PROVO — Steve Cleveland has been to Maui, his favorite place on earth, three times, counting his arrival Friday for the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
This time he didn't bring his golf clubs, and he's not going snorkeling unless it's today after practice.
The Cougars open the season Monday against No. 3 North Carolina in the first round of the tournament hosted by Chaminade University. The tournament field is loaded. Besides the Tar Heels, the North Carolina-BYU winner will take on either Tennessee or No. 24 Stanford and the other teams besides Chaminade are Louisville, Iowa and Texas.
Cleveland is taking the right approach with this "opportunity" in Maui. It's not his season. It's not life and death, and he's not going to go bananas if some of his rookies make mistakes on ESPN2 come Monday night at 7 p.m., going up against the ACC powerhouse.
"It is what it is and we're going there to learn about our team and play the best basketball we can," said the coach.
To do that, Cleveland hopes the Cougars can slow North Carolina. If it turns into a track meet, BYU will be left behind by a few light years. "Even in a halfcourt setting, it's going to be a big challenge for us, but at least in a halfcourt game, we have some opportunities to help each other out and play as a team.
If we get in situations where they're going to go one-on-one with us, we have no chance at all. They're very good."
Cleveland elected to take his team to Maui on Friday, to get a full workout today because of no Sunday practice. Meanwhile, North Carolina played Santa Clara on the West coast before tripping to Maui today.
The task in Maui got even more difficult this past week when the Cougars' only real proven star, senior Mike Hall, sprained his ankle and missed most of practice sessions leading to Friday's team departure.
"Mike will be able to play, but I don't know how much or how effective he'll be," Cleveland said. "No question, I hate to think what it would be like to play without our best defender and most experienced player on Monday."
North Carolina returns five starters, including three players whose names have shown up on the preseason list for the John Wooden Award. They are junior swingman Rashad McCants, junior forward Sean May and junior guard Raymond Felton.
Coach Roy Williams' three seniors, Jackie Manuel, Melvin Scott and Jawad Williams — all guards — have a combined 272 college games and 2,400 points between them.
The Cougars will counter with returned missionary shooting guard Sam Burgess, who played one year at Snow College before church service; senior point guard Terry Nashif, who has never been a regular starter; senior center Jared Jensen; Hall and sophomore power forward Garner Meads.
Hall said on Thursday he felt OK and he'd be ready to go.
This year's edition of the Cougars will be a little green and raw. They'll have a lot of bodies to throw at people in the middle even if most are true freshmen. BYU should be able to hit the 3 and push the ball up the court with more regularity than a year ago. But the Cougars will miss the physical presence of first-round NBA draft pick Rafael Araujo.
Cleveland wouldn't look past this next week and future games with North Carolina State in Provo, Dec. 21, or the matchup with Washington State on Dec. 11 in the Delta Center. He's putting off thinking about clashes with USC, Cal, St. Mary's or a stretch where BYU plays Weber State, SUU and Utah State twice.
The coach will block out this week as one leg in a relay. He'll then go to the next leg and so on until conference play opens against San Diego State on Jan. 8 at home.
"All I know is we've got a challenging schedule ahead of us and a lot of work to do," he said. "Last year, it was that win over Oklahoma State in the Delta Center that got us into the NCAA tournament, so as a team, staff and players you're always looking for opportunities and that's what we've got right now."
RECRUIT SIGNING: Although he won't play until after serving an LDS mission out of high school, BYU received a letter of intent from 6-foot-10 James Anderson of Page, Ariz. Known as a fierce shot-blocker, Anderson averaged 14 points, nine blocks and five rebounds per game in his junior season. Wyoming and Oregon State were among the teams to recruit Anderson prior to his decision to sign with BYU.
BACK EARLY: Cougar recruit Lee Cummard, considered one of the top shooting guards in the West out of high school in Arizona, has ended his missionary service to Tennessee early. Cummard contacted Cleveland before the Cougars departed to Maui and is now deciding whether to enroll at BYU in January or wait until spring. Cummard signed with the Cougars one year ago but elected not to start his college eligibility after accepting a mission call this past spring.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com