Before signing up to fly 4,251 miles and play four games in six days on two islands, Illinois men's basketball coach Bruce Weber called Michigan State coach Tom Izzo who dragged his team to the middle of the Pacific two years ago to take on a similar schedule.

Weber is attempting to do what Izzo couldn't, beat the University of Hawai'i — the Illini play UH Friday at Stan Sheriff Center — then fly to Lahaina and win the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

Izzo's 2005 Spartans walked into the Stan Sheriff as the nation's fourth-ranked team and limped to the airport following an 84-62 hammering at the hands of the Warriors.

Izzo's squad managed redemption by winning two of three on Maui and falling 109-106 in triple overtime to Adam Morrison's Gonzaga Bulldogs in one of the greatest games in the Maui Invitational's 23-year history.

"Before we signed the contract we did call Tom. He's a good friend and the one word of advice that he gave us was, you know, 'Make sure you give yourself enough time.' We are leaving a couple days ahead of time hopefully to allow for the adjustment," Weber said during a conference call Wednesday. "They (the Spartans) had a lot of trouble with dehydration, the flight, you know, just time zones and all that type of thing. So we're aware of it. I hope his experience will help us. I hope it's a smart thing."

Weber and the Illini join 11th-ranked Duke, 12th-ranked Marquette, Louisiana State, Oklahoma State, Princeton, Arizona State and host Chaminade in this year's field.

The tournament will be played Nov. 19 to 21 at the Lahaina Civic Center.

Now in its 24th year, the EA sports Maui Invitational is considered the premier early-season college basketball tournament in the country.

To date, 79 schools representing 20 conferences in 36 states have competed, and tournament participants have won 53 of 69 NCAA championships, 53 of 69 national runner-up spots, and comprised 206 of 276 Final Four teams.

The 2007 lineup continues the tradition of tough competition and top-tier talent.

Duke, Marquette and Oklahoma State are former national champions and the Blue Devils, Marquette and Illinois were 2007 NCAA tournament participants. LSU was a 2006 Final Four participant, and Illinois finished as national runner-up in 2005.

The Blue Devils have won three EA Sports Maui Invitational titles.

"We've had good players. And I don't know how big a secret that is," said Blue Devil assistant coach and former point guard Steve Wojciechowski. "We've always enjoyed being a part of the tournament, and we've had a great deal of success. We look at it as our first opportunity to win a championship and coach (Mike Krzyzewski) always talks about preparing our program to be (a) championship-level team, and participating in the EA Sports Maui Invitational is the first opportunity to do that. We realize that this group has got a lot to learn and a lot to prove, and hopefully our time in Maui will be a big step for our group."

Host school Chaminade once again finds itself in the David role surrounded by seven Goliaths who are bigger in every facet of the game from program budget to starting lineups.

The Silverswords are 4-63 all-time in the tournament and will be without star guard Zack Whiting, who completed his eligibility and is playing professionally in Germany. Former Silversword Chris Reaves plays in Romania.

Head coach Matt Mahar will rely heavily on 7-foot, 245 pound Marko Kolaric and says the experience of competing with elite Division I talent in a tournament setting is great for his team this early in the season.

"Our guys go into that tournament with their eyes wide open. You know, you have Bill Raftery at your practice and Jay Bilas, and that kind of thing. It's really exciting for our guys, but at the same time we have to try and tone that part down," Mahar said. "This year we're going to have to try and shift our concentration to more of a post-oriented team. We have good guards coming in, but none of them have stepped up and shown us right now that they're the guy to take over for us and kind of lead us the right way, so we're going to rely definitely on our seniors and especially Marko Kolaric and Stu Kussler to try and help us find our identity right now."

The Silverswords drew 12th-ranked Marquette as their opening round opponent.

Golden Eagles' head coach Tom Crean returns five starters, including star guard Dominic James, who applied for the NBA draft then withdrew when told he would be a late second-round pick at best.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.