NCAA Basketball: Ranking most interesting 2024 Maui Invitational openers

1. Iowa State vs. Auburn

These teams are not the historic blue bloods of college basketball. But they could be giving fans a potential Elite Eight or Final Four preview in November.

Both of these teams rank highly in virtually every preseason poll around. They have their sights set on the last weekend of the season, a place they've each only been to once (Auburn much more recently).

The Cyclones will be relatively untested by the time they get to Hawaii. All three of their scheduled games before the tournament are at Hilton Coliseum against overmatched opponents. Auburn will provide the first real challenge.

The Tigers are only taking one trip away from their home court before the Maui Invitational, but it's a doozy, as Auburn will take on the Houston Cougs at the Toyota Center in Texas. That's going to be a really tough one for the Tigers, one that should give them a burst of adversity before their big time tournament.

These teams last met in 2020 and have each won two games against the other. But this game certainly holds a lot of weight in sizing up these teams for March.

Either one of Iowa State or Auburn are going to head back to the mainland with a major notch in their resume, and perhaps even three. The other team will return home with questions about how they can compete with the best in the country.