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2018 Maui Invitational: San Diego State To Open Against Duke
Aztecs get to face a blue blood on the islands
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Great opportunity for San Diego State in Maui
The San Diego State basketball team is looking build off of its Mountain West tournamnet victory last year as they head into the 2018-19 season. They get back Jalen McDaniels who flirted with the draft, and the team should be in the mix for an NCAA tournamaent at-large berth next spring.
They are playing in the always prestigous Maui Invitational and the bracket was released with San Diego State taking on Duke at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
“If our players could pick a school to play, it would probably be Duke – to have an opportunity on a national stage to show what they’re all about,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said via the San Diego Union-Tribune. “That’s the kind of game we want to play. Ideally you want to play them in the final, but you want to play them at some point.
“You want to have your shot to go against one of the blue bloods.”
The Blue Devils are projected to be a top-five team heading into next year despite not returning anyone from its starting lineup from last year. Their recruiting class was loaded with the top three players from 2018 in R.J. Barrett, Cameron Reddish, and Zion Williamson.
This will be the third time that these two programs met. The last time was in the NCAA Tournament in 2015 where Duke won that game.
The field is stacked which includes six teams which were ranked in the final AP poll to end last season in Xavier (No. 3), Duke (No. 5), Gonzaga (No. 6), Arizona (No. 15) and Auburn (No. 16). Then there is Iowa State and Illinois as the other teams in the field.
San Diego State will take on either Auburn or Xavier in its second game of the tournament.
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