April 3, 2015
For the first time, the San José State men's basketball team will leave its stamp on the nation's longest standing college basketball tournament when it competes in the 2015 GCI Great Alaska Shootout next season.
The event hosted by the University of Alaska Anchorage is set for November 24-28, 2015, at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska.
Eight teams from as many conferences make up the field for this year's Shootout, putting the Mountain West representative Spartans among: Drexel (Colonial Athletic Association), Loyola of Ill., (Missouri Valley Conference), Middle Tennessee (Conference USA), UNC Asheville (Big South Conference), San Diego (West Coast Conference), Toledo (Mid-American Conference) and the host, Alaska Anchorage (Great Northwest Athletic Conference).
Like San José State, Loyola is one of the six teams competing in the Shootout for the first time in 2015. The Ramblers won 24 games last season and took home the College Basketball Invitational championship trophy. Toledo is coming off of its second consecutive 20-win season, and Toledo with 19 victories took a trip to the CIT postseason tournament in 2014-15. San Diego returns to the Shootout for the first time since its runner-up finish in 2009.
The Spartans expect to return three players that started more than 20 games in 2014-15, including Rashad Muhammad, a top-10 scorer in the Mountain West at 13.9 points per game.
Pairings and the complete Great Alaska Shootout schedule will be released later this summer.