Shootout memories: Jason Kaiser’s 35 points against Wake Forest and shoot-around chats with Dick Vitale

What’s Thanksgiving without leftovers?

Leftovers are all that remain of the Great Alaska Shootout, a Thanksgiving week tradition in Anchorage for 40 years.

The tournament ended last year, but lest you go hungry for hometown hoops, we asked some former UAA players to share their Shootout memories. We served the first helping yesterday and are back today with more.

Jason Kaiser

My obvious best memory is UAA’s win over Wake Forest and Tim Duncan in the first round in 1993. The game was on ESPN. I had 35 points in the win.

Many don’t realize is that same year in round two we had our semifinal game won twice against Portland State but a guard from Portland State hit buzzer-beaters in regulation and overtime, only to see UAA lose in 2 OTs. We would have been first UAA men’s team in history to play in Shootout finals. We would have played Purdue’s Glenn Robinson team.

I had the Shootout tourney scoring record for two hours (84 points in three games) until Glenn Robinson broke it in the championship game (97 points in three games).

Jason Kaiser played for UAA from 1993-95. He lives with his family in San Antonio, Texas, where he owns a veterinary clinic with his wife and owns and operates a beach volleyball program.

Alysa Horn

My senior year in college, we had no recruiting class after the resignation of Tim Moser, the firing of Nate Altenhofen and the late hiring of Ryan McCarthy, leaving us with a dismal roster of about eight players plus two more that we picked up randomly after the start of the school year.

We’d had our 40-game winning streak on our home floor snapped two weeks prior to the 2012 Shootout and had had two close wins over Regis University, which at the time was an average team out of Colorado. The other seniors and I didn’t know what to think going into the last Shootout of our careers, but we knew that winning had always been the expectation, regardless of the level of the opponent, and it was a part of the legacy we wanted to leave behind.

That said, we weren’t about to let any Division I program walk into our house without leaving with at least a few bruises from a tough fight. We played DI opponent North Dakota State in the first round of the tournament, shot the lights out, and ended up shocking them (and maybe ourselves) with a 26-point victory.

Seeing ourselves as true underdogs that season, that win was the first much-needed confidence boost that let us know that, against all odds, we were still going to be a competitive team.

Alysa Horn played for UAA from 2009-13. She lives in Anchorage, where she works as a strength and conditioning coach at UAA and as a personal trainer for her own company, Make Yourself Unstoppable.

Jeff Sheedy

I have so many great Shootout memories. The obvious choice for No. 1 is the win over Missouri in 1985, the thrill of that victory captured in that iconic photograph of coach Harry Larrabee and our bench definitely stands out.

But more than the big wins against Texas, Washington and Miami that followed from the momentum of that Missouri game, there was something magical about those Shootouts in the 80s. Playing in front of a national audience on ESPN was still a rarity in college basketball at the time and it definitely made you feel something special was going on when Dick Vitale was court-side at your morning shoot-around just to joke with and get to know the players better!

Jeff Sheedy played for UAA from 1985-88. He is an orthopedic surgeon in Indiana, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

Butch Lincoln

My best memory is Jason Kaiser’s 35 on Wake Forest. I was a redshirt sophomore but witnessed one of the all-time performances by a close friend who I played with in AAU basketball since I was 16. It all came together that night, including the victory for UAA. Jason was silky smooth and one of the best wing players we’ve seen.

On a personal level, most people don’t know this but I won a Pepsi Hotshot competition as a kid in Kotzebue and competed in the state competition in Anchorage in 1985. The competition was at Sullivan Arena and I got to watch my first Shootout, including UNLV and Georgetown. That entire experience never left me and had an impact on my aspirations. At 11 years old, I watched the games and told myself I’d be there someday.

Butch Lincoln played at UAA from 1993-98. He lives in Anchorage and is the chief operating officer of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp.

Sarah Herrin

Being from Alaska and playing in the Great Alaska Shootout is special. We know that many families have traditions where they spend Thanksgiving Week watching the prestigious tournament.

Being a part of two Shootout championships titles (2008 and 2009), with each game won by only one point, is something that I will always remember.

Sarah Herrin played for UAA from 2008-11. She is married and lives in Kenai, where she is a police officer with the Kenai Police Department.

Ty Kuiper

Thinking back over the last 40 years, the Shootout holds a special place in my heart. Having played in the second, third and fourth Great Alaska Shootouts (1980-82) and attending as many as possible since, the memories are numerous and as rich as if it was yesterday.

Some of my favorite memories as a player are my tomahawk dunk on Washington State and then the next day playing Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing and Sleepy Floyd down to the wire. As a fan, watching the UAA Seawolves play and challenge teams in the Shootout was my ultimate joy. The pride I have in my program really came out during the Shootout.

The Shootout brought the state together around our common passion and obsession -- basketball. Seeing Kodiak coach Joe Floyd every year sitting on the baseline, buying Lew Freedman’s Shootout book and signing it with teammate Mark Fitt and sending it to Coach Denny Fox at Louisville. -- the Shootout connected us, and provided a safe place to let our kids run around with those mini Shootout balls.

I’m not going to worry that the Shootout ended. Instead I’m going to focus on the fact we had one hell of a run. We put ourselves on the basketball map and opened our hearts and our state to a few days of some of the best basketball in the world.

Ty Kuiper played for UAA from 1979-82. He works in the advertising department at the Anchorage Daily News.

Hanna Johansson

I get really sad hearing the Shootout is not there anymore. I loved playing in that big arena in front of so many people and the environment was amazing. Too bad other players do not get that same opportunity.

When I was there we won the Shootout twice if I remember correctly, and it was great winning against great Division I schools. A good test in the beginning to start the season off.

Hanna Johansson played for UAA from 2008-12. She lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she works as a project leader for the Västra Götalands Idrottsförbund athletic organization.