Over the past four years, the Utah basketball team has spent Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico, Hawaii and New York City.

This year while most folks are eating turkey, the Utes will be playing in their opening-round game in the Great Alaska Shootout, one of the original preseason college basketball tournaments. Actually, the Utes are already there, having flown up Tuesday in preparation for Thursday night's game against No. 22-ranked Washington.

The tournament began in 1978 when it was called the "Seawolf Classic" and played at the small Buckner Fieldhouse at Ft. Richardson Air Force Base. The tournament was started by former Alaska-Anchorage coach Bob Rachal, who took advantage of a loophole in NCAA rules to stage the event.

It allowed teams to compete in additional games to the standard 27 games if they were played outside the contiguous 48 states. A few years later, the Maui Invitational and several other tournaments in Hawaii and places such as Puerto Rico popped up.

While none of the Ute players have been to Alaska before, they seem happy about spending a few days there.

"I'm very excited," said forward Richard Chaney. "It's a new place I get to visit. I hear the night lasts a long time, and I'm curious to see that. I just wish we had time to do some sightseeing."

Chaney said some of his girlfriend's family is from the area. And guard Tim Drisdom says he has extended family members in Alaska whom he hopes to see. When asked what he knows about the place, Drisdom replied, "It's cold."

TOURNEY TIMES: Besides 22nd-ranked Washington, others in the tournament include No. 19 Alabama, Oklahoma, Minnesota, High Point (N.C.), Furman and host Alaska-Anchorage.

The Utes play the Huskies at 8 p.m. MST Thursday on ESPN2. If they win, they'll play the Oklahoma-High Point winner Friday at 10 p.m. MST, also on ESPN2. A loss puts them in a 4 p.m. game.

If the Utes make it to the finals, they would play at 8 p.m. MST on ESPN2. Other game times that day are noon, 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., all MST.

LAST TIME: This won't be Utah's first visit to the Great Alaska Shootout. In 1988, Lynn Archibald's last year as coach, the Utes played in Anchorage, losing two of three games and finishing in sixth place.

The Utes were favored to win the WAC that year but lost their first-round game to eventual national finalist Seton Hall, beat Iona handily in the second round and lost to Florida in the consolation game.

In that first-round game they lost to Seton Hall, which was led by Australian Olympian Andrew Gaze. This year the Utes have their own Australian Olympian named Andrew in Andrew Bogut.