are stocked with some of the best young talent in the nation.

No. 24 Purdue wiill meet Chaminade in the opening game at 9 a.m. The Boilermakers (21-13 last season) have five seniors back, three of them starters during last year's run to the Sweet 16.

Georgetown (15-16 last season) will take on Memphis (13-15 last season) at 6:30 p.m.

Tigers coach Tic Price resigned earlier this week. Johnny Jones, the associate head coach since 1997, is the interim coach.