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PHOENIX The Gonzaga Bulldogs had won with big first halves, won with big second halves, won on the road, won after spending most of a big lead and won comfortably against quality opposition.
PHOENIX The question was bound to come up, particularly leading up to the Gonzaga-Arizona men's basketball game.
PULLMAN It can happen that quickly.In a little more than a minute early in the second half, just 76 seconds in fact, Gonzaga showed Washington State what Eastern Washington's best team is this season and then just kept emphasizing the point.
PULLMAN This sort of thing was supposed to be history when football season ended.OK, Washington State didn't get beat by 60 on Wednesday night.
PULLMAN Taylor Rochestie was nearly finished with a lengthy interview.But there was one more elephant in the room that had yet to be discussed, so Washington State's senior point guard didn't wait for it to run him over. He grabbed it by the tusks.
This wasn't your ordinary scout team.No, not with Casey Calvary impersonating Washington State center Aron Baynes. And Matt Santangelo imitating Cougars point guard Taylor Rochestie. And Alex Hernandez mimicking WSU guard Nikola Koprivica. And Brian Michaelson knocking down a 3-pointer. And Colin Floyd taking some repetitions, pretending to be Rochestie.
INDIANAPOLIS Josh Heytvelt and Jeremy Pargo taught Indiana's youngsters a few lessons about what it takes to win.
Gonzaga's Mark Few has no doubt that friend and coaching counterpart Tom Crean will turn around Indiana basketball.
Kelly Graves didn't have much problem pinpointing his basketball team's problems.There were too many turnovers, too many offensive rebounds and too many second-half fouls.
The fascination with paying for a seat in one area code to watch a basketball game being played in another still eludes many of us, but then so do the concepts of "reality" television and $150 sneakers.
Gonzaga senior guard Micah Downs can't explain it, but his statistics seem to.Downs is more comfortable starting games than coming off the bench. He has regained a starting position that he held for the first part of last season before Steven Gray cracked the first unit.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few had a message for his players after their convincing 83-74 win over No. 12 Tennessee in the Old Spice Classic championship game Sunday.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Gonzaga put it all together dunks, 3-pointers, transition game, defense, toughness, composure to take Tennessee apart Sunday night.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Different game, different venue, same questions. It's becoming a postgame ritual that Josh Heytvelt doesn't mind at all.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Ira Brown started it and the rest of the Gonzaga Bulldogs finished it.
At Lake Buena Vista, Fla.Thursday's results
Gonzaga 83, Oklahoma State 71
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Bigger tests figure to come down the road, but the Gonzaga men's basketball team should receive three rather large progress reports at the Old Spice Classic.
Grant Gibbs thought he was out of the woods. His right shoulder, which popped out of place at a Gonzaga men's basketball practice Nov. 10, was feeling better.
There are few things more satisfying for a coach than seeing his team take a game plan from the drawing board and execute it on the basketball court.
Gonzaga built two large leads against Montana State University-Billings one it nearly frittered away and one that kept getting larger.
Jeremy Pargo could have said eager, but instead characterized himself as being anxious and so we'll take him at his word.
Gonzaga and Montana State University-Billings have never met on the basketball court, but their coaches have a long-standing friendship.
Gonzaga had just finished a 51-point exhibition victory over Wayne State when Josh Heytvelt noticed a familiar face in the McCarthey Athletic Center crowd.
There was any number of things to pick off the stat sheet that would have been positives, but Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few zeroed in on the No. 2.
Demetri Goodson is fast, and apparently a fast learner.The true freshman point guard has made a swift impression at Gonzaga through the first week and a half of practice.
It wasn't just their scoring, rebounding, defense, experience or leadership. Or their hard-nosed presence on the basketball court.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs hold their first official basketball practice today and already senior guard Jeremy Pargo senses something different.
USA Today, ESPN.com, Dickie V. and any number of online prognosticators and preseason magazines seem to agree: The Gonzaga Bulldogs are about to embark on a special men's basketball season.
Sam Dower's AAU basketball coach remembers the first time Gonzaga's coaching staff watched the 6-foot-9, 215-pound forward play.
When the fourth annual Spokane All-Americans Charity Classic basketball game tips off Thursday at the McCarthey Athletic Center, Dan Dickau will be somewhere in Italy but Spokane will be on his mind.
Dan Dickau could face a dilemma. Take less money and play in the NBA or possibly earn more money and play in Europe.
You're all familiar with the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
One way or another, restricted free agent Ronny Turiaf will get big money he was seeking after signing an offer sheet Thursday with the Golden State Warriors worth approximately $17 million over four years.
Gonzaga junior point guard Jeremy Pargo has decided he wants to be a senior point guard.Pargo withdrew his name from NBA draft consideration Monday, the deadline day for underclassmen who haven't signed with an agent. The draft is June 26th.
Larry Gurganious, who saw limited playing time during two seasons with the Gonzaga men's basketball team, is transferring, likely to a school closer to his family in Oakland, Calif.
LAKE BEUNA VISTA, Fla. There's only one way Gonzaga guard Jeremy Pargo won't be back in Spokane for his senior season if an NBA franchise promises to draft him in the first round.
Gonzaga and the West Coast Conference appear to be ready to wave goodbye to ESPN's Big Monday and say hello to Thursday night telecasts.
Gonzaga forward Josh Heytvelt, who missed the first 11 games of the 2007-08 season following surgery on a stress fracture in his right foot/ankle, had another operation on the same foot/ankle last week.
Mangisto Arop, a 6-foot-5 guard from Canada, has orally committed to play for the Gonzaga University men's basketball team. He'll arrive in 2009.
Gonzaga University junior guard Jeremy Pargo will declare himself eligible for the NBA draft, but doesn't plan on hiring an agent, which keeps open the option of returning for his senior season.
Hot off the momentum of a four-game win streak, the Gonzaga Bulldogs (15-9) were not able to make it to five Monday, dropping an 8-2 decision to the host UC Davis (13-7) Aggies at Dobbins Stadium in the first Division I baseball game between the two schools.
BOULDER, COLORADO _ Even with a terribly slow start and seemingly impossible defensive challenges, Gonzaga University women's basketball coach Kelly Graves was convinced that with typical shooting the Bulldogs would have played Colorado to the wire Monday.
RALEIGH, N.C. It had been 39 years since Davidson won an NCAA men's basketball tournament game. It had been six seasons since anybody scored 40 points against Gonzaga.
RALEIGH, N.C. Select teams for a schoolyard pick-up game without watching each other warm up and Stephen Curry might well be the last player chosen.
RALEIGH, N.C. Gonzaga's Steven Gray let it be known early that there would be more than one sharp-shooting guard on the RBC Center court Friday.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. It wasn't like Jake Guild grew up with a scarcity of college basketball teams to follow. The University of North Carolina is here in his hometown. Duke University is eight miles away in Durham.
RALEIGH, N.C. After taking two different teams to the NCAA men's basketball tournament as a head coach, Ray Giacoletti seems to be enjoying this year's return trip as an assistant.
RALEIGH, N.C. If this game were to be decided by the ability of each team to praise the other, it'd probably end in a quadruple-overtime draw.
Actions speak louder than words.Four days after being snubbed by the NCAA, Gonzaga routed UC Davis 81-60 in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament before 1,718 fans at McCarthey Athletic Center Thursday night.
RALEIGH, N.C. The text message arrived on Gonzaga guard Matt Bouldin's cell phone shortly after the NCAA pairings were announced Sunday.
RALEIGH, N.C. When No. 7-seeded Gonzaga steps on the floor against No. 10 Davidson on Friday, it will mark 10 days between games for both teams the longest break of GU's season.
Once the basketball is in play, initials won't matter.That's what the Gonzaga women's team is counting on for tonight's matchup with UC Davis in the first round of the Women's NIT at McCarthey Athletic Center.
They like to run the court. Typically use a nine-man rotation. Possess ample NCAA tournament experience. Dominate a conference that flies under the national radar. Schedule without fear of the name on the opponents' jersey. Guard driven, including the conference player of the year.
North Carolina, the overall No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament, finished No. 1 Monday in the Associated Press' final men's poll of the season.
The spacious Gonzaga locker room was like a small cage and Bulldogs women's basketball coach Kelly Graves was the tiger, pacing endlessly late Monday afternoon.
Plenty of newspaper ink will be spilled over the fact that Gonzaga, as a seventh seed, will play No. 10 Davidson in the Wildcats' backyard in an NCAA tournament opener Friday, and rightfully so.
So many teams, so much data, so many natural disasters, so little time.Here's a toast to the good men and woman on the NCAA tournament selection committee, the impossible job they have in selecting, seeding and siting the 65-team bracket and how well they do despite the odds.
NCAA tournament tickets for Washington State and Gonzaga men's basketball fans will be scarce if their teams receive berths.
SAN DIEGO Among other afflictions, the Gonzaga basketball creature suffers from a charming or maddening latency. For example:
The garage is clean. The yard work that can be done has been done."I'm trying to do anything to take my mind off the next week," Gonzaga women's basketball coach Kelly Graves said. "The garage and outside the house those are the only things my wife trusts me with. (Portland coach) Jim Sollars wants me to come down and go golfing, but that's only one day."
SAN DIEGO There is no statistical category in the box score for desire, hustle, effort, want-to, whatever you want to call it. But rebounding probably comes closest to defining those intangibles that often spell the difference between winning and losing.
SAN DIEGO Gonzaga didn't have its A game maybe not even its C game but the Bulldogs played a substantial amount of 'D' in the second half, they saw a glimpse of the old Josh Heytvelt and they made free throws in the last nine minutes.
SAN DIEGO Gonzaga will begin the West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament where it left off in the regular season.
SAN DIEGO By finding overdrive on the on-ramp to the West Coast Conference tournament, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have shelved temporarily at least the most popular and angst-laden parlor game of 2008.
SAN DIEGO Gonzaga will meet No. 4-seeded Santa Clara or No. 5 San Francisco in the West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament semifinals.
SAN DIEGO This wasn't your typical No. 1 seed vs. No. 8 in a conference tournament opener. The top-seeded Gonzaga women's basketball team defeated Pepperdine twice during the regular season, but neither was easy.
The focal point of the Bulldogs is truly the focal point of the Bulldogs. Heather Bowman may be the MVP and leading scorer in the West Coast Conference, but she is a target for more than passes from her Gonzaga teammates.
Gonzaga wasn't in the mood to share.The Bulldogs scored the first 12 points and cruised past Santa Clara 88-54 Monday night, wrapping up an outright West Coast Conference men's basketball championship and sending seniors David Pendergraft and Abdullahi Kuso out on a winning note in their final home game before an appreciative audience of 6,000 at McCarthey Athletic Center.
Gonzaga wasn't quite perfect during the West Coast Conference women's basketball season and the postseason doesn't start until Thursday when the top-seeded Bulldogs meet Pepperdine.
Sophomore guard Matt Bouldin rattled off three reasons why Gonzaga should be highly motivated for tonight's regular-season finale against Santa Clara.
Heather Bowman scored a game-high 20 points and Courtney Vandersloot finished with a double-double 15 points, game-high 11 rebounds to propel the Gonzaga Bulldogs to a 79-63 victory over the Saint Mary's Gaels in West Coast Conference play Saturday in Moraga, Calif.
NCAA tournament resumes, Bracketology and bubbles aren't big in Gonzaga coach Mark Few's vocabulary.
Here's a head fake from Jeremy Pargo we didn't bite on earlier this week, during the angst-filled run-up to the Battle of the Bottom of the Top 25 between Gonzaga and Saint Mary's:
Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few was visiting with Portland State counterpart Ken Bone outside the Bulldogs' locker room following GU's win over Portland at the Chiles Center on Monday.
Standing just 5-foot-7 and weighing, maybe, a biscuit more than 160 pounds, Jason Chatwood is hardly your prototypical power hitter.
Heather Bowman scored 30 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead the Gonzaga Bulldogs to an 80-71 West Coast Conference women's basketball victory over the Santa Clara Broncos at Santa Clara, Calif.
The Gonzaga-San Diego game had been over for 30 minutes when Bulldogs senior forward David Pendergraft approached first-year Toreros coach and former GU assistant Bill Grier in a hallway inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
PORTLAND The final score was to Gonzaga's liking. The first 30 minutes, not so much. Gonzaga rallied past upset-minded Portland 73-51 before a crowd of 4,527 at the Chiles Center on Monday night, a result that didn't seem to correspond with how the West Coast Conference men's basketball game was unfolding deep into the second half.
PORTLAND No matter the sport or activity basketball, bikes, football or video games if there was a score to be kept or a time to beat, the Raivio brothers would go at it full throttle. They might not have realized it at the time, but those 1-on-1 games on the backyard court made both Derek and Nik better players.
Mark Few protested. He suggested alternatives, ranging from assistant coaches to players. He tried to deflect the attention elsewhere.
SAN DIEGO It was the kind of game where a couple of West Coast Conference player-of-the-year candidates couldn't buy a field goal and a 90-percent free-throw shooter clanked a pair after a technical foul. The kind of game where both offenses never were in sync and neither team could make enough baskets to sustain a game-turning run.
SAN FRANCISCO It's an old line, that the turning point of the game was the opening tip. Gonzaga waited a bit longer than that. About 16 seconds, to be precise.
SAN FRANCISCO One could never tell by glancing at his statistics, but Gonzaga's Austin Daye ran into the so-called wall that college freshmen supposedly encounter as they adjust from the shorter high school basketball season.
We teeter on the outer edge of a perfect storm.Tonight at 5, the Gonzaga Bulldogs play at the University of San Francisco, which means there's a 50-50 chance that the Zags will dress out in their heat-seeking red road uniforms rather than the more soothing navy blue.
Pink became red at McCarthey Athletic Center Thursday night.On Think Pink night, an occasion to raise awareness of breast cancer, the Gonzaga women's basketball team embarrassed San Francisco 90-42.
Gonzaga men's basketball player Jeremy Pargo was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Week after leading the Bulldogs to home victories over Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount.
The game certainly wasn't much to look at, so Adam Morrison took the opportunity to pick somebody's brain.
As the consummate team player, Michelle Elliott wanted to build something.As a fierce competitor, she wanted to win.
For Gonzaga, the regular-season finish line is approaching fast, with just five games remaining. That means there isn't much time left to even out the wrinkles as the Bulldogs pursue an eighth straight West Coast Conference title and try to hit the postseason with momentum.
There really isn't much question that a sizable gulf exists between the top teams and the bottom teams in the West Coast Conference.
Perhaps as well as any basketball coach, Gonzaga's Mark Few knows the pluses and minuses of having an offense that relies on one or two primary scorers and one that relies on balance.
Gonzaga freshman guard Steven Gray's cell phone isn't working and he's in no hurry to get it fixed, so he doesn't know how many calls or text messages he received after he made two free throws Saturday to force overtime against Santa Clara.
MORAGA, Calif. – Forty minutes wasn't enough to decide this West Coast Conference men's basketball thriller.
Gonzaga sent a message Saturday afternoon, reaching the midpoint of the West Coast Conference women's basketball schedule with a perfect record.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. The inbounds pass was in midair and the ball was headed toward the opposite free-throw line, some 65 feet away from Gonzaga's basket. The Bulldogs trailed by two points with just a few seconds left and junior point guard Jeremy Pargo couldn't help but think the worst.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. The numbers don't quite add up.Crunch Santa Clara's statistics and it would appear the Broncos are a top 75 team, perhaps top 50. In six key statistical categories, Santa Clara ranks in the top one-third of Division I schools and much higher in field-goal percentage (16th nationally), 3-point percentage (29th), scoring defense (43rd) and rebounding (53rd).
There was no post-Memphis haze, no second-half letdown and it was no contest on the boards.All the pre-tipoff worries Gonzaga had entering Monday's West Coast Conference basketball game dissolved quickly as the Bulldogs went up big in the first half and stayed on the throttle while dismantling the Portland Pilots 79-41 before a sellout crowd of 6,000 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
MEMPHIS Gonzaga has yet to put together 40 minutes of consistent basketball in a game, but often this season 30-35 minutes has been enough to claim a victory.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. There is little question Gonzaga has improved the last three weeks, winning six straight games with a relatively healthy roster.
Memphis men's basketball coach John Calipari was on a 20-minute conference call Tuesday morning and only a couple of times did the conversation turn to Tulsa, the team the Tigers defeated Wednesday, or Gonzaga, which visits the FedEx Forum on Saturday.
Gonzaga junior forward Josh Heytvelt has played in eight games since recovering from foot surgery. He's averaging 11.9 points, 5.0 rebounds and was shooting better than 50 percent before making just 1 of 6 shots in Monday's win over San Francisco.
Eddie Sutton has won 799 games in his 37-year college coaching career, but he hasn't had much luck against the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
First Bill Grier came back and then so did his San Diego Toreros. Gonzaga scored the first 15 points of the game and cruised to a 21-point lead midway through the second half, but San Diego, with considerable help from the Bulldogs, made GU squirm in the final two minutes before falling 80-70 in front of a sellout crowd of 6,000 Saturday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Three minutes to tipoff and no Bill Grier.He had spent a week in fairly intense dread of this game and nine months before that knowing the dread was en route. He would later call the experience "like a root canal, honestly." He acknowledged that his hopes veered wildly from a program-establishing win to not having the Kennel Club chant "Up by thir-ty!" at him.
MALIBU, Calif. Layups, putbacks, dunks, easy transition baskets, 3-pointers and more layups and that was just in the first 8 minutes.
LOS ANGELES Loyola Marymount men's basketball coach Rodney Tention stressed earlier this week that his team needed to keep the score in the 60s to have a chance against Gonzaga.
Several programs have surfaced over the past decade to challenge Gonzaga's domination of men's basketball in the West Coast Conference. Pepperdine was a consistent threat from the late 1990s through 2002. San Diego has made runs.
Has Gonzaga become hazardous to the health of the West Coast Conference?Hey, someone had to ask.
LOS ANGELES Rodney Tention has no desire to become a two-sport coach.He has plenty of work on his hands trying to rebuild Loyola Marymount men's basketball team, which entertains Gonzaga tonight at Gersten Pavilion in a West Coast Conference opener for both teams. The young Lions are 3-13 in Tention's third season as head coach and have fought a season-long battle with turnovers.
Following, in predicted order of finish, are summaries of all the WCC men's basketball teams. (Current records in parentheses.)
Gonzaga men's basketball has owned the West Coast Conference the past decade. This season Saint Mary's may have something to say about that.
For some of the longest stretches of the season, Gonzaga seemed more in sync at both ends of the court while posting a 75-67 victory over Georgia on Saturday.
The calendar says Gonzaga is closing in on the midpoint of the season and its West Coast Conference opener is just a week away. The reality is the Bulldogs' roster in its current form is roughly three weeks old and the team is a work in progress.
Gonzaga University's men's basketball game on Saturday against the University of Georgia at the Arena will be televised by KAYU-TV Fox 28 in the Spokane area.
Without Josh Heytvelt in the first half and Matt Bouldin in the second half, the Gonzaga Bulldogs probably would be without their 10th win of the season.
It's not that Ray Giacoletti recommends being fired. Who would? It's humiliating, insulting, devastating.
SEATTLE A quick poll: Who among you sized up Gonzaga's 2008 schedule and picked out the upcoming Utah and Georgia games as the pivotal, must-have resume-polishers?
SEATTLE For Gonzaga, the second half of the Battle in Seattle was more of a battle to keep from getting blown out.
SEATTLE By this time last season, Gonzaga had wins over nationally ranked North Carolina, Texas and Washington.
It didn't take long for Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few to add up the number of practices he's had all of his players available.
For Friday, December 21, 2007.
OKLAHOMA CITY Gonzaga is getting healthier, but the second half of Thursday night's game against Oklahoma made Bulldogs coach Mark Few feel a bit queasy.
Time has only reinforced Mark Few's opinion. When the Bulldogs knocked off Oklahoma State in 2004, Few called it as "impressive a regular-season effort as we've ever had."
The return of Steven Gray on Monday gave Gonzaga its first chance to see its three highly-touted freshmen on the court together in a regular-season game.
The timing of Steven Gray's broken wrist in an exhibition game in early November was unfortunate, but the timing of his return was just about ideal for the Gonzaga University men's basketball team.
Matt Bouldin wouldn't mind getting rid of the cold that's been hounding him since Gonzaga's trip to Anchorage. Jeremy Pargo has a couple of important finals early next week.
The Gonzaga men's basketball team, minus Theo Davis, returns to action against Cal State Northridge (6-1), which is off to its best start in nearly two decades, tonight at 5 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Washington State kept it simple in its men's basketball showdown with Gonzaga on Wednesday night: Patiently work for quality shots and challenge every offensive look.
Find your game. It sounded a little like an old advertisement for a brand of golf clubs, which is somewhat appropriate since Tony Bennett has a formidable golf swing.
Has there ever been a more unlikely hero in a basketball game than Duane Ranniger?
BOSTON Junior guard Jeremy Pargo was asked why Gonzaga wasn't feeling fatigued, given that the team had just endured a five-game, nine-day stretch of basketball.
For Sunday, December 02, 2007.
BOSTON Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun generously offered to play tour guide for Gonzaga's well-traveled men's basketball team on its two-game East Coast swing.
PHILADELPHIA Gonzaga was down by six with 3 minutes and 37 seconds left when the Bulldogs huddled during a timeout. The 3,200 crammed inside Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, loud from the start, had never been louder, sensing a ranked opponent was on the ropes.
PHILADELPHIA At last count, Saint Joseph's basketball coach Phil Martelli said 17 NBA scouts have requested credentials for tonight's game against No. 19 Gonzaga.
ANCHORAGE Gonzaga's Abdullahi Kuso got on the elevator at the team hotel Saturday and received a message from head coach Mark Few about taking shots on his own terms.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska For the second night, Gonzaga had the support of the majority of the 8,000-fans, but this time the Bulldogs didn't give the fans much reason to cheer.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska The adversity kept mounting for the Gonzaga men's basketball team. The foul trouble to key players. The errant free-throw and 3-point shooting.
It's business as usual for Eastern Washington. Business is about to pick up for Gonzaga. Both men's basketball programs are in Anchorage for the Great Alaska Shootout.
It's just three games, but some trends appear to be emerging for the Gonzaga men's basketball team.
As wake-up calls go, this one lasted a long time. Somewhere around 25 minutes, even longer if you count warm-ups.
Battered, but far from beaten.Gonzaga, which was hit recently with a wave of difficult news, learning that Josh Heytvelt and Steven Gray will have surgery within the next 48 hours and Theo Davis' father is gravely ill in Toronto, relied on its considerable depth and the steady hands of guards Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin to dismantle Montana 77-54 Sunday in front of a sellout crowd of 6,000 at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Every Gonzaga basketball season seems to begin with mood disturbances that border on the bipolar. Sometimes there's another jolt in the middle, too.
Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few has read and seen enough to know his Bulldogs face a significant challenge today from the Montana Grizzlies.
Several accomplished men's basketball programs across the nation have had troubles dealing with NCAA Division II opponents over the last week. In the first half Wednesday, Gonzaga experienced similar difficulties against D-II Emporia State.
Ira Brown brings some unique qualities to the Gonzaga men's basketball team. A 97-mph fastball. A 365-pound bench press. A YouTube highlight from his junior-college days in which he jumps over an opposing player and dunks. And a birth certificate that was issued seven years before some of his teammates'.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. An hour before the Charlotte Bobcats' season opener Friday night, Adam Morrison was at his locker dressed in a suit.
Gonzaga true freshman guard Steven Gray had been waiting for this for two years. He hadn't been to a GU home game or felt the noise generated at the McCarthey Athletic Center during the recruiting process.
It appears the timetable for Gonzaga University basketball forward Josh Heytvelt's return to practice will be pushed back.
At the outset of every season, Gonzaga men's basketball coach Mark Few tends to have a fairly concrete idea of his starters, rotations and who might redshirt.
The issuing of practice gear is generally a routine procedure at college basketball programs across the country. Established veterans barely raise an eye during the process.
PORTLAND It's good to be wanted, Dan Dickau thinks one week into his new job, point guard for the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Gonzaga men's basketball team is scheduled to open practice Friday at 7 p.m., but a couple of players might be spectators or see limited duty.
Point guard Demetri Goodson, ranked in the top 150 for the class of 2008 by several basketball recruiting services, has orally committed to Gonzaga.
Gonzaga University's Jeremy Pargo and Matt Bouldin are a little past the age at which they're required to write "What I did on summer break" papers when they returned to school.
The Phoenix Suns have added former Gonzaga guard Richie Frahm to their training camp roster.
Gonzaga is guaranteed of meeting at least three teams that played in last year's NCAA Tournament, the school announced while releasing its 2007-08 men's basketball schedule on Thursday.
Suspended GU basketball standout Josh Heytvelt has completed nearly 300 hours of community service 57 1/4 hours more than was required when he entered a diversion program.
The Gonzaga men's basketball team will make at least 12 appearances on the ESPN family of stations this upcoming season, while the Bulldogs women will appear for the third time in the past two seasons.
The West Coast Conference is exploring the possibility of holding its men's and women's basketball tournaments at a neutral site in Las Vegas, possibly as early as 2009.
Last weekend's Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Classic & BasketBALL Gala, hosted by Gonzaga University men's basketball coach Mark Few and his wife, Marcy, raised more than $750,000 in support of cancer research.
A great university, a fabulous city and wonderful people. As the first-year head men's basketball coach at the University of San Diego, Bill Grier has plenty to sell to recruits. But his biggest hook?
Dan Dickau wasn't about to let a little thing like job insecurity interfere with having some fun Thursday at the Toyota All-American's Charity Classic he hosted along with Adam Morrison.
The Dan Dickau trade count meter is up to eight, the most recent perhaps testing the former Gonzaga All-American's spirits more than the previous seven.
Gonzaga University's Matt Bouldin scored two points in 10 minutes in the USA U-19 Men's 78-75 semifinal win over France at the 2007 FIBA U-19 World Championships Saturday.
Grant Gibbs, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound point guard and top-100 recruit from Marion, Iowa, has made an oral commitment to play basketball for Gonzaga University in 2008.
Gonzaga's Matt Bouldin scored eight points, including a crucial late jumper, to help the USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team (3-0) defeat host Serbia 82-78.
Connecticut will play Gonzaga and Providence will face Boston College in the second annual Basketball Hall of Fame Challenge in Boston's TD Banknorth Garden on Dec. 1. tournament officials announced Tuesday from Springfield, Mass.
Gonzaga's Matt Bouldin was named to the 12-man USA Basketball U-19 team, the organization announced Saturday from Dallas.
Gonzaga will take on Tennessee in the Battle in Seattle next basketball season, according to John Hines of Northwest Sports Entertainment.
Gonzaga University and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Spokane made it official Thursday, signing an agreement to continue the Ronald McDonald Charities Classic.
WASHINGTON The Charlotte Bobcats' Adam Morrison said Monday that playing in the NBA with diabetes was slightly harder than during his college career at Gonzaga.
The Brazilian Beast or most of him, at least has returned. J.P. Batista is back in town after playing professionally in Lithuania last winter.
Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes and David Burgess will not return to the Gonzaga University men's basketball team next season.
ATLANTA Mark Few remembers the days when he could breeze through the hotel lobby during the National Association of Basketball Coaches' convention without having to break stride.
Here's the thing: with each opening he didn't pursue, each opportunity he had presented to him, Bill Grier found it more difficult.
The University of San Diego will hold a press conference this afternoon to introduce former Gonzaga University assistant Bill Grier as its new men's basketball head coach.
Mark Few looked neither far nor long to find a qualified successor to Bill Grier as the top assistant on his Gonzaga University men's basketball coaching staff.
Sources confirmed Saturday that Gonzaga University assistant Bill Grier has been offered the head men's basketball coaching job at the University of San Diego.
Gonzaga University coach Mark Few has never been one to hurriedly or off-handedly dispose of a basketball season or basketball team.
Gerald Wallace had 27 points and 11 rebounds, Adam Morrison hit the go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime and the Charlotte Bobcats beat Cleveland 108-100 Tuesday night in Charlotte.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The Gonzaga Bulldogs had been playing with a small margin for error, yet somehow surviving, for several weeks heading into this year's NCAA tournament.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The Gonzaga Bulldogs weren't themselves Thursday night at least at the offensive end of the floor.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. There's been a lot of amateur discussion this week about how the NCAA tournament needs tweaking.
Prosecutors say GU's Josh Heytvelt received no special treatment. But Heytvelt is the only felony drug suspect from Spokane County ever approved for the diversion program.
For Friday, March 16, 2007.
Indiana 70, Gonzaga 57
SACRAMENTO, Calif. It has been quite some time since the Gonzaga Bulldogs have faced a post player as skilled, productive and efficient as Indiana's D.J. White.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The rebounds became tougher to grab, the points a tad harder to come by and the blocked shots dropped significantly.
Mark Few told someone the other day that this Gonzaga basketball season felt like a dog year seven years in one.
In Mark Few's opinion, only the name of his Gonzaga Bulldogs' first-round NCAA tournament opponent is familiar.
The question was posed to Micah Downs on Sunday, shortly after he and his Gonzaga University teammates had learned the NCAA had awarded them a No. 10 seed in the West Region of its prestigious postseason men's college basketball tournament.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee surprised a lot of people, including several members of the Gonzaga University men's basketball team, on Sunday by awarding the West Coast Conference champion Bulldogs a No. 10 seed in the West Region of this year's postseason spectacle.
The indefinite suspensions handed down to Gonzaga University basketball players Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis will definitely last the rest of the season.
PORTLAND In the opinion of Gonzaga's David Pendergraft, this year's team has belonged to Derek Raivio since the season started.
PORTLAND, Ore. β Wanna be a hero? Take a number. That seems to be the approach the Gonzaga Bulldogs are taking to the latter stages of this unsettled college basketball season. And it was David Pendergraft who became the latest Zag to respond to having his number called on Sunday evening.
PORTLAND OK, so it's not quite the "Hoosiers" heroics of Ollie and his granny-style free throws. But the concept's the same.
PORTLAND Coach Mark Few and his Gonzaga Bulldogs pride themselves in having to take every opponent's best shot every time they step on the basketball court.
PORTLAND Ross DeRogatis had 22 points and San Diego beat Pepperdine 95-82 Friday night in the first round of West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament.
In his two seasons as a member of the Gonzaga University men's basketball team, Andrew Sorenson has logged a mere 17 minutes of playing time.
Did this year's West Coast Conference men's basketball awards merit a recount? One of the winners wondered as much Tuesday.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. Derek Raivio couldn't bear the thought of having another streak go down in flames on his watch.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. The chase, thanks to an unexpected assist from Loyola Marymount, is over for the University of Gonzaga men's basketball team.
SAN FRANCISCO With the end of a long, taxing and often complex regular season on the immediate horizon, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have managed to boil the sometimes complicated game of college basketball down to the most basic of approaches:
SAN FRANCISCO Gonzaga's Derek Raivio might finish his career as the most accurate free-throw shooter in the history of NCAA Division I basketball.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs, apparently in full embrace of the underdog role they insist they have recently inherited, close out one of the strangest and most unpredictable regular seasons in recent memory with a difficult West Coast Conference men's basketball road trip to the Bay Area and San Diego.
Mark Castellitto hit a school-record three doubles Thursday as the Gonzaga University baseball team defeated Texas Arlington (3-6) 12-1 in the opening day of the Southwest Diamond Classic at Frisco, Texas.
Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor John Grasso officially charged Gonzaga University basketball player Josh Heytvelt on Tuesday with felony possession of a controlled substance.
Mark Few had plenty of praise for his Gonzaga Bulldogs following Monday night's 87-67 men's basketball rout of West Coast Conference rival Portland.
Considering all that their fickle final season of college basketball has already thrown at them, it would have been foolish for Sean Mallon and Derek Raivio to assume their Senior Night celebration would play out as originally planned.
Dazed by yet another kick-to-the-stomach reunion with the adversity that has revisited them far too many times this year, the Gonzaga Bulldogs responded admirably again Saturday night.
This is why Spokane fell in love with the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the first place. Yes, all that winning and the March magic consummated the marriage, but the heart of the matter was something very much little-engine-that-could-ish the irresistible rise of an underdog with belief and passion and will against the pedigreed programs of college basketball, and not without some basketball gifts of its own.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs, who are still in the process of learning to cope with the absence of Josh Heytvelt, face, perhaps, their sternest test of a torturous and troubled season this afternoon when they entertain No. 8 Memphis in the Ronald McDonald House Charities Classic in the sold-out Spokane Arena.
Police reports documenting the arrests of two Gonzaga University basketball players last week in Cheney were delivered Friday to the Spokane County prosecutor's office.
When first scheduled, Saturday's Ronald McDonald House of Charities Classic between Memphis and Gonzaga at the Spokane Arena seemed like a perfect NCAA tournament tune-up for both teams.
Gonzaga's Mark Few, in the wake of the media frenzy surrounding the weekend drug-possession arrests and indefinite suspensions of Bulldogs players Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis, put his team members off limits during Wednesday's weekly prepractice media day gathering in the McCarthey Athletic Center.
The commander of the Spokane County Jail said he is investigating why his staff gave preferential treatment to two Gonzaga University basketball players Saturday by allowing them to be picked up from an area normally restricted to law enforcement.
Another day, another town, another ballgame for Kevin Mackey.And another reminder.
It became fairly apparent early on that Gonzaga University's nation's best home-court winning streak was history.
All right, now. Everybody chill out!So a couple of Ganjaga University basketball players are allegedly linked to a pittance of pot and some magic mushrooms.
It's just a symptom of our society, I guess.It's the Nancy-Grace-who's-at-fault-rush- to-judgment culture we live in now.
Don't even think about an asterisk. It was a Big Monday that quickly morphed into Black Monday, an inferable if not welcome coda to Gonzaga's lost weekend.
When two Gonzaga University basketball players were arrested on suspicion of drug possession over the weekend, administrators at the college said it came as a shock.
Gonzaga University's 50-game home basketball winning streak, the nation's longest, ended Monday night at the hands of Santa Clara University.
Could this be the night it all ends?Certainly, considering the caliber of the opponent and everything the Gonzaga University men's basketball team has been forced to deal with the past two days.
Not to distract anyone from the important work of getting on with the civic stupor over Zags, drugs and the pick-and-roll, but there is another game tonight.
Fallout, in the form of reactions from current players, future Bulldogs and even a sporting goods sales clerk, continued to drift down on the Gonzaga University men's basketball program after Saturday's suspension of two players arrested on drug possession charges.
The home-court winning streak survives. And the goody-two-Nikes reputation? We'll have to get back to you on that.
Adversity can sometimes act as a magnificent bonding agent.It did exactly that for the Gonzaga University men's basketball team Saturday, helping the Bulldogs cap an otherwise lousy day with a crucial 60-49 West Coast Conference win over Saint Mary's.
Two Gonzaga University men's basketball players, including starting sophomore forward and rebounding leader Josh Heytvelt, have been suspended indefinitely after being arrested on drug possession charges late Friday in Cheney.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs get a chance to set things right with their loyal fans and in their own minds, as well when they host Saint Mary's College today.
A Washington record walleye was caught in the Columbia River Monday by Mike Hepper of Richland.
Gonzaga's recent three-game road trip to California proved to be a dramatically mixed bag for GU and Jeremy Pargo, the Bulldogs personable sophomore point guard.
LOS ANGELES Loyola Marymount shook up the West Coast Conference title race in a big way Monday night, stunning league-leading Gonzaga 67-61 in front of a national television audience and a small, but vocal crowd of 3,815 at Gertsen Pavilion.
LOS ANGELES Gonzaga coach Mark Few insists that complacency should not be an issue when his Bulldogs venture into Gersten Pavilion tonight to take on another West Coast Conference bottom feeder in Loyola Marymount.
MALIBU, Calif. Vance Walberg didn't even bother with trying search out a superlative to describe the play of Gonzaga's Josh Heytvelt on Saturday.
MALIBU, Calif. First-year Pepperdine coach Vance Walberg knows his young and struggling men's basketball team has plenty of limitations.
Here they go again. Five games in 10 days. Two more round-trip flights and another 3,400 air miles on top of the 18,000 they've logged already. Another Top 25 opponent.
PULLMAN Washington State University athletic director Jim Sterk indicated Tuesday that he would attempt to revise basketball coach Tony Bennett's contract.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs used veteran-like performances from several of its younger players Monday night to offset some early rebounding indifference and turn back the University of San Diego 91-82 in a grinder of a West Coast Conference men's basketball game.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs, for the first time this season, will have first place in the West Coast Conference men's basketball standings all to themselves when they entertain the University of San Diego in the McCarthey Athletic Center tonight at 9.
Matt Bouldin welcomed back his missing perimeter jump shot Saturday night.
Oh-for-2007.Officially, that made Matt Bouldin the worst 3-point shooter in the West Coast Conference, which of course is a statistic and a damned lie.
Gonzaga will try to build on the nation's longest home-court winning streak this afternoon when they entertain San Francisco.
You rarely see an empty seat in the student section at Gonzaga men's basketball games.
Abdullahi Kuso, a 6-foot-9, 228-pound junior , has carved out a seemingly comfortable niche as a backup forward for Gonzaga.
PORTLAND Sean Mallon was on a mission Monday night.Gonzaga's fifth-year senior wanted desperately to erase the memory of the dreadful one-point, one-rebound effort he turned in a week earlier in a disappointing West Coast Conference road loss to Saint Mary's.
PORTLAND, Ore. Not much was expected from the University of Portland men's basketball team this winter.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few had hoped the turning back a late-game challenge from Santa Clara in last Saturday's 77-69 road win would be something to build on.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who picked up his 200th career win at Santa Clara on Saturday night, also earned milestone wins No. 50 and No. 150 against the Broncos.
MORAGA, Calif. Saint Mary's did something Monday night in McKeon Pavilion that no West Coast Conference team has been able to do in almost two years.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. Micah Downs made his long-awaited and much-anticipated debut for Gonzaga University Saturday night.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. The teams with the best overall records in the West Coast Conference square off this evening in the Leavey Center.
There is a chance that Kansas transfer Micah Downs could see his first action for Gonzaga this weekend when the Bulldogs travel to the Bay Area.
Gonzaga's Mark Few, in just his eighth season as a head coach, will be going for career win No. 200 Saturday.
It was a game in which the Gonzaga Bulldogs never seemed truly threatened. But Monday night's 69-52 West Coast Conference victory over Pepperdine before 6,000 at the McCarthey Athletic Center didn't ever seem safe, either.
Pepperdine brought its run-and-gun road show minus the run part into the McCarthey Athletic Center Monday night hoping to end the nation's longest home-court winning streak.
Any college basketball team that runs up close to one hundred points, like the Gonzaga Bulldogs did in Saturday's 97-62 West Coast Conference romp past Loyola Marymount, is comfortable playing fast.
MALIBU, Calif. Stephanie Hawk had a double-double, finishing with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and the Gonzaga women's basketball team rolled to a 58-35 victory over Pepperdine Sunday at Firestone Fieldhouse in West Coast Conference action.
Gonzaga's long-anticipated return to the McCarthey Athletic Center on Saturday seemed to have cured at least some of the problems that have dogged the Bulldogs in recent weeks.
Gonzaga's Jeremy Pargo was asked about the career performance the Bulldogs' Sean Mallon had just turned in.
The West Coast Conference wasted no time in giving its men's basketball fans the best it has to offer.
Harv Clark, the Gonzaga Bulldogs' longtime public address announcer, will not be courtside for this afternoon's West Coast Conference opener against Loyola Marymount.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The West Coast Conference slate couldn't get here soon enough for Gonzaga.
Announcer: "Now it's time for Dr. Phil-it-up's advice to the Zaglorn."
Dave Leitao, the second-year University of Virginia coach ,knows it has been a long time since the Gonzaga Bulldogs, have lost four consecutive games.
SEATTLE Gonzaga got the finish all wrong again Saturday.
» View photos from the game
SEATTLE Well, the schedule is everything it was anticipated to be. And the Gonzaga Bulldogs? Maybe not so much.
SEATTLE When Gonzaga coach Mark Few was trying to put together this year's Battle in Seattle last spring, Nevada's Nick Fazekas was still weighing the option of declaring for the NBA draft.
Gonzaga's David Burgess has started practicing again after being sidelined since the start of fall camp with a partially torn MCL in his right knee.
For fans who don't have a rooting interest during the NBA's All-Star weekend, how about this marquee matchup?
For Sunday, December 24, 2006.
NEW YORK Greg Paulus had a career-high 20 points to help No. 6 Duke beat No. 22 Gonzaga 61-54 Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
NEW YORK The better you are, the better you get at giving compliments and Mike Krzyzewski delivered a beauty Thursday night.
NEW YORK Better late than
what?Never being able to stop the bleeding from your eardrums?
NEW YORK It took 33 seconds for Adam Morrison to get his first shot up Wednesday night and of course it went in.
NEW YORK It looks like they picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
Wait, that's Lloyd Bridges' line in "Airplane." Sorry.
DULUTH, Ga. It was a tradition neither coach Mark Few nor his Gonzaga Bulldogs were interested in seeing continue.
DULUTH, Ga. Twenty-one and sixteen.
Those two numbers stood out rather dramatically following Gonzaga University's loss to the University of Georgia.
DULUTH, Ga. If it seems like the Gonzaga Bulldogs have already dealt with a similar situation or two this season, it's because they have.
Matt Bouldin has burst upon the Gonzaga University basketball scene like few freshmen in school history.
Gonzaga's Derek Raivio leads the WCC in scoring with an average of 20.4 points per game and is one of six seniors ranked among the conference's top seven scorers. ... Raivio also leads the WCC with a free-throw percentage of 94 (47 of 50). ... Santa Clara's Danny Pariseau, a former prep standout at Shadle Park and senior transfer from Eastern Washington, has played a major role in the Broncos' surprising 7-3 start by averaging 10.6 points and 3.89 assists per game and shooting 53 percent (35 of 66) from the field, including a WCC-best 52 percent (13 of 25) from 3-point range. He also leads the WCC with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.06. ... Pepperdine's current roster shows the Waves (2-8) with one center, two forwards and 13 guards. . . . Despite decent starts by GU (9-2), Santa Clara (7-3) and Loyola Marymount, the WCC is only 43-41 against non-conference foes.
It's been a rough month for Charlotte Bobcats rookie Adam Morrison, the former Gonzaga star.
Matt Bouldin's first start for the Gonzaga Bulldogs was impressive enough Saturday night. But just imagine if it's only the start. Electrified by an especially manic sellout crowd of 6,000, the freshman from suburban Denver returned the favor with a difference-making performance in the Zags' 97-77 rout of 13th-ranked Washington not exactly the coda the Huskies might have imagined to what has been a terrific college basketball series between the schools.
Much of the hype leading up to Saturday night's men's basketball showdown between the University of Washington and Gonzaga centered on the outstanding stable of freshmen on UW's roster.
University of Washington men's basketball coach Lorenzo Romar confessed earlier this week to having no idea what to expect from his young, but still unbeaten, Huskies tonight when they leave behind the comforts of home for the first time this season to face Gonzaga in the Bulldogs' McCarthey Athletic Center.
PULLMAN Maybe it was the two losing seasons they endured before it. Maybe it was the home crowd, bigger than any they had seen in their lives.
PULLMAN Gonzaga will play Washington State at 7 tonight attempting to win another basketball game in the midst of an impossibly difficult stretch of December games.
PHOENIX The fun times continued for Derek Raivio and his Gonzaga University basketball teammates Saturday afternoon.
PHOENIX John Stockton and Jeff Condill. Matt Santangelo and Quintin Hall, Dan Dickau and Blake Stepp. Gonzaga has had its share of exceptional backcourt combinations.
Too much Morrison? No way! I've noticed a couple of "sour grapes" letters to the sport's editor regarding Adam Morrison. Please, to those few of you naysayers, just skip over the brief blurbs on Morrison and let those of us who certainly outnumber you enjoy reading about this electrifying young man's rookie year in a tough professional sport.
PHOENIX The Gonzaga Bulldogs kick off perhaps the most difficult December in the history of their men's basketball program today at noon when they take on Texas.
Blame it on Texas. With the Longhorns the next big-name school on their demanding schedule, Gonzaga played like a team unwilling to give away any secrets.
MINNEAPOLIS Dan Monson resigned as the men's basketball coach at Minnesota on Thursday.
Ken Bone was asked if he felt his Portland State men's basketball team was prepared for the hostile environment it will face tonight when it takes on 22nd-ranked Gonzaga.
No. 22 Gonzaga takes on Portland State tonight at McCarthey Athletic Center. Check in with online columnist Vince Grippi, who will have pregame and postgame reports and invite readers to give their take on the game.
Rookie Adam Morrison scored 22 points and Sean May had a career-high 20 Tuesday night in East Rutherford, N. J., as the Charlotte Bobcats beat New Jersey 96-92.
There's still time to vote, but the 1998-1999 Gonzaga basketball team is the clear-cut favorite of fans in our online poll.
Derek Raivio decided not to save his best for last this time.
Idaho head coach George Pfeifer knows quite a bit about the Gonzaga University men's basketball program, probably more than most of the Bulldogs' opponents.
Injuries have allowed Dwyane Wade to show another facet of his game: He's a great passer.
NEW YORK For coach Mark Few and his Gonzaga Bulldogs, it's almost always about approach.
NEW YORK Good, smart and tough. It's a combination that no college basketball coach wants to see in an opponent. But that's exactly how Gonzaga's Mark Few describes the unbeaten and underrated Butler team that will provide the opposition for his Bulldogs in today's 4 p.
NEW YORK Apparently, some of the younger players on Gonzaga University's remarkable men's basketball team didn't get the memo on how they were expected to act.
Adam Morrison was answering a reporter's question when someone turned on the television, showing that North Carolina had an early 10-point lead on Gonzaga.
NEW YORK Four games into the college basketball season, Mark Few admits he still doesn't have an accurate read on his unbeaten Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Any fears coach Mark Few might have had about his Gonzaga Bulldogs looking past the University of Texas at San Antonio were alleviated early Sunday night.
The focus of Gonzaga University's unbeaten men's basketball team will be tested this afternoon when the University of Texas at San Antonio comes to Spokane.
There's nothing even remotely sexy about balance. But when it's the strength of your basketball team, you go with it.
If you remember the postcards the Gonzaga Bulldogs sent back from Maui a year ago, then you remember what possibility feels like.
Adam Morrison decided to relax a little bit after putting too much pressure on himself in the first few games of his career.
Josh Heytvelt, Gonzaga University's rapidly emerging sophomore star, gave Bulldog fans a few more reasons to ponder "what if" Tuesday night at the Arena.
I'm not sure when a basketball crowd of 6,841 in Spokane became a disappointment, but it was Tuesday night.
Peja Stojakovic scored a career-high 42 points as the New Orleans Hornets broke a three-game losing streak with a 94-85 victory Tuesday night over the Charlotte Bobcats.
There are precious few chances to see the Gonzaga Bulldogs in person if you are a Spokane fan without season tickets.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few confessed to being a bit apprehensive heading into Friday night's men's basketball opener against Eastern Washington, and with good reason. His Bulldogs had not looked particularly sharp especially in the early going in either of their two lopsided exhibition wins earlier this month, and Few was concerned they might not be able to survive another sluggish start against the Eagles.
Careening through the tunnels of McCarthey Athletic Center at full dribble, 9-year-old Brock Rice and 6-year-old A. J. Few coaches' kids with the run of the place slam smack into Mike Burns, who they know mostly from backyard barbecues and as a friend of their two dads, and not so much from who he is this night.
Mark Few doesn't see a reason to not trust his colleagues and close friends on the Eastern Washington University men's basketball coaching staff.
Gonzaga University announced its 2007 men's basketball recruiting class on Wednesday, and Bulldogs coach Mark Few promptly declared it "the best we've ever had here.
Continuity is not sameness, never mind how often that seems to be the implication.
We are a city divided between blue and red. Gonzaga blue and Eastern red.
Gonzaga University held its weekly men's basketball media day Monday, but not much of the conversation was centered on the Bulldogs.
Gonzaga University closed out its exhibition season Saturday night with another rout of a dramatically undermanned opponent.
As Gonzaga coach Mark Few looks ahead to the 2006-07 college basketball season, he can take some comfort in looking back to the fall of 2004.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were the last team the Charlotte Bobcats should have looked to for their first victory of the season.
Nov. 1 GU 89, Augustana 53 #Nov. 4 GU 97, Warner Pacific 52 #Nov. 10 Eastern Washington, 5 p. m. Nov. 14 vs.
Keep an eye on these three once the season tips off:Derek Raivio, G: Bigger things were expected last season, but the senior guard's numbers slipped in the wake of some physical and personal problems.
Spike the bulldog sells. Over the past few years, online sales of merchandise bearing the likeness of the fierce-but-friendly Gonzaga University mascot have skyrocketed.
LOS ANGELES A victory in the first days of November isn't supposed to mean much when Kobe Bryant has so many of them from the (NBA) finals days of June.
Mike Miller scored 27 points, including 21 in the fourth quarter, to lead Memphis to its first win of the season, 96-83, over Charlotte in Memphis.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs conclude their preseason men's basketball schedule at 7 tonight with a matchup against Warner Pacific.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few admitted he wasn't sure what to expect from his young, inexperienced men's basketball team heading into Wednesday night's exhibition opener. So he found himself neither elated nor dismayed by the energetic, but uneven, performance his Bulldogs turned in during an 89-53 rout of Augustana College.
Gonzaga University basketball fans cheer for everything, even when the woman singing the national anthem hits the high note.
Jermaine O'Neal and Sarunas Jasikevicius scored 20 points apiece and the Indiana Pacers won their season opener, 106-99 over the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday.
College basketball season begins tonight in our town and just in time, since already the buzz is about next season.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs are not quite three weeks into their preseason basketball workouts, but they have already solved several of the mysteries that surrounded the team when they held their first practice of the season earlier this month.
CHARLOTTE, N. C. It is 10:15 a.m. and the city of Charlotte knows where its children are at a free-admission National Basketball Association preseason game.
It didn't take long for Adam Morrison to find the bright side of the National Basketball Association preseason. "At least these games don't count," he sighed.
Theo Davis, a highly touted freshman on Gonzaga University's men's basketball team, underwent shoulder surgery early this week and will be sidelined for at least a couple of months.
Mark Few looked out on the floor in the McCarthey Athletic Center Friday evening and quickly surveyed the group of young men warming up.
CHARLOTTE, N. C. This is precisely what Adam Morrison is paid to do, so the fact that he did it isn't much of a surprise.
For the past couple years, Adam Morrison has been burned into Spokane's consciousness. His long hair flapping as he attacked the basket. That feeble excuse for a mustache.
Theo Davis, a 6-foot-9, 220-pounder from the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ontario, will be eligible to play basketball at Gonzaga University this winter. According to GU assistant coach Tommy Lloyd, who was instrumental in the recruitment of the highly touted power forward, the school learned late Friday afternoon that Davis has been cleared to compete by the NCAA Clearinghouse.
Andy Poling, a 7-foot center who will be a junior at Westview High in Beaverton, Ore. , orally committed to Gonzaga University on Wednesday night.
Once again, defense proved to be little more than a rumor. But at least this year, the 3,000 or so fans who hung around to witness the final seconds of the second annual Toyota Dan Dickau Charity Classic basketball game at Gonzaga University's McCarthey Atheltic Center were treated to a little drama much of which was supplied by several past GU stars who decided to take part in the charity event.
SEATTLE Washington will host Final Four participant Louisiana State in December, two games after its annual in-state showdown with Gonzaga, according to a schedule the school has released.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Adam Morrison, the No. 3 overall pick in last month's NBA draft, signed with the Charlotte Bobcats on Thursday.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. "This is Adam Morrison, the newest member of your Charlotte Bobcats," said Adam Morrison, the newest member of your Charlotte Bobcats.
Shuttled from interview to photo op in an endless loop Wednesday night, Adam Morrison didn't have a chance to be overwhelmed.
Multimedia: Career retrospective
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Coach and general manager Bernie Bickerstaff thinks Adam Morrison was the perfect choice for the Charlotte Bobcats' first major move since Michael Jordan became part-owner.
Much has been made of Adam Morrison's various basketball influences and prototypes, and in fact Morrison has often joined in the parlor game. For everyone's sanity, however, a moratorium eventually had to be placed on any further comparisons to Larry Bird, except perhaps in terms of upper lip ornamentation.
WALTHAM, Mass. The Boston Celtics selected Villanova guard Randy Foye with the No. 7 pick in the NBA draft Wednesday night, then promptly traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers for Sebastian Telfair in a five-player deal that included former Gonzaga University point guard Dan Dickau.
Players were moving around like pieces on a checkerboard Wednesday night as the 2006 NBA draft lived up to the unpredictability that was promised.
A thumbnail look at the first 10 selections of the NBA draft
As teammates at Gonzaga University for the past two seasons, Adam Morrison and J.P. Batista shared the same goal of helping keep the Bulldogs' men's basketball program among the nation's elite.
Gonzaga University's men's basketball team, coming off a 29-4 season that included another trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, continues to reap recruiting benefits from its rise to one of the elite national programs.
The University of Nevada will be Gonzaga's rival for the fourth annual Comcast Battle in Seattle, Dec. 30 at KeyArena in Seattle, the schools announced Tuesday.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Agent Mark Bartelstein is playing doctor these days, telling NBA teams not to fear Adam Morrison's diabetes. Bartelstein isn't trivializing the disease, but he wants teams to know it's manageable enough that Morrison can have a long NBA career.
Gonzaga's basketball presence in the Spokane Arena takes on a higher and earlier profile next season.
Duke and Gonzaga have made it official. The two national men's basketball powers have agreed to meet this winter on one of the greatest stages in all of sport New York's Madison Square Garden.
Adam Morrison was walking alone, head down, across the lawn outside the McCarthey Athletic Center on Wednesday, just moments after holding an afternoon press conference to tell the world what it already knew.
John Blanchette: Morrison one of a kind
Slideshow: Morrison career retrospective
Just as an exercise, whenever someone invokes the phrase "the next level," imagine yourself on a department store elevator. From the second floor, it's pretty obvious what the next level is.
As expected, Gonzaga University has scheduled a press conference this afternoon, presumably to announce that junior Adam Morrison, a consensus All-American and the nation's top Division I scorer, will leave school early to declare for this summer's NBA draft.
Gonzaga University's Adam Morrison is expected to hold a news conference this week, possibly as early as Wednesday, announcing he will forgo his senior season at GU and declare for this summer's NBA Draft.
LOS ANGELES J.J. Redick took a West Coast vacation this week, spending some time with Adam Morrison and beating out his buddy for the John R. Wooden Award as college basketball's male player of the year.
Arizona will face Illinois and Gonzaga will play Texas in the Basketball Hall of Fame's inaugural Hall of Fame Challenge doubleheader Dec. 2 in Phoenix, officials said Monday.
The buzz of another Gonzaga University men's basketball season has boiled down into the predictable topics: What did or should have happened in the final seconds against UCLA; whether Adam Morrison will turn pro; what job offer out there might entice Mark Few?
They've been linked to each other all season. And for the first time in its 50-year history, the United States Basketball Writers Association named co-players of the year in college basketball: Adam Morrison and J.J. Redick.
Five players were named to the Associated Press men's All-America basketball team Monday and two are from Washington state. Adam Morrison of Gonzaga and Brandon Roy of Washington became the first two players from the Evergreen State to be named All-America the same season.
Having trouble dragging yourself out of the dumps after Gonzaga men's basketball team collapsed in the NCAA basketball tournament Thursday night? Eight-year-old Olivia Byers, still taking baby steps in her life as a Zags fan, took a giant stride toward recovery Friday afternoon.
On a greaseboard hanging from a wall in his office, Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice tracks the recruiting progress of the Bulldogs' men's basketball program. His list of current players, recent letter-of-intent signees and prospective future recruits shows who the Zags expect to have on their rosters for the next several seasons.
OAKLAND, Calif. Nothing is supposed to come easy this time of year. But nothing should come this cruelly, either. Given an opportunity several, in fact to put away second-seeded UCLA in Thursday night's third-round of the NCAA tournament, the third-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs deferred.
OAKLAND, Calif. It ended for Adam Morrison the same way it ended for Ronny Turiaf in tears, a jersey tugged over his face, sprawled inconsolably on a court in March with dreams not just unfulfilled but stolen away.
OAKLAND, Calif. Gonzaga's J. P. Batista felt he was fouled on the turnover he committed in the final seconds of Thursday night's 73-71 NCAA Tournament loss to UCLA.
OAKLAND, Calif. These are not Steve Lavin's Bruins which isn't necessarily good news for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. This year's UCLA team, 29-6 and seeded No.
OAKLAND, Calif. Gonzaga's Adam Morrison has encountered just about every kind of defense imaginable this year. Box-and-one. Triangle-and-two. He's been face-guarded by opponents with no responsibility for any kind of help-side defense.
OAKLAND, Calif. In the end, UCLA's Jordan Farmar called his decision to become a Bruin a "no-brainer. "But there was a time when the 6-foot-2 sophomore out of Taft High School in Van Nuys, Calif.
OAKLAND, Calif. It's Gonzaga vs. UCLA today to determine the fate of the free world, the Best in the West and the next survivor on the road to the Final Four.
Dick Bennett is one of four head coaches to have seen both Gonzaga and UCLA from the opposite sideline this season. Bennett, now retired from his job as the head coach at Washington State, watched his Cougars lose at Gonzaga 67-53 in December, then lose to UCLA 63-61 in Los Angeles and 50-30 in Pullman during conference play.
Gonzaga assistant Bill Grier would be interested in listening to Pepperdine officials if they want to discuss the possibility of him taking over the Waves' vacant head coaching job.
OAKLAND, Calif. Residents of Fort Worth, Texas, might know a little about it. And folks in St. Paul, Minn., probably have a few insights. But you've got to figure the people who call this rough-edged city home are the true experts when it comes to being overlooked and overshadowed.
OAKLAND, Calif. Mark Few has had, depending on what rumors one wishes to embrace, at least a couple of opportunities to leave Gonzaga University for what are generally perceived to be greener college basketball pastures.
Despite their glossy 29-3 record, No. 5 national ranking and No. 3 regional seed in this year's NCAA tournament, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have taken their share of jabs from the television pundits who seem to endlessly opine on college basketball this time of year.
Flying to California this week? Good luck if you want to get there Wednesday or Thursday and didn't book early. Getting from Spokane to the Bay Area either day by a direct flight has become much more complicated, thanks to Gonzaga University playing its next NCAA basketball tournament game Thursday evening in the Oakland Arena.
Is UCLA really a sleeping college basketball giant, finally re-awakening under the gentle prodding of third-year coach Ben Howland? Gonzaga's Mark Few doesn't think so.
SALT LAKE CITY It happens everywhere he goes now. And Saturday night here at the Huntsman Center was no exception. People stare at Adam Morrison.
SALT LAKE CITY Mike Davis wearily said goodbye to Indiana basketball, thanking his players as much for their effort over the last month as for their final game for the coach.
SALT LAKE CITY Big day for Sean Mallon. A double-double. CBS' player of the game. Postgame face time on TV. A flotilla of reporters fishing for his innermost thoughts.
SALT LAKE CITY There will be no "Two-bad-for-the-Zags" finish to this college basketball season. The Gonzaga Bulldogs made sure of that Saturday night by shrugging off the second-round jinx that has plagued them in each of the last three NCAA basketball tournaments and shoving aside Indiana 90-80 in front of a sellout crowd of 15,122 in the Huntsman Center.
SALT LAKE CITY There really wasn't any big secret to the success Indiana had in guarding Gonzaga's Adam Morrison on Saturday night. The Hoosiers let nearly everyone in their undersized lineup take a run at the Bulldogs' scoring leader and player-of-the-year candidate.
Matchup: No. 3 Gonzaga (29-3) vs. No. 2 UCLA (29-6)
SALT LAKE CITY Coach Mark Few hinted that Gonzaga fans could see more of David Pendergraft and Erroll Knight than normal this afternoon when his third-seeded Bulldogs take on perennial Big TenConference power and sixth-seeded Indiana in the second round of the NCAA tournament in the Huntsman Center.
SALT LAKE CITY Rarely has there been a more obvious turning point in a basketball season than this year at Indiana University. On Feb.
SALT LAKE CITY Perhaps the most intriguing matchup in tonight's second-round NCAA tournament showdown between Gonzaga and Indiana will be the low-post test of strength between the Bulldogs' J.
SALT LAKE CITY The best thing Gonzaga has going for it today? The name on the front of the other team's jerseys. Seriously. Because they're not just playing Marco Killingsworth and the hottest team in the Big Ten at the end of the year, along with Ohio State and Iowa.
SALT LAKE CITY If you've been following the screeching from their opponents of late, you're probably aware that the Gonzaga Bulldogs haven't had to deal with much in the way of foul trouble this season.
SALT LAKE CITY Don't take this the wrong way, Gonzaga fans, but you have the distinction of rooting for the cockroaches of college basketball.
SALT LAKE CITY Seeming dead in the water with their motor burned out and reaching for the oars, the Gonzaga Bulldogs somehow found their way back to shore once again.
SALT LAKE CITY For the vast majority of basketball fans, the NCAA Tournament is a TV show. And Zags rooters hope their favorite reality program turns out to be a series with several more episodes.
SALT LAKE CITY Anyone who has been in a long-term relationship could recognize the look. It's the one that says, "I'm really, really tired of discussing this."
SALT LAKE CITY Publicly, Adam Morrison says all the right things. He calls the massive amount of attention he has received this winter "cool," and says the exposure is "good for the university."
SALT LAKE CITY Such a curious universe, this college basketball and the logic deprived who inhabit its fringes. On Tuesday night, Stanford won what amounted to a play-in game to the National Invitation Tournament.
SALT LAKE CITY Sean Miller wasn't around to hear a couple of West Coast Conference coaches carping recently about the foul-shooting edge Gonzaga had in the 16 games it played against league foes this winter.
SALT LAKE CITY Gonzaga's David Pendergraft confessed Wednesday afternoon that he was the guy who talked teammate Adam Morrison into trying to grow his now-famous, sort-of mustache.
Thanks to Gonzaga's ambitious national schedule and the West Coast Conference's agreement to become a part of ESPN's Big Monday telecasts, Xavier University has had ample opportunity this winter to watch the Bulldogs' irrepressible Adam Morrison play.
Xavier's Justin Cage admits it was a bit unnerving, at first, to realize Brian Thornton and Dedrick Finn no longer had his back. Or the backs of any of his teammates, either, for that matter.
Come postseason tournament time, sleep is always at a premium for college basketball coaches trying to prepare, on a short turn-around, for their next opponent.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few and his players refused to let themselves get caught up in any seeding debates on Sunday afternoon. After gathering at Few's home to watch CBS-TV's Selection Show for this year's NCAA Tournament, several Bulldogs ventured back to the McCarthey Athletic Center to address the media.
INDIANAPOLIS The madness was on before the first tipoff. This year's NCAA tournament draw was a mix of power and unpredictability, with the top seeds surprising no one and the rest of the field stirring all the debate.
Good to have "The Sopranos" back on the tube. But when did they add Jim Nantz and Billy Packer to the cast? Watching Nantz go all Paulie Walnuts on Sunday afternoon in grilling selection committee chair Craig Littlepage on the makeup of this year's NCAA Basketball Tournament field was almost as much fun as watching Adam Morrison bank a game-winning 3-pointer off the glass and just as rare.
Office production slows to a drip until further notice with the announcement this afternoon of the NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket hieroglyphics that 24th century archeologists will find on our cave walls and puzzle over, like the fossilized remains of the pinwheel imprisoned in Dick Vitale's skull.
Not that Gonzaga coach Mark Few is complaining, but he admits there is a downside or two to dealing with the kind of depth he has on this year's roster.
Everything that's wrong with the West Coast Conference, I learned by trolling the Internet. Actually, it only took one post. In the vigorous and often silly cyberdebate that buffeted the WCC's postseason tournament this past weekend the site, the refs, the league's stature and geographic arrogance both perceived and real a contribution from a fan of one of the California schools was particularly instructive.
So did he or didn't he? Get a piece of that last shot, that is. Give Erroll Knight this: unlike his buddy Adam Morrison, who's been sticking to the same story about that game-winning 3-pointer off the glass way back in January, when the tapes were rolling and the pens were cocked Monday night, he came clean.
In all likelihood, the 6,000 fans who jammed into the McCarthey Athletic Center for Monday's championship game of the West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament saw Gonzaga's Adam Morrison play his final home game as a Zag.
Comebacks all seem to have their own unique character. And the one the Gonzaga Bulldogs used to reel in Loyola Marymount in Monday night's finale of the West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament in McCarthey Athletic Center was strictly a pick-your-own-hero kind of affair.
Pushed to the edge once again on Sunday, the Gonzaga Bulldogs peeked over and issued their customary response. "No thanks, not yet," they calmly told the University of San Diego, before stepping away from a potential fall one that could have turned their 38-game home winning streak into nothing more than a mere grease spot and crafting a hard-earned 96-92 overtime win in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament.
Regardless of whether he decides to forego his senior season at Gonzaga and declare for this summer's NBA Draft, Adam Morrison will be playing with the pros in the near future.
Since they are supposed to win, the Gonzo Bulldogs don't get a lot of allowances in the explanation department even in doing so. Their games are too close.
With teammate J.P. Batista limping around with a sprained knee and bruised thigh, Gonzaga's Derek Raivio figured he needed to supply some offense if the Bulldogs hoped to sneak past San Diego in the first of Sunday's two West Coast Conference Tournament semifinals at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Describe the typical college basketball fan and a bouncy, beer-fueled student may come to mind. Some show up to games with signs, others sacrifice their bare chests to become human billboards.
No college basketball coach likes playing three games in three nights. But come conference tournament time, it certainly beats the alternative. Which is why San Diego's Brad Holland said his team was "ecstatic" about earning the chance to play a third game in the West Coast Conference tournament, even though it means facing regular-season league champion Gonzaga in today's first of two semifinals which tips off at 5 in the Bulldog's McCarthey Athletic Center.
Santa Clara used the front-line scoring of Travis Niesen, Mitch Henke and Sean Denison to offset another big night by Portland's Pooh Jeter and turn back the Pilots 72-68 in Friday's opening round of the West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
Perhaps you're a hard case who doesn't buy the company line that the Gonzaga Bulldogs get every team's best shot. Well, the brutal truth was there to be seen Friday night at McCarthey Athletic Center, which is breaking its maiden as a neutral court this weekend.
Brad Holland admitted his had some major concerns about the way his University of San Diego team was playing heading into this year's West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament.
Avid Gonzaga fans often flee to California this time of year for "spring break for grown-ups," a carefree weekend of Zags basketball, golf and sunshine.
Given 14 chances during the regular season, they whiffed 14 times. But the other seven teams in the West Coast Conference continue to hope league bully Gonzaga might yet prove mortal at some point during this year's conference tournament, which starts tonight in the Bulldogs' McCarthey Athletic Center.
Aside from San Francisco's Jessie Evans, most West Coast Conference men's basketball coaches seem to embrace the idea of playing this year's league tournament in the home arena of regular-season champion and top-seeded Gonzaga.
When he draws, Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes prefers the human form. Figures and faces. Now, like any beginner he was at first "just trying to draw a nose that looks like a nose."
Too close to call? That's the way the coaches see the West Coast Conference women's basketball tournament that starts today at McCarthey Athletic Center. But all things being equal, they agreed, take the home team.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs continued their recent domination of the West Coast Conference's major postseason men's basketball honors on Tuesday by capturing the conference's player- and coach-of-the-year awards for the sixth consecutive time.
It's destined to be the hottest Sports Illustrated cover of the y
