AUBURN – Auburn basketball forward Chad Baker-Mazara always wanted to go to Hawaii.

However, he never imagined that this would be the case under these circumstances; We travel to the Aloha State to compete in one of college basketball’s premier early-season invitational tournaments.

“You’re going to Maui, but at the same time you’re going to play basketball at a very high level,” Baker-Mazara said Wednesday. “The combination makes me feel like a child when you give him candy.”

WILL HOWARD, HUDSON RETURN?: Two Auburn basketball reserves involved in a flight dispute en route to Maui will be “available.”

The Tigers spent more than 12 hours on the road — technically in the air — on Thursday to get to Maui, where they will compete in the 2024 Maui Invitational, starting with a top-five matchup against No. 5 Iowa State at 8 a.m. Monday, CST.

Bruce Pearl’s Auburn teams are no strangers to a season-long tournament. This is the 15th time in 11 seasons that the Tigers have traveled to play in a multi-team invitational tournament, but a lineup like this doesn’t exist yet.

Seven of the eight teams in this year’s Maui field were either ranked or received votes in the final AP and USA TODAY polls, with Colorado the lone exception despite its 4-0 record. Half of the field, including Auburn, has a number next to their name, with the third-seeded Tigers and fifth-seeded Cyclones joined by No. 2 UConn and No. 10 North Carolina. And the way the bracket moves could give Auburn a run for its money in all three.

So what prospects does Auburn use to tackle such a daunting field? Baker-Mazara and Pearl offered a pair.

“It reminds me a little bit of the road to the Final Four in 2019,” Pearl said. “The way we looked at it was, ‘Man, somebody’s got to beat Kansas, North Carolina or Kentucky along the way.’ You know, somebody has to beat Iowa State or North Carolina or Dayton or UConn, somebody along the way.

Auburn’s run to its first and only Final Four appearance saw a group of five-seeded Tigers run the aforementioned gauntlet. They defeated fourth-seeded Kansas in the Round of 32 before earning a Sweet Sixteen win against a top-seeded North Carolina squad, and then they avenged a regular-season loss to second-seeded Kentucky in the Elite Eight, by defeating the Wildcats 77-7. 71 in overtime to punch a ticket to Minneapolis.

Baker-Mazara draws the comparison to last season – when Auburn went to Nashville and won the SEC Tournament.

“We’re taking this like we’re playing in Nashville,” he said. “Basically it’s one game at a time. You just prepare for it and just try to get your body used to it earlier – back-to-back games – especially because it’s against quality teams.”

During the Tigers’ run through Music City, they defeated three teams – South Carolina, Mississippi State and Florida – for the conference tournament title. And they must do the same if they want to leave Maui victorious.

If Auburn beats Iowa State on Monday, it will play the winner of the Dayton-North Carolina game on Tuesday. If it beats the Flyers or Tar Heels, it will face one of four teams — Colorado, Michigan State, Memphis or UConn — on Wednesday to decide first and second place.

It would be historic for the program, which has never finished in the top two of invitational tournaments, although this will be only its second appearance. It’s also not lost on the Tigers what a week-long win in Hawaii could mean for their prospects on the national stage.

“It could help us become No. 1 in the country,” Baker-Mazara said. “That’s a goal that I personally want, so that as a team we can get to No. 1 and get to the point where you say, ‘Okay, we’re the best.’ Hopefully we can maintain that throughout the season.”

Adam Cole is the Auburn Athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.

This article originally appeared on the Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball drew on these experiences for the Maui Invitational game