"Most of our guys are city kids so there were some interesting questions from them on the ride from the airport," Wainwright said Sunday, recounting his team's arrival in Hawaii for the EA Sports Maui Invitational. "One kid saw all the palm trees and asked me if they are real. I told him they were and I'm hoping he can get some credit for that for a class he's taking.

"Then when we got to the hotel here and one kid looked out at the ocean he said, `Coach, it looks like Lake Michigan.' I told him the last time Lake Michigan was that blue was in the 1500s."

One thing Wainwright wasn't kidding about was his team's first-round matchup on Monday against No. 22 Kentucky.

"I know we're the only team here with a loss and I know we're the only team here that has played a road game," Wainwright said, referring to the Blue Demons' 1-2 start that included road losses to Bradley and Northwestern. "And we have another one tomorrow because the population of this island has doubled with Kentucky fans."

This is the Wildcats' fourth appearance in the 23-year-old event, and no school's fans have followed their team to this island the way Kentucky's have. The Wildcats (2-0) won the tournament in 1993, and finished third in 1997 and 2002. Each time, blue-clad fans were everywhere on the island, not just in the 2,500-seat Lahaina Civic Center. Rental cars with Hawaii license plates are suddenly sporting blue Kentucky flags in the back windows.

"One thing about Kentucky fans I do know is they like to have a good time but they like to win," Wildcats coach Tubby Smith said.

Kentucky sold its full allotment of 450 tickets within days of them becoming available in the summer, and hundreds of other fans made the trip without game tickets.

"Security has already told me they found two Kentucky fans hiding in a ladies room and two more on the roof of the Civic Center," tournament director Dave Gavitt joked about the fans' ardor for finding a way into the municipal gym that for three days each year becomes the place to be for college basketball.

Monday's other games have No. 6 UCLA facing Chaminade, the Division II host school; No. 13 Memphis (1-0) against Oklahoma (2-0); and No. 23 Georgia Tech meeting Purdue (2-0).

Chaminade, the only team in the field which has yet to play a game, has seven new players on its roster, and only four who have played in this tournament.

"Our guys' eyes are so wide right now," Silverswords coach Matt Mahar said. "They can't even believe there's free juice in the lobby right now."

Chaminade has a 4-60 record in the tournament. Their last with was over Villanova in the opening round in 2003.

UCLA comes in off a season-opening win over BYU, a game coach Ben Howland described as "hard-fought." Arron Afflalo, one of the leaders of last season's national runner-up team, and Josh Shipp, who played four games in 2005-06 before having hip surgery, were both limping after that game.

"Both of them practiced yesterday," Howland said Sunday. "Arron had an MRI on his knee Friday and it was negative and Josh took some lumps in a pretty physical game but they're both ready to go."

Georgia Tech (3-0) starts three freshmen and Thaddeus Young (16.0), Javaris Crittenton (15.7) and Zach Peacock (9.0) have been a big part of the quick start that has the Yellow Jackets averaging 95 points per game.