KU basketball will open Maui Invitational against Chaminade

LAWRENCE — The Kansas basketball team will open the Maui Invitational against the home team, facing host Chaminade in a first-round matchup on Nov. 23.

In an eight-team field that also features Indiana, UCLA and Wake Forest, the Jayhawks will share the same side of the bracket with UCLA and UNLV. With a victory against Chaminade, a Division II program, Kansas would face the winner of the Bruins and Rebels on Tuesday, Nov. 24.

The championship game — which is set for Nov. 25, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving — could feature a juicy matchup in Kansas against Indiana — two teams that are already set to face off in Hawaii in an Armed Forces Classic non-conference matchup during the 2016-17 season.

The details of the Maui bracket, which will be officially released on Tuesday, were first reported by ESPN’s Andy Katz. On the other side of the bracket, Indiana will open with Wake Forest and second-year coach Danny Manning. Vanderbilt will face St. John’s — and first-year coach Chris Mullin — in the fourth quarterfinal matchup.

The Jayhawks are returning to the Maui Invitational for the first time since 2011-12, when they lost to Duke in the championship game. That year, Kansas advanced to the NCAA championship game before falling to Kentucky.

Big Ten considered Kansas — The dust never settles on conference realignment in college sports. Power conferences forge on, but retro-speculation continues. The latest involves Kansas.

In a story that appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, the Jayhawks were envisioned by some in the Big Ten along with Nebraska, Iowa State, Texas A&M and Oklahoma to form an eight-team division with Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

The notion of such a move and what ramifications may have followed are intriguing to imagine, more so than speculation involving Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State and Baylor to the Big East in 2010, or Kansas to the Pac-12 in 2011.

There was also talk about Missouri to the Big Ten; Kansas State and others to the Mountain West; Texas, Oklahoma and three others to the Pac-12; Kansas and Texas to the Atlantic Coast Conference; Pittsburgh and Louisville along with West Virginia to the Big 12; and Notre Dame to the Big 12 — all of which were entertained at some point from the beginning of the realignment speculation.

Virginia Tech and North Carolina State to the Southeastern Conference, Florida State and Clemson to the Big 12, and BYU to the Big 12 were also considerations.

All of these potential moves were widely speculated in the media and perhaps discussed at the administrative levels. Some possibilities were stronger than others, and the ones The Star confirmed were published.

It’s great fun speculating about realignment and to play what-if. At SEC and Big 12 Media Days during the previous two weeks, league officials said things are stable. The Big 12, the only conference with 10 members, would be the one with an eye on growth, but as commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, “The majority of our presidents and chancellors believe 10 is the right number for us.”

That is, there’s nobody outside the Power Five conferences that would bring added value to the Big 12.

But we’ll always have speculation, even in the rearview mirror.

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 7:17 PM with the headline "KU basketball will open Maui Invitational against Chaminade."