In Maui, no team is an island

LAHAINA, HAWAII —  This place feels like an NCAA tournament. Banners for UCLA, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Memphis, DePaul and Chaminade hang from a pole over the hotel bar.

Lahaina is an old whaling town and at the wharf UCLA fans wearing blue and gold leis were doing an eight-clap cheer while dozens of Kentucky fans walked down the street in a hip-hop rhythm and chanted, “Wildcats, Wildcats.”

The EA Sports Maui Invitational begins today. This isn’t the NCAA tournament, but all the games will be televised and four of the teams -- No. 6 UCLA, No. 13 Memphis, No. 22 Kentucky and No. 23 Georgia Tech, are nationally ranked.

The Bruins (1-0) open against the only Division II team, host Chaminade, but the Silverswords (0-0) have a savvy senior point guard in Zack Whiting and a sliver of a tradition of pulling upsets in the tournament it stages (Virginia in 1982, Villanova in 2003).

And if Kentucky were to beat DePaul in the first round, UCLA and Kentucky, which have combined for 18 national titles (11 for the Bruins) would play Tuesday.

Second-year Chaminade Coach Matt Mahar said, “We have three guys with some playing experience and we brought in seven new players. We brought in five junior college athletes, a Division I transfer and we got one kid who is a true freshman out of the Navy.

“So we’re really excited about this year’s tournament.”

The excitement reaches out to the mainland. Tournament chairman Dave Gavitt proudly touts this event as “really the big kickoff to the college season.”

Games are played at the Lahaina Civic Center. There are 2,400 seats and it opens onto the Pacific Ocean.

Spectators buy their souvenirs and refreshments on the beach. The crowd is turned over four times a day. When one game ends, 2,400 spectators are escorted out and 2,400 more enter. Jeff Anderson, a West Maui supervisor who oversees the Civic Center, said the building got air conditioning three years ago.

“It really was getting dangerous,” Anderson said. “The players would start dripping, and the floor would get slippery. We used to hand fans out to everybody who came in.”

Oklahoma and Memphis kick off the all-day schedule today at 11:30 a.m. PST, and UCLA and Chaminade end the day. In between, Georgia Tech plays Memphis and Kentucky plays DePaul.

Fred Guzman, sports producer at Pacific Radio Group, said the tournament is the highlight of his year.

“It’s really like having a tournament on a soundstage,” he said. “You have this exceptionally talented field year in, year out, yet you’re watching in a high school gym.”

Although UCLA may seem to have the least glamorous first-day game, the point guard matchup could be intriguing.

Darren Collison, the 6-foot-1 sophomore who has taken over for Lakers guard Jordan Farmar, had 16 points and 10 assists in UCLA’s 82-69 win over Brigham Young on Wednesday. Collison played 38 minutes.

Whiting, a 6-3, 205-pound senior from Chico, Calif., was fifth in Division II last year in assists (8.1 a game) and averaged 14.1 points and five rebounds.

“He’s a pretty tough guy,” Collison said. “You can tell he’s a real competitor just by seeing the film.”

Mahar said Whiting can hold his own against anyone. Collison said it’s not individual matchups he’s concerned about, it’s running the Bruins and improving his deficiencies.

“This is just a great opportunity for the team to show itself,” Collison said. “For me, I’m looking to improve my defense and just make sure I make all the right decisions. Because if I do that, the team will be better.”

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UCLA TONIGHT

vs. Chaminade at EA Sports Maui

Invitational, 8:30 PST

Site -- Lahaina Civic Center.

TV/Radio -- ESPN2/570.

Records -- UCLA 1-0, Chaminade 0-0.

Update -- UCLA Coach Ben Howland said forward Josh Shipp (hip) and guard Arron Afflalo (knee), who each limped off against Brigham Young, have been practicing and are expected to be at full strength. Chaminade won the NCAA Division II PacWest Conference last season, and its 19 wins were the most in 17 years, but the Silverswords lost Chris Reaves, the conference’s player of the year, to graduation.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com