Aloha!

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -- As anyone who has ever watched Hawaii Five-0 can tell you, “aloha” is one of those words that has two different meanings -- it translates as both hello and goodbye. For seven of the eight teams playing in the Maui Invitational this week, aloha means “hello” paradise (one would think that the Chaminade players are kinda used to Hawaii by now) while for seven of them it will also mean “goodbye” to the ranks of the undefeated. For the first time, every squad who walks into the Lahaina Civic Center on Monday does so with an unblemished record, a combined 30-0. Ken Pomeroy tells us that as of Sunday morning there are only 56 remaining zero-loss men’s basketball programs in Division 1 and one-seventh of them are in Maui. Amongst the eight teams there are four returning champions: Gonzaga won in 2009; Syracuse in both 1990 and 1998 and of course, the Keith Waleskowsi-led Dayton squad in 2003.

-- The Flyers are going to need a lot of luck if they are to come back from Maui with some hardware. According to Ken Pomeroy, UD has the 2nd highest ranking in terms of “Luck Factor” of anyone in the eight team field at #69, behind only Baylor at #49:

http://kenpom.com/index.php?s=RankLuck

-- Here is a preview of the Maui Invitational from a Minnesota Gopher POV:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/233092101.html

-- Andy Katz had some kind words for Archie and company in his “Daily Word” video edition on ESPN.com the other day:

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/pa...122/daily-word

-- If you have 2 hours, 36 minutes and 39 seconds to kill before midnight on Monday rolls around, you can watch former Flyer Chris Johnson score 28 points for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the NBA D-League:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjz8CSvcLGU

-- RushtheCourt.com checks in on the Atlantic 10:

http://rushthecourt.net/2013/11/21/c...tlantic-10-43/

-- RtC.com also provides us with profiles of two of our A-10 brethren, the VCU Havocs:

http://rushthecourt.net/2013/11/17/v...in-the-season/

Of course, that was before this happened:

http://www.commonwealthtimes.org/201...-loses-to-fsu/

And a look at newest A-10 member George Mason:

http://rushthecourt.net/2013/11/18/g...n-this-season/

Penned before GMU met future Flyer opponent Iona the other day, the results of which were not pretty from a Patriot perspective:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...254_story.html

-- Andy Enfield, the former mayor of “Dunk City” at FGCU certainly has taken an unusual career path to become the head hoops coach at USC:

http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/...dream-20131122

-- Professional dunkers? Who knew?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mor...ers/?eref=sihp

-- Here is one important reason why the fist bump is better than the traditional high five. Get ready for the science:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/ar...ifesto/280175/

-- 10 things you didn’t know about the TV show Bar Rescue:

http://www.brobible.com/entertainmen...out-bar-rescue

-- This is one very expensive way to tell your ex-wife how you feel about her:

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...e#.UobnomRgY9F

-- The trailer for Batkid Rises is as awesome as he is:

http://www.uproxx.com/gammasquad/201...rises-trailer/

-- “The Sweet Tweet of the Week” is a pictorial one that comes to us from UD Assistant Coach Kevin Kuwik on Maui:

https://twitter.com/KevinKuwik/statu...923392/photo/1

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com