Anchorage Daily News

Ken Bone's visit to Alaska this week is the latest of many for the veteran men's basketball coach.

He's here with the Portland State Vikings, who are debuting in the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout.

Back in 2004, Bone, 50, came to the Shootout as an assistant for the Washington Huskies, who won the title that year.

From 1992 to 2002, he coached Seattle Pacific and visited the Wells Fargo Sports Complex frequently for Great Northwest Athletic Conference games against the UAA Seawolves.

But Bone's Alaska roots go deeper than basketball. Back in the 1970s, he came here to net fish, not basketballs.

When Bone was in college, a friend asked if he wanted to spend a summer commercial fishing in Cook Inlet. Mike Barney had an aunt and uncle who lived in Homer. Bone, 21 at the time, figured it was a chance of a lifetime.

"He asked if I wanted to make a ton of money," Bone said. "So I said, 'Yeah, sounds good.' "

By the end of the summer, though, Bone ended up with more memories than money.

"I think we lost about a hundred bucks," he laughed. "It wasn't a good year. (But) we had some fun and crazy times. A few scary times too."

Bone spent three more summers commercial fishing in Homer before moving on. He started a family and a successful career coaching basketball in Washington, guiding Seattle Pacific to six GNAC titles and compiling a 253-97 record there. Last season with Portland State, he led the Vikings to a Big Sky Conference championship and their first-ever bid to the Division I NCAA tournament.

Barney, meanwhile, returned to Homer in the late 1980s for another summer of commercial fishing.

It turned out to be his last.

On April 29, 1989, Barney and three other fishermen were aboard the fishing vessel Legend, headed for Togiak to prepare for a herring harvest.

According to news reports, the 32-foot boat capsized during a storm and the men floated in 40-degree water for two days before a rescue team arrived. But it was too late. Barney's body was one of four the Coast Guard never found.

"Those things happen," Bone said after his team's practice Friday at Sullivan Arena. "It's a tough industry. Looking back, I've got lots of good times (in Alaska). But that's the one that was difficult."

Find Daily News sports reporter Kevin Klott at adn.com/sports/kklott or 257-4335.

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