LAHAINA >> When it comes to the Maui Jim Maui Invitational, struggles are all relative.

There have been some unusual, and very visible, stumbles among the eight teams that made their way to the Valley Isle for this year’s edition of the traditionally stacked early season event.

Losses for ranked teams Oregon and Wisconsin. Stunning home upsets dealt to Georgetown, Tennessee and Connecticut. And a hard-earned win for North Carolina on Friday at the University of Hawaii.

Chances are the winner of three games in three straight days in the 2,400-seat Lahaina Civic Center will be a team that’s bounced back from a degree of difficulty early in the 2016-17 season.

Besides No. 5 Carolina — the 2016 national runner-up — only a young Oklahoma State squad and Division II host Chaminade come in with unblemished records.

The Tar Heels’ Hall of Fame coach, Roy Williams, described himself as “so discouraged” after the much-closer-than-expected 83-68 win over UH. Star point guard Joel Berry II had a rough go in particular.

Williams knows what it takes to succeed here, having hoisted the Wayne Duke trophy twice with Carolina (2004, 2008) and once with Kansas (1996) in his six total appearances. The seasons Carolina took it, it won the national championship as well. The Heels (15-3) are tied with archrival Duke (15-0) for most wins on Maui.

“It always tells you a lot,” Williams said. “You don’t have false ideas about your team. You know a lot about your team for being here for three days. We’ve had some great runs here and won a couple of tournaments. … We’ve never struggled badly, but we’ve lost some here. I think this tells you a more realistic view of what your team is.”

Wisconsin returns the top nine scorers from its Sweet 16 team under rookie coach Greg Gard, including impact players Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig, and could make a run at the Maui title opposite the bracket from Carolina.

But the No. 9 Badgers but might have to get through Oregon first. The Ducks, a 2016 Final Four team under Dana Altman, were ranked No. 4 prior to their loss at unranked Baylor. They’ve been without talented forward Dillon Brooks, who might see the court for the first time here coming off a foot injury.

Chaminade, which opens up against Carolina in today’s nightcap, might threaten its eighth all-time win in the event this year — if not against UNC, then somebody in the consolation bracket.

The Silverswords are a senior-laden group that coach Eric Bovaird called his most experienced in his six years at the helm.

It’s a dwindling opportunity to make a statement win. Chaminade reluctantly agreed to bow out of its own tournament every other year starting in 2018. It will play mainland games instead those years.

“I think this is the greatest tournament in the world,” Bovaird said. “Those years when we’re not over here on Maui for the championship round, I will be a little disappointed, a little bit envious. … (Playing at powerhouse teams’ campuses) will be a fun experience, but a little bit sad not playing here also.”

Chaminade is 7-87 all-time in its event, with its last win coming in 2012 over Texas.

Rick Barnes, who coached that Longhorns team, is back with a fresh-faced Tennessee squad. He is the first coach to bring three different programs (Providence) to Maui.

“Every team I’ve actually brought here has been a young team,” Barnes said. “So that’s what makes it a challenge, because the competition here, at the beginning of the year, they’re not going to have much mercy on you.”

Georgetown is likewise young and lost at home to Maryland and — most shockingly — Arkansas State.

“We’re struggling right now, and I don’t know that Maui is the place to get you out of struggling,” Hoyas coach John Thompson III said.

The last time UConn was here, 2010, guard Kemba Walker lit up the tournament and the Huskies rode that breakout performance all the way to a national title.

“The atmosphere in the gym was electric,” said UConn coach Kevin Ollie, an assistant on that team and a national champion his rookie year as head coach in 2014. “He just played very, very well. He just made pretty much every shot he took, played every minute of every game. … He just put on a show for the ages here in Maui.”

But this year’s Huskies lost at home to Wagner and Northeastern.

“I don’t think (Walker’s performance) is going to be duplicated,” Ollie said.