Gophers to face Syracuse in opening round in Maui

MINNEAPOLIS -- The University of Minnesota men's basketball team will play Syracuse in the first round of the Maui Invitational in November.
The Gophers and Orange will face off on Nov. 25 at 4:30 p.m. CT to open the tournament's championship round. The winner of that game will take on the winner of Arkansas and California at the Lahaina Civic Center in Maui.
Prior to that, the Gophers will host Coastal Carolina on Nov. 19 at Williams Arena as the opener to the invitational. The tournament's championship game will take place on Nov. 27 at 9 p.m. CT on ESPN.
Minnesota's matchup with Syracuse will be just the second meeting between the two schools. The only previous game between the Gophers and Orange was in the Sweet 16 in 1990, when Minnesota won 82-75.
The Gophers will be playing for first-year head coach Richard Pitino, whose father, Rick, was an assistant under Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim from 1976-78.

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