Great Alaska Shootout
The GCI Great Alaska Shootout was an annual college basketball tournament in Anchorage, Alaska that featured colleges from all over the United States. The University of Alaska Anchorage hosted the tournament every Thanksgiving. Tournament games were played at the Alaska Airlines Center, a new arena on the UAA campus. Prior to the opening of the Alaska Airlines Center in September 2014, games were played at the 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, included eight teams while the women's tournament, held annually since 1980, had four participants.
The tournament was one of the longest running basketball tournament, for 40 years, and brought the highest level of basketball to Alaska. The shootout was held Thanksgiving weekend.
Under National Collegiate Athletic Association 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 version of the rule allowed for all games played outside the United States mainland to be exempt from the then-27-game limit. This version was partly responsible for the genesis of tournaments such as Great Alaska Shootout.
During each of its 36 editions, the men's tournament field included at least one team that qualified for the NCAA Division I Tournament later that season. 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 included the defending NCAA Champion, most recently in 1996, when the University of Kentucky took part in the tournament.
History
This basketball tournament began in 1978. Raycom Sports first picked up the broadcast rights to Great Alaska Shootout in 1979.On August 26, 2017, it was announced that the 2017 Shootout would be the last. The university stopped funding it as other, newer tournaments were drawing away top teams to warmer locations.
Past champions, runners-up and MVPs
Men's tournament
The following table indicates the winners, runners-up and tournament most valuable players.| Year | Winner | Score | Opponent | Tournament MVP |
| 1978 | North Carolina State | 72–66 | Louisville | Clyde Austin, North Carolina State |
| 1979 | Kentucky | 57–50 | Iona | Jeff Ruland, Iona |
| 1980 | North Carolina | 64–58 | Arkansas | Scott Hastings, Arkansas |
| 1981 | Southwestern Louisiana | 81–64 | Marquette | Steve Burtt, Iona |
| 1982 | Louisville | 80–70 | Vanderbilt | Lancaster Gordon, Louisville |
| 1983 | North Carolina State | 65–60 | Arkansas | Joe Kleine, Arkansas |
| 1984 | UAB | 50–46 | Kansas | Steve Mitchell, UAB |
| 1985 | North Carolina | 65–60 | UNLV | Brad Daugherty, North Carolina |
| 1986 | Iowa | 103–80 | Northeastern | Roy Marble, Iowa |
| 1987 | Arizona | 80–69 | Syracuse | Sean Elliott, Arizona |
| 1988 | Seton Hall | 92–81 | Kansas | Chris Mills, Kentucky |
| 1989 | Michigan State | 73–68 | Kansas State | Steve Smith, Michigan State |
| 1990 | UCLA | 89–74 | Virginia | Don MacLean, UCLA |
| 1991 | Massachusetts | 68–56 | New Orleans | Jim McCoy, Massachusetts |
| 1992 | New Mexico State | 95–94 | Illinois | Sam Crawford, New Mexico State |
| 1993 | Purdue | 88–73 | Portland | Glenn Robinson, Purdue |
| 1994 | Minnesota | 79–74 | Brigham Young | Townsend Orr, Minnesota |
| 1995 | Duke | 88–81 | Iowa | Ray Allen, Connecticut |
| 1996 | Kentucky | 92–65 | College of Charleston | Ron Mercer, Kentucky |
| 1997 | North Carolina | 73–69 | Purdue | Antawn Jamison, North Carolina |
| 1998 | Cincinnati | 77–75 | Duke | William Avery, Duke |
| 1999 | Kansas | 84–70 | Georgia Tech | Drew Gooden, Kansas |
| 2000 | Syracuse | 84–62 | Missouri | Preston Shumpert, Syracuse |
| 2001 | Marquette | 72–63 | Gonzaga | Dwyane Wade, Marquette |
| 2002 | College of Charleston | 71–69 | Villanova | Troy Wheless, College of Charleston |
| 2003 | Purdue | 78–68 | Duke | Kenneth Lowe, Purdue |
| 2004 | Washington | 79–76 | Alabama | Nate Robinson, Washington |
| 2005 | Marquette | 92–89 | South Carolina | Steve Novak, Marquette |
| 2006 | California | 78–70 | Loyola Marymount | Ryan Anderson, California |
| 2007 | Butler | 81–71 | Texas Tech | Mike Green, Butler |
| 2008 | San Diego State | 76–47 | Hampton | Kyle Spain, San Diego State |
| 2009 | Washington State | 93–56 | San Diego | Klay Thompson, Washington State |
| 2010 | St. John's | 67–58 | Arizona State | Justin Brownlee, St. John's |
| 2011 | Murray State | 90–81 | Southern Mississippi | Isaiah Canaan, Murray State |
| 2012 | Charlotte | 67–59 | Northeastern | Pierria Henry, Charlotte |
| 2013 | Harvard | 71–50 | TCU | Wesley Saunders, Harvard |
| 2014 | Colorado State | 65–63 | UC Santa Barbara | Alan Williams, UC Santa Barbara |
| 2015 | Middle Tennessee | 78–70 | Toledo | Nathan Boothe, Toledo |
| 2016 | Iona | 75–73 | Nevada | Sam Cassell Jr, Iona |
| 2017 | Central Michigan | 75–72 | Cal State Bakersfield | Shawn Roundtree, Central Michigan |
Women's tournament
The following table indicates the winners, runners up and tournament MVPs.1Tournament was played in a round robin format.
2The tournament was moved to earlier in the season beginning in the 1994-95 season; hence the first 1994 tournament corresponds to the 1993-94 season and the second tournament to the 1994-95 season.