POLL: Which state team has your support in the NCAA tourney?

Published 8:53 am Monday, March 18, 2019

Which breed of dog do you prefer?

The bracket for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament was released Sunday, with two teams from the state of Washington receiving bids. The Gonzaga Bulldogs are the No. 1 seed in the West Region, while the University of Washington Huskies are the No. 9 seed in the Midwest Region.

And I’m curious which team has more support from local sports fans.

Washington, which faces No. 9 Utah State in the first round at 3:45 p.m. PDT on Friday in Columbus, Ohio, should in theory have the local support from Snohomish County, as campus is just a 25-mile drive down I-5 in Seattle. However, the Huskies haven’t built up historical momentum, as this is Washington’s first foray into the NCAA tournament since 2011. And while the Huskies have had Snohomish County natives like Dan Kingma in the recent past and will be adding Marysville Pilchuck star RaeQuan Battle next season, they currently have no Snohomish County ties.

Gonzaga, which takes on the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game between Prairie View and Farleigh Dickinson in the first round at 4:15 p.m. PDT on Thursday in Salt Lake City, may be farther away as it’s located 300 miles away in Spokane. However, the Bulldogs are the state’s traditional power, having qualified for 20 straight NCAA tournaments, and therefore may have built up a broader fan base. Gonzaga also has a local tie as King’s High School graduate and Edmonds native Corey Kispert is a starter for the Bulldogs.

So do we tend to align ourselves more with geography or success?

In case one believes geography is the obvious answer, I can state with fact that there is a heavy Gonzaga tilt within the Herald’s sports department — one need only look at the Twitter feeds of reporters Cameron Van Til and Josh Horton to see where their allegiances lie.

So which team has your primary support, the Huskies or the Bulldogs? State your side of the state divide here: