UNLV to open Maui Invitational against Alford, UCLA

As a player and a coach, Steve Alford has been involved in several memorable games against UNLV. Now, he can look forward to another one.

Alford's next run-in with the Rebels will be before Thanksgiving in one of the marquee events of the college basketball season. UNLV drew UCLA in the first round of the Maui Invitational on Nov. 23.

"I've always thought as a player and a coach, this is the premier event," said Alford, entering his third season as Bruins coach. "It's a great litmus test right away. You are going to get a really good idea where your team is going into December.

"I think UNLV is going to have a lot of talent to put on the floor. A lot of new faces."

The eight-team bracket and game times were announced Tuesday. The Rebels and Bruins will play at 8:30 p.m. Pacific on ESPN2 in the final game of the tournament's first day.

UNLV coach Dave Rice recently predicted his team would face UCLA because of the desire to televise a high-profile West Coast game in the late-night slot.

"We're excited to be part of it," Rice said. "I wanted to make sure we got our program back to Maui. It's one of the most prestigious events."

The Rebels are making their third appearance in the Maui Invitational, posting a 3-3 record in the event after participating in 1988 and 2000, when Rice was an assistant coach.

Kansas, which will enter the season as the field's highest-ranked team, meets tournament host Chaminade on the same side of the bracket. The games will be played Nov. 23, 24 and 25 at the Lahaina Civic Center.

In the opposite bracket, Indiana opens against Wake Forest and St. John's will play Vanderbilt.

The Rebels and Bruins last met in 1998, and UCLA is 4-0 in the all-time series. Rice and Alford, friendly rivals when they coached in the Mountain West, have discussed scheduling a regular-season series. UCLA put a lopsided beating on UNLV in a closed scrimmage in Los Angeles last year, but both teams will look a lot different in November.

"Coach Alford has done a very good job there for two years," Rice said. "No doubt, it's early to play a game of this magnitude, so we'll have to be ready."

Rice lost his top two scorers yet reeled in one of the nation's top recruiting classes, headlined by 7-foot Stephen Zimmerman from Bishop Gorman High. The Bruins, who finished 22-14 and reached the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 last season, are expected to be a fringe Top 25 team led by returnees Bryce Alford, Isaac Hamilton, Tony Parker and Thomas Welsh.

As New Mexico's coach from 2007 to 2013, Alford went 7-7 against UNLV. In his last Mountain West game, the Lobos beat the Rebels in the conference tournament championship at the Thomas & Mack Center.

As a player at Indiana, Alford helped deal UNLV one of its most painful defeats. In March 1987, he scored 33 points as the Hoosiers upset the No. 1-ranked Rebels 97-93 in a Final Four semifinal in New Orleans.

UNLV's regular-season opener against Cal Poly on Nov. 13 at the Thomas & Mack is considered part of the Maui Invitational as a regional-round game.

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.