NCAA Basketball: Ranking most interesting 2024 Maui Invitational openers

4. Colorado vs. Michigan State

With no Chaminade around, somebody else will need to be the proverbial victim of the other teams in this year's Maui Invitational. It looks like the Colorado Buffaloes will assume that position.

Colorado is coming off the best year of the Tad Boyle era. The Buffaloes set a program record for wins in a season and made it to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. It was a great season.

But Colorado lost a lot from last year, returning less than 20 percent of their minutes from 2023-24, according to Bart Torvik. Tristan da Silva, Cody Williams, and K.J. Simpson were all drafted to the NBA, showing just how strong the Buffaloes were a year ago. Not much is in Boulder in the way of replacements.

As for Michigan State, this doesn't necessarily have the makings of an elite Spartans squad, but the floor should be relatively high for Izzo's team. Jaden Akins is ready to fill Tyson Walker's departure and Xavier Booker is ready to break out.

There's not any particularly fun storyline binding these two teams, either. They haven't met in more than two decades; Michigan State has a 3-1 edge in the all-time series.