Springtime in Alaska is not what teams from California, North Carolina and Tennessee had in mind when they headed north to play in the GCI Great Alaska Shootout.
Just a week ago it was below zero in Anchorage. On Wednesday temperatures were in the mid-40s and the snow had all but vanished.
"It's my first time to Alaska, and I'm sort of disappointed, and I'll tell you why," San Jose State coach Dave Wojcik said. "I wanted it to be below zero. I wanted to go ice fishing."
Wojcik said that Rob Galosich, who with wife Monique are the Seawolf Captains serving as hosts to the Spartans, advised against ice fishing during current conditions.
"He said, 'We can't go ice fishing, you might fall in,' " Wojcik said. "Well, my assistants and players want me to go ice fishing."
A couple of the men's teams arrived early in the week, while it was still winter.
UNC Asheville coach Nick McDevitt said his team got a taste of Alaska on a Monday trip to the Alaska Conservation Center.
"We stopped at Beluga Point," he said, "and that is a different kind of cold."
McDevitt said it's already been a memorable trip for some of the Bulldogs.
"We have a freshman who had never flown before," he said. "We certainly baptized him.
"We have another player who had never seen snow before. He's from Mobile, Alabama. Every time he gets off the bus he wants to have a snowball fight."
Porter Moser is funny, Part I
Porter Moser, coach of the Loyola Chicago team, wasn't sure he heard right when he learned that an ulu is the prize for being named the Player of the Game at the Shootout.
"Is it true the Player of the Game gets a knife as a gift?" he said. "We couldn't get away with that in Chicago."
Porter Moser in funny, Part II
Loyola is a Jesuit school that often has a priest sit courtside with the team, a situation Moser is quite familiar with.
He played basketball at Creighton, a Jesuit school, and before he came to Loyola he was an associate coach at Saint Louis, a Jesuit school.
So somebody somewhere will forgive him for this joke, which allowed him to win Wednesday's annual coaches luncheon, where all of the men's coaches speak briefly:
"The most dangerous place to stand," Moser said, "is between a bar and a Jesuit priest."
Shootout Magic
This marks the 20th year that Magic Bus magnate Tim Melican has ferried visiting Division I basketball teams around town.
His transportation business had barely opened when Melican made his tournament debut in the 1995-96 season, when the Holy Cross women's team came to Anchorage for the Northern Lights Invitational, the late, great eight-team women's event.
And of course Melican, a true raconteur, has a story to share about it.
"I bought my first vehicle on Wednesday and got my license on Friday and I did a bachelorette party Friday night," Melican said. "Billy Gibbon of Holy Cross called the next day and I said, 'How do you even know about us, we just opened?'
"He said, 'Your aunt works at Holy Cross.' ''
And so thanks to Aunt Maureen Kennedy, the Magic Bus became a tournament staple.
Over the years, Melican and his drivers have drive some of the biggest names in college basketball. Magic Bus passengers have included Mike Krzyzewski, Bobby Knight, Dwayne Wade, Nate Robinson ("I stood toe-to-toe with him on the motor coach and he was maybe one inch taller than me," Melican said of the 5-foot-9 guard who was a three-time NBA dunk champion. "Next thing you know he's slamming the ball.")
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, known for her stern manner, left a lasting if unsettling impression.
Upon her team's safe delivery to the airport after the Volunteers' 1997 Northern Lights Invitational championship, Summitt offered thanks to the Magic Bus crew while shaking Melican's hand.
"She said, 'Gentlemen, I'm a perfectionist, and you have exceeded my expectations,' " Melican said. "It was the scariest compliment I've ever had."
Climate change
A quick check of Wednesday afternoon temperatures around the college basketball world:
Cancun Challenge, Mexico: 81 degrees.
Maui Invitational, Hawaii: 74 degrees.
Gulf Coast Showcase, Florida: 73 degrees.
Great Alaska Shootout: 41 degrees.
Often the late-November difference between Anchorage and those other places is 70 degrees.
Our blast of spring has cut the difference in half, putting it more in line with the gap between the Division II Seawolves and Division I Pepperdine in Tuesday's opening round, when UAA won by 33 points