In 1995, I attended my first Great Alaska Shootout. That year's field featured Division I heavyweights Duke, Connecticut and Indiana, and I remember being in awe of players like Ray Allen of UConn and Jeff Capel from Duke and feeling like I was in the presence of royalty when Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Indiana's Bobby Knight walked onto the floor at Sullivan Arena.
Those were halcyon days for the Shootout, when sellouts were common and the Shootout was the biggest game in town. Two years later, a North Carolina team that featured Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison was the main attraction, lifting the eight-team tournament to an attendance record of 52,000 fans over four days.
The Shootout used to be a can't-miss event that was broadcast on ESPN and featured in Sports Illustrated.
But a decade ago, a series of circumstances conspired against the tournament, which is now in its 37th year. The NCAA changed the rules for exempt tournaments, and ESPN decided to host its own tournaments. Instead of attracting top-flight teams, the Shootout became an annual parade of mid-major schools few people had heard of. In 2006, not a single Shootout team made the NCAA Division I men's tournament for the first time in Shootout history. In 2009, the field featured only six teams.
A lot of people starting dressing up as empty seats at the Sullivan, and the Shootout became the butt of local jokes or written off as dead. Anchorage residents stopped coming, staying home to watch college football on television or hitting Black Friday sales rather than putting up with stale, stagnant Sullivan Arena.
And for good reason.
Watching basketball at Sullivan Arena is a miserable experience. The arena, primarily known as a hockey facility, is big, cold and depressing -- especially when it's not full. Without the draw of major teams, people had no reason to go to the Shootout. And with fewer and fewer fans showing up, the tournament kept feeling less and less relevant. The truth is, the Shootout has been in a downward spiral for a dozen years, and many people in Alaska have long since written it off for dead.
Don't plan on reading an obituary any time soon.
With the move to the new Alaska Airlines Center, this year's Shootout was the most entertaining and enjoyable in years. Although there were no marquee teams, there was a palpable buzz. The new arena is intimate, inviting and warm, with good sight lines from each of its 5,000 seats.
Rather than seeming empty all the time, the new arena feels full even when it's only at half capacity. There's a real college-like atmosphere, and this year's event felt like a true tournament -- rather than a collection of teams playing each other in the same city -- for the first time in a decade. There was good food, beer, plenty of halftime entertainment and -- most importantly -- a heck of a lot of smiles.
This year could be a turning point for the historic tournament, which has hosted some of the best players, coaches and teams in the college game. There's a national TV deal in place with the CBS Sports Network, and some coaches have already said they'd like to be back.
Fans who didn't write off the Shootout have been treated to some exceptional basketball as well. Friday night's semifinal thriller between UC Santa Barbara and Mercer -- a 65-60 UCSB win that featured a buzzer-beating shot at the end of regulation -- was as entertaining a game as you'll see. And the roars heard inside the arena felt louder and more genuine than anything that's been heard in the Sullivan in a long time. It was like the Shootout got its groove back.
It even snowed on Saturday, allowing dog mushers Kristy and Anna Berington to show off their Alaska huskies and giving wide-eyed players and coaches from across the country the kind of uniquely Alaska experience the Shootout first became famous for.
The Great Alaska Shootout might never regain its former glory. But maybe it doesn't have to. Now that the tournament is fun again, Alaskans have plenty of reasons to forego early Christmas shopping and show up to cheer.
It's time Anchorage gave the Shootout another shot.
This column is the opinion of Alaska Dispatch News reporter Matt Tunseth. You can reach him at mtunseth@alaskadispatch.com or 257-4335.