Early in the 31-year existence of the Maui Invitational, the University of Hawaii tended to look upon the event more as a clump of crabgrass in its backyard than as an opportunity.

It was, after all, the ascendence of the Maui Invitational — and the increasing number of other exempt tournaments — that stripped away much of the luster from what had once been UH’s marquee event, the Rainbow Classic. 

But as the announcement of North Carolina for a Nov. 18, 2016 game at the Stan Sheriff Center suggests, there is a way for the presence of the Maui Invitational to benefit UH, too, if only the Rainbow Warriors put in the resolute effort.

UNC heads the 2016 Maui field and in all three of Roy Williams’ previous visits to Maui as the Tar Heels’ coach, they’ve played a preceding game on the West Coast — Santa Clara (2004), UC Santa Barbara (2008) and Long Beach State (2012) — bypassing Manoa.

This time UH got a foot in the door early.

“Originally, it was (UH regent Jeff) Portnoy who let me know that (Williams) was interested in playing at UH before playing in Maui,” former athletic director Ben Jay said in an email Friday. “I followed up with (an) UNC assistant coach to confirm it, then turned it over to Benjy (Taylor). I wanted to make sure that the game would be played in Stan Sheriff Center, instead of another island (like Pittsburgh on Maui),” Jay said. “I wanted to make sure we would get the home gate 

for it.”

Then associate athletic director Carl Clapp took over the task, nailing down the terms on a very favorable contract that was signed last month.

The result is that a team that has five NCAA championships will play in Manoa for the first time since the inaugural season (1994) of the Stan Sheriff Center.

And the Tar Heels will do it for terms that won’t break UH’s piggy bank but figure to fatten it. According to the contract, UNC gets a package that includes $5,000 for ground transportation and 26 hotel rooms for three nights in lieu of UH paying airfare.

North Carolina can also classify it as an exempt game, meaning it does not count against the Tar Heels’ NCAA limit, permitting them to play another home game in Chapel Hill.

“It is a real positive, a win/win situation all around,” said athletic director David Matlin.

Now it behooves UH to make it a “win” streak, aggressively building upon it in subsequent years so that it doesn’t take such a roundabout relay to do the next deal. 

UH has gotten some other Maui entrants to Manoa, but Michigan State (2005) and Illinois (2012), have been the exceptions rather than the rule.

New coach Eran Ganot has vowed to try to change that. “The focus of the program is to try and every year get a team on the way to Maui,” Ganot said. “Obviously, Maui is a great event with a great field and it is not easy to get a team to come up on the way, but I think every year our job, our priority, is for us to do everything that we can to try and get one.”

Ganot said, “I look at things more as an opportunity versus competing. (Maui) is an opportunity for us to get a game from one of these top teams on the way here and another way to showcase the Islands.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.