LAHAINA, Maui — The Maui Invitational has built itself into one of the most respected early season college basketball tournaments in the nation. This season, however, only one team enters the event ranked in the Top 25 — 25th-ranked Maryland.

That fact didn't seem to bother the coaches at the 26th annual tournament during the opening press conference yesterday.

"No, that doesn't matter because these are all good programs," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "I mean, I think we are ranked 25th. We snuck into the AP (rankings) this week, but this time of year those rankings are really based on what you did last year for the most part."

Last season's event featured top-ranked and eventual national champion North Carolina, sixth-ranked Texas and No. 8 Notre Dame.

The last Maui Invitational to have no ranked teams was the 2003 event won by Dayton.

"The teams that I see here are going to be ranked," Williams said. "Gonzaga goes to Michigan State and loses by four, for example. They are going to be a very good basketball team. Wisconsin has a heck of a chance to be a good team. We think we can be a good team, but you have to prove it."

Maryland will open with NCAA Division II Chaminade, the tournament host. The other first-day matchups are Cincinnati-Vanderbilt, Colorado-Gonzaga, and Arizona-Wisconsin.

Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said he wasn't aware of the situation for this tournament.

"The only rankings I know are the ones that come out at the end of the year," he said. "I don't look at any of the other ones. You are trying to tell me we are not ranked? Or Arizona isn't ranked? I didn't know that. Seriously, I didn't know that."

Gonzaga coach Mark Few said the field is as good as ever. This is Few's third trip to the Maui Invitational, including perhaps the best field ever in 2005 when Michigan State, Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Kansas, Arkansas — all national champions since 1988 — joined Gonzaga and Chaminade.

UConn beat Gonzaga in the final after the Zags advanced with a 109-106 win in triple overtime over Michigan State.

"What I think this field is, at the end of the year, people are going to look back and go, 'Wow, that field was really, really good,' " Few said. "I think this year as well as the last time we were here (in 2005) — we were here with six (former) national champions — I think this field might have as many teams that can get into the NCAA tournament when it is all said and done.

"Preseason rankings, as you are finding out right now, aren't really accurate of where teams are playing. They might be based more on recruiting sites, or hype, or even just on tradition of programs. You will see a lot of these teams rise up into the rankings and even get some pretty high seeds into the (NCAA) tournament."

First-year Arizona coach Sean Miller said the Maui tournament can only help teams like his Wildcats.

"We will improve a lot by being in Maui," Miller said. "We start with Wisconsin, a storied program, a program that goes to the NCAA tournament year in, year out. The faces change, the results stay the same."

Miller said the rankings don't matter at this point.

"It really doesn't," he said. "If you look back at the history of rankings, there are so many great teams that are overrated in November and maybe sustain injuries or what have you. And I'm sure there are a number of different teams from this field that will be in this year's NCAA tournament that will go on to have terrific seasons. Maryland, clearly, coming in you can see them having a special season."