Great Alaska Shootout gets national and local television coverage: this popular collegiate basketball tournament will be held in Anchorage Nov. 21 to Nov. 25.

• Author: Pilkington, Steve
• Position: Alaska This Month

For nearly 30 years, collegiate basketball fans have watched as their favorite teams have clashed in an annual tournament held in Alaska. And for many of those years, portions of what is now the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout were televised nationally to audiences hungry for live action. This month the trend continues with some extra seasoning for Alaska audiences, who because of a recent deal with KCFT FamilyNet Television, can watch two women's games tape-delayed on broadcast Channel 35/GCI cable Channel 17.

"That'll be brand new," said Nate Sagan, sports information director for the University of Alaska Anchorage. The tournament, for many years, has drawn national television coverage of men's games from the ESPN family of networks.

The 29th Annual Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout will be held Nov. 21 to Nov. 25 at Anchorage's Sullivan Arena. A minimum of four games from the 2006 men's tournament will be televised on ESPN2, beginning with the Loyola Marymount-Alaska Anchorage game Nov. 22, at 7:30 p.m. The other ESPN2 games will be the first-round clash between Marshall and California on Nov. 23, at 8 p.m., Friday's late semifinal (Nov. 24, 8 p.m.), and the championship contest (Nov. 25, 8:30 p.m.)

Other men's first-round pairings will pit Missouri-Kansas City against Pacific on Nov. 22 at 9:45 p.m. and Hawaii against Hofstra on Nov. 23 at 5:30 p.m. Additional televised games on ESPNU or ESPN360 may be added at a later date, according to UAA sports officials.

The Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout began as a dream of Bob Rachal, who coached the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves during the 1977-78 season. Rachal, who died of cancer in 1985, wanted to put a fledgling UAA basketball program on the map and do it in style. He parlayed a NCAA rule that said games outside the contiguous 48 states didn't count against your normal...