Great Alaska Shootout

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Great Alaska Shootout (orginially known as the Sea Wolf Classic) is an annual college basketball tournament in Anchorage, Alaska that features colleges from all over the United States. The University of Alaska Anchorage hosts the tournament every Thanksgiving. Tournament games are played at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. Prior to the Sullivan Arena opening in 1983, games were played at Buckner Fieldhouse. The men's tournament, held annually since 1978, includes eight teams while the women's tournament, held annually since 1980, has four participants.

Under NCAA rules teams are normally limited to 28 regular season games, however games in "exempted events", traditionally played early in the season, are not counted against that limit. The most recent policy from the NCAA in this regard allows all teams to play in one exempted event per season. Those teams who choose to take advantage of that opportunity may play up to thirty-one games per season, including games played in those exempted events but excluding postseason tournament games. A previous incarnation of this rule allowed for all games played outside the United States mainland to be exempt from the (then) twenty-seven game limit. This version of the rule was partially responsible for the genesis of tournaments such as the Great Alaska Shootout.

The men's tournament field has included at least one team which would qualify for the NCAA Division I tournament later in the season during each of its 28 editions. The 1985 field included an event record six teams that would go on to be invited to the NCAA tournament. Five times the tournament field has included the defending NCAA Champion, most recently in 1996 when the University of Kentucky took part in the tournament.

The 2006 men's tournament (scheduled for Novemnber 22, 2006 through November 25, 2006) will feature Loyola-Marymount, Missouri-Kansas City, Pacific, Hawaii, Hofstra, California, Marshall, and host Alaska-Anchorage while the women's bracket will have Air Force, Butler, and UC Riverside as well as the hosts.

The 2007 men's tournament field includes Gonzaga, Michigan, Texas Tech, Washington State, Western Kentucky, Xavier, Yale, and the host school. Cleveland State, Alaska-Anchorage, and two other teams to be decided later will comprise the 2007 women's field.