SEATTLE – In case the Gonzaga men’s basketball team needed any extra incentive down the stretch this season, the Bulldogs rallied around the possibility of opening the NCAA tournament in their own state.
Gonzaga earned that right, then showed again just how comfortable they are at KeyArena when senior Blake Stepp opened practice with a half-court shot that swished through the net.
The Bulldogs are 4-0 all-time at KeyArena, including two wins in the 1999 NCAA tournament. Gonzaga beat Washington here during the 1999-2000 season and knocked off Missouri last December.
“This is our home away from home,” coach Mark Few said. “We love playing here in front of these fans. … To be here and reward our fans is awesome. I hope our play is worthy of it.”
Gonzaga (27-2) should feel right at home today, when it faces Valparaiso in a first-round matchup. The Spokane school only got 550 allotted tickets – the same as the other seven schools here for the regional – but plenty of Bulldogs fans purchased tickets early in anticipation of a possible Seattle game.
“Any time you have a home-crowd advantage, that’s always a positive,” senior forward Cory Violette said. “I don’t know what it will be like (today), but if it is anything like the way it was against Missouri, it’ll help us out a lot.”
The Bulldogs were 13-0 at home this season, but fared just as well in unfamiliar surroundings. Both of Gonzaga’s losses came on neutral courts in preseason tournaments.
KeyArena is officially a neutral court, but the Bulldogs’ success in their home-away-from-home makes it seem likely that they’ll leave with a pair of wins under their belt.
“They’re a team that has a chance to do very well in this tournament,” said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, whose team beat the Bulldogs 87-80 in December. “They don’t give much up in any one area.”
Although Stanford is a No. 1 seed and Gonzaga is a No. 2, and both are playing in Seattle today, the teams would not square off until the Final Four. Two wins would send Stanford to Phoenix, while the Bulldogs would go to St. Louis.
Foot in mouth: Perhaps not realizing that he is in the same city that plays home to the University of Washington, Stanford forward Josh Childress might have inadvertently put a burr under the saddle of Husky fans during a Wednesday press conference.
When asked about the possibility of overlooking today’s opponent, Childress compared the game against Texas-San Antonio to Stanford’s lone loss – at Washington 11 days ago.
“We’re mature enough to realize you can’t look past anybody,” Childress said. “We looked ahead a couple weeks ago against Washington, and that got us in trouble.”
Stanford’s Montgomery said Childress misspoke, that he was actually referring to a comeback victory over Washington State two weeks ago.
School ties: Anyone looking to name today’s regional in Seattle might want to consider calling it the Heathcote Region.
That would be after legendary coach Jud Heathcote, who is connected to almost every team here.
Heathcoate coached at Michigan State, the No. 7 seed. While with the Spartans, he coached against a Purdue team that included guard Matt Painter, who is now head coach at No. 9 seed Southern Illinois.
Now retired and living in Spokane, Heathcote attends Gonzaga games and frequently gets together with Few to talk basketball over lunch.
And Heathcote is good friends with Stanford’s Montgomery because both of them had stints as head coach at the University of Montana.
As if that’s not enough, Valparaiso head trainer Rod Moore played junior high school basketball for Heathcote in Spokane.
So which team will Heathcote support?
“We’ll pay for his hotel room,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said, “as long as he wears the right colors.”
A piece of Everett: The floor at KeyArena was brought in from the Everett Events Center because the surfaces used by the Seattle Sonics and Storm had too much signage.
To use the KeyArena basketball surfaces, the NCAA would have had to cover the logos and advertising with a vinyl surface that could have affected playing conditions.
“We want to have the players playing on wood, and not on vinyl,” tournament director Brian Trent said. “KeyArena did a great job of finding another surface. It really is a fantastic floor, and we’re glad to have it.”
The Events Center floor is used for basketball events like a recent Everett appearance by the Harlem Globetrotters.
Over before it started: The University of Texas-San Antonio may be aiming to become the first 16 seed to knock off a No. 1, but the Roadrunners don’t have a very impressive resume.
During the regular season, UTSA (19-13) played two games against teams in the current NCAA field. The Roadrunners dropped both contests by a combined 56 points.
Tip-ins: Among the fans on hand to watch Alabama’s practice Wednesday was Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander, who played football for the Crimson Tide. … Nevada head coach Trent Johnson is a graduate of Seattle’s Garfield High School and was an assistant at Washington from 1989-92. … Saturday’s games start at 12:20 p.m., with the winner of the Gonzaga-Valparaiso game slated to play in the first of two games.
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