Asheville lands major basketball event

Asheville has been named the host city for the mainland move of the 2020 Maui Jim Maui Invitational. The tournament airs each year on ESPN and is considered the premier college basketball event around the Thanksgiving holiday. With the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s announcement that the 2020-21 college basketball season will start on Nov. 25, this year’s event dates have yet to be finalized. All games will take place at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in downtown Asheville. 

Teams expected to participate are Alabama, Davidson, Indiana, North Carolina, Providence, Stanford, Texas and UNLV. The Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission worked with several collaborative entities in securing the event’s relocation to Asheville.

Those involved in the tournament – teams, staff, officials and ESPN media – will be in a bubble environment that limits their movement and interaction outside the venue. The tournament will follow North Carolina guidelines on mass gatherings. 

“We couldn’t be more excited and deeply honored to bring the Maui Jim Maui Invitational here to Asheville,” said Demp Bradford, president of the Asheville Buncombe Regional Sports Commission. “Asheville’s ability to host this top-level sporting event is a testament to state and local partnerships built on a track record of welcoming and supporting national, and international, competitive events to Buncombe County.” 

The tournament is expected to generate more than $1.1 million in economic impact in Buncombe County, according to Bradford.

“Love for athletics runs strong in these mountains,” said Chris Cavanaugh, interim executive of Explore Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Asheville is thrilled to share the national spotlight offered by high-caliber events like the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. These events enrich and enliven our community on many levels as an opportunity to celebrate this compelling region and its sporting history.”

The Tournament will result in a homecoming for North Carolina coach Roy Williams, a three-time national champion and 2007 inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame who was born and raised in Western North Carolina. In high school, Williams lettered in basketball and baseball at T. C. Roberson High School, a Buncombe County school, and his first coaching job was at Charles D. Owen High School in nearby Black Mountain.

The tournament has its roots to a December 1982, game, when then No. 1 ranked Virginia, led by National College Player of the Year Ralph Sampson, played little-known NAIA Chaminade University in Honolulu while on the way back from a trip to Tokyo. The Silverswords stunned Virginia 77-72 in what may say is the greatest upset in college basketball history. Two years later, in 1984, Chaminade University hosted the first Maui Jim Maui Invitational and it has proven to be the premier early-season college basketball tournament for 36 years running. Each year, the Maui Jim Maui Invitational attracts the top programs, best-known coaches and most outstanding players to compete in an exciting atmosphere that sets the tone for the college basketball season.