ARE YOU READY FOR SOME EXCITING MAUI BASKETBALL?
Lahaina, Nov. 22–Your blogger representing Lahaina News will cover his fourth EA Sports Maui Invitational beginning tomorrow with special behind the scene photos of what is considered the best pre-season basketball tournament. Either teams will vie for this trophy, year raised by the 2012 champion Illinois. Just minutes ago Ill beat Penn State with a field goal with 13 seconds to go to give my alma mater a badly needed victory. Tomorrow: the coaches meet the media overlooking Ka.anapali Beach. WE welcome back ESPZN which will bring the tournament to 6 million people worldwide and some 70 or so media representatives, reporters and commentors from individual schools as well as major newspapers. from s SEE BELOW MY STORY FROM LAST YEAR.……………..VOICES OF MAUI TALKS STORY, LLC photo, 2012.
SIX MILLION PEOPLE EXPECTED TO WATCH MAUI INVITATIONAL
November 21, 2013
BY NORM BEZANE , Lahaina News
LAHAINA – Decked out in colorful college garb, 2,000 basketball fans from across the nation will converge on Lahaina Civic Center again the Monday before Thanksgiving to enjoy the 30th annual EA Sports Maui Invitational Basketball Tournament before a television audience estimated at 6.6 million.
Fans from eight colleges will fill the 2,500-seat arena along with 100 reporters, photographers and ESPN personnel who will file daily stories and beam TV images of hard-fought games, pristine beaches and our sparkling ocean to a worldwide audience.
Even though they pick the teams a year in advance, tournament planners have the reputation of always including a number of squads that end up in the top ten nationally.
Action will be fast, furious and close at Lahaina Civic Center during the Maui Invitational Basketball Tournament.
The eight-team lineup this year features ninth-ranked Syracuse, 23rd-ranked Baylor, Arkansas, California, Dayton, Gonzaga, Minnesota and Chaminade.
Chaminade University plays every year as the sponsor of the tournament, but most of the teams are different each year.
The tournament began when Chaminade invited a top athletic conference team to Hawaii 30 years ago.
Lahaina Galleries owner Jim Killett, a former high school coach who has attended many tournaments, said the event is great for Lahaina.
“It gets big TV exposure. It’s great for local people to see talented basketball players,” he commented.
Future NBA pros play in the tournament, and some come to watch the action. Magic Johnson came several years when he owned a place in Napili, and Michael Jordan attended one year.
“You don’t have to sit in a ‘nose bleed’ section in a big arena. You are up close in essentially a high school gym, and fans go home and talk about it,” Killett added.
Boosting the local economy, Killett said “the fans go out and spend money, too.”
EA Sports said the tournament has produced $164 million in local spending during its 30-year run.
Chef Christian Jorgensen of CJ’s Comfort Zone Deli and Diner – who catered the tourney for ten years but will take a vacation from it this year – noted that it is a great personal experience for the fans.
“The gym is louder than most gyms; you get phenomenal players. It boosts exposure to Maui,” he said.
Hundreds of volunteers, including Lahaina residents and visitors from the Mainland, will sell and collect tickets, monitor activities in the hall, help direct cars to parking and, in the case of Lahainaluna High School students, sweep and maintain the floor.
The coaches will participate in an annual new conference and free throw shooting contest with students from grade and high schools on the lawn of the Sheraton Maui Resort and Spa on Sunday morning.
John Groce, retained to coach Illinois last year, said the first thing he did after being hired was look at the schedule. He happily noted the Fighting Illini would be traveling to Maui.
He said he watched the tournament growing up for years.
Coaches have frequently called the invitational the nation’s best preseason basketball tournament during the annual news conferences.
Local fans can purchase tickets beginning Friday, Nov. 22, at Lahaina Civic Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on game days from 8 a.m. until the end of the last game. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (808) 667-DUNK
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EYE CANDY FOR VICTIMS OF POLAR VORTEX EXPERIENCING RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES
Chicago, Nov 13. It’s 28 degrees here and record low temperatures are being set in many cities.
Suggestion: hop on a plane and enjoy this on Ka’anapali beach. Voices of Maui Talk Story, LLC photos
WHAT WILL 30,000 HALLOWEENERS LOOK PARADING ON MAUI?
Oct 30–Lahaina is gearing up for another Halloween. albeit a bit tamer when some of these photos were taken in past years. Watch this space Saturday for an amazing portfolio of photos from Voices of Maui Talk Story, LLC. PARTY, THEN VOTE MAUI, VOTE AMERICA ON NOV. 4
BYE, BYE ANNA: WE ESCAPE HURRICANE
Kaanapali, Oct. 18. Hurricane Ana veared away from the islands last night but its legacy was deeply cloudy skies this morning at 7:30 a.m.
Only a few ventured into the water. Flash floods on the other side of the island could occur if their are heavy rains. VOICES OF MAUI, TALK STORY, LLC.
ON THE HEELS OF VICTORY: KA;ALA PART TWO
ON THE HEELS OF VICTORY: KA;ALA PART TWO.The candidate for County Council joins scores of other men pictured here wering high heels in support of Women Helping Women., With NFL violence toward women among some players, the cause becomes even moe relavent.
THE WORLD’S LARGEST HULA SKIRT..OR IS IT? BE A FOLLOWER TO GET THE ANSWER
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Kaanapali, Aug 22. Bringing its new luau to a new level this week at the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel (known as the Most Hawaiian Hotel for many reasons) treated guests from the visitor industry to a second preview showing this week.
The guests, including this writer and my lovely wife. sipped Mai Tai’s and champagne on the lawn, played a Hawaii checkers game, feasted on Tom Marmot’s wonderful cuisine, and watched behind a phalanx of torches as beautifully y clad men and woman dancers performed and told about legends of Maui. Pictured below are the latest luau pics. Below is a salute to some of my very good friends who bring joy to me and so many others.
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- WIFE OF MAN WHO ATE PIG EYEBALLS
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- The show begins
ABOUT VOICES OF MAUI AND Kwho
The hotel and its wonderful people have done a lot for me personally and in return–without thinking about it much I have done a lot for the hotel as well.
My first book, “Voices of Maui: Natives and Newcomers” is sold in the lobby shop. A special custom book called Voices of Aloha featuring seven people associated with the hotel is sold in the deli shop.
The hotel sometimes gifts my books to its many returning guests and it is always fun to hear someone say, Oh, I got and love your book.: This happens a lot.
The Tiki bar is my home away from home for an hour or two on many evenings. There I write with a glass of wine (once spilled it on my laptop, ruining it). Sometimes I meet fun, interesting and amazing people.
My favorite couple, who I called the Ultimate visitors love to come to the Tiki bar to watch hula although they do not stay in the hotel. They love Maui so much they have 300 Itune Hawaians songs when they are away from the island. Their story appears in my recent book
My political antagonist who is so smart I cannot defeat him in an argument and have given up often talis politics with me while his chats with visitors about other things.. They are away for the summer, and this gives me a break from hearing him blast the affordable health care act and other goings on.
He doesn’t know it, but in a recent column I included him in a list of famous people I have met.
It is the two lead bartenders who make the hotel the Tiki Bar so popular. Dale, who I christened the 400,000 mai tai man, is so famous on the Mainland that people often go up to the bar for the first time to ask any male bartender, “Are you Dale.“ Dale also loves to autograph his write-up in my book and always writes the same thing. Come on Back ALL RIGHT
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THIS WEEK IN KAANAPALI
Aug 15–From Lahaina’s Pioneer Inn o the Maui Vacation Club in Kaanapali to Honua Ka, newest most modern kid friendly condo in West Maui, to the golf course. Mouse over pics for captions. The dog can’t help loving women, msot of all my wife while ignoring me. By accident the interesting people doing things this week were beautiful women. My wife who is many years older than anyone here however tops them all but sorry no photo.
Voices of Maui Talk Story, LLC photos.
Kea Aloha makes a new friend. He loves women. Lucky dog.
EXCLUSIVE AND FULLY UPDATED: KAANAPALI BEACH RESORT AS YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE
WITH A POSIBLE HURRICANE KAANAPALI BEACH RESORT WAS TURNED INTO A SERREAL GHOST TOWN AND WITHIN 14 HOURS RETURNED TO ITS FORMER GLORIUS SELF . ULAPALAKU RANCH WAS NOT SO LUCKY. IT LOST..–IF YOU CAN BELIVE IT 50 MILES OF FENCES, HUNDREDS OF WONDERFUL EUClPTUS TREES. ABOVE KAPALUA WAS ALSO SOMEWHAT BATTERED. 7 pm Thursday, Kaanapali Beach and later Lahaina were totally buttoned up before the storm. Fourteen hours later, it was back to business as amazing workers put everything back together. Visitors who stayed inside all evening Thursday all showed up on Friday. Norm Bezane/VOICES OF MAUI TALK STORY, LLC EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS BECOME A FOLLOWER HULA GRILL BEFORE AND AFTER
BELOW SUREAL BEACHPATH, HULA GRILL, WHALERS VILLAGE BEFORE AND AFTER , LEILANI’S BEFORE AND AFTER, KIMO’S BEFORE AND AFTER , THE BEACH AND BEACHWALK BEFORE AND AFTER KAANAPALI BEACH HOTEL SUGAR SHACK BEFORE KAANAPALI PARKWAY BEFOR, WE HAD AN ELECTION SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THESE INORDER, PASS OVER IMAGE FOR CAPTIONS.
ALOHA HAWAII NEWS NOW VIEWERS
Whalers Village Shopping Center at Ka’anapali closed last evening, a rare event.
JOYS of KAANAPALI 