NCAA Basketball: Takeaways from 2020 Maui Invitational Tournament

UNLV Rebels – A dangerous 0-4 team but still with many flaws

Losing to Montana State coming into this even set the stage for the Rebels now being 0-4 without any wins. While the defeats on their own are understandable, this is a black mark in year two of head coach T.J. Otzelberger’s reign. Leading scorer Bryce Hamilton looks great as usual, while Iowa State transfer Caleb Grill has been solid so far as well.

The rest of the roster has provided little production so far, with the exception of David Jenkins Jr. scoring 18 against Davidson. There’s next to no frontcourt production as well, which makes UNLV an easy team to scout. This team does have enough offense when hot to potentially upset some of the better teams on the schedule, but they very well could lose to those at the bottom as well.

Davidson Wildcats – Will be an A-10 threat this season

The Wildcats were fairly disappointing last season, even with former Conference Player of the Year Jon Axel Gudmundsson on the roster. With his graduation, Davidson had a chance to descend even further. However, they showed themselves very well in this event, suffering a pair of one-possession defeats before beating UNLV.

Leading scorer Kellan Grady is averaging around 20 ppg and is having a bounce-back year. Meanwhile, sophomore Hyunjung Lee is having an early breakout campaign, going for over 17 ppg and 4.0 apg. Add freshman forward Sam Mennenga and his impressive play and you have yet another Atlantic 10 contender in a deep conference this season.