Few things can make a group of college basketball coaches more giddy about the upcoming season then talking about playing in the Maui Invitational.

"We're excited about it," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "Needless to say, it's my favorite way to open college basketball."

What's not to like, except maybe for the marathon flight from the East Coast, about visiting Hawaii to play in the Maui Invitational, which will run from Nov. 21-23.

Not even a land mine-filled field, featuring North Carolina, UConn, Georgetown, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Wisconsin, Tennessee and host Chaminade could damper the mood during Tuesday's conference call with participating coaches. Four programs are expected to be ranked in the preseason top 25.

Prior to the call, the bracket was released. UConn will face Oklahoma State in the first round on Nov. 21 at the Lahaina Civic Center, meeting either last season's national runner-up North Carolina or Chaminade next. On the other side of the bracket, Georgetown plays Oregon and Tennessee faces Wisconsin.

It will be only the second meeting with Oklahoma State, which went 12-20 last season but returns its top two players. UConn dropped an 80-64 decision in the Bayou Classic in 1970.

"Oklahoma State is a terrific program," said UConn associate head coach Glen Miller, who filled in for head coach Kevin Ollie who's serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. U18 basketball team. "Brad Underwood is a terrific coach. ... He runs a tremendous program and a great system, so it's going to be a challenge.

"... If they're healthy, they're a lot better team than their record showed last year."

The Huskies own a great track record at the Maui Invitational, winning tournament titles in 2005 and 2010 and posting an 8-1 record overall in three appearances including 2000. The Kemba Walker-led Huskies knocked off Wichita State, Michigan State and Kentucky in Maui and then went on to win the national championship in 2011.

"This the premier early season tournament in the country," Miller said. "As you know, we've had terrific success here in the past... We've been fortunate enough to go 8-1. It's really served as a springboard for us for going on to have great success.

"It's a great barometer either way you look at it, whether you win or you struggle a little bit, as to where you are and where you need to go. It's a great team bonding team trip and a great chance for quality RPI wins. It really mirrors NCAA tournament in the sense that you're playing against great programs, you have a quick turnaround and you have varying styles of play."

With eight of their 11 players either freshmen or sophomore, the young Huskies will be thrown into the deep end of the pool early.

UConn will play three games — home versus Wagner (Nov. 11) and Northeastern (Nov. 14) and at Loyola Marymount (Nov. 17) in Los Angeles on the way to Maui — before running into some of the stiffest competition that they'll face all season.

The Huskies will certainly know more about their team after playing in the Maui Invitational.

"It's great early on to play in a tournament like this because you're always building and trying to get better every day," Miller said. "It's going to give you answers and it's going to give you a direction as a coaching staff and as a program on what you need to do to get better because ultimately that's what has to happen, you have to get better as the season progresses."

g.keefe@theday.com