How this dogfight got ugly: the Gonzaga-Washington series

One of the craziest rumors while I was at Gonzaga involved Brandon Roy and Erroll Knight during their time together at the University of Washington. According to the story, Knight went to a party with Roy and some of the other players. Words were exchanged, and ultimately Knight decided to urinate in Brandon Roy’s shoes. I don’t believe Roy was wearing the shoes at the time, which is ultimately less important than the hilarity factor this story had during my college years (Admittedly, I’m chuckling right now reminiscing about it). Today, this story is a reminder that UW (Played by Roy) is pompous, old fashioned, and walking around with an unearned sense of entitlement. Whereas Gonzaga (Played by Knight) is scrappy, relatively unproven, and has a rather large chip on its shoulder. You could say that Knight peeing on Roy's shoes was a premonition of sorts... or you could say that it's a metaphor for the relationship between the two schools. Either way, over the course of the UW-Gonzaga series, we won 8 of 10 games on the way to establishing Gonzaga as a household name in the world of College Basketball.

When UW backed out of our annual series, the reasons they gave were confusing and inadequate. They talked about having a full schedule of BCS teams that didn’t have room for the Zags in it. Mark Few and Lorenzo Romar’s relationship became complicated, ultimately resulting in what was once a mutually beneficial rivalry becoming a blood feud… only, it seemed like the fans and players were really enjoying it. Having read up on the history of the series, both schools seem to have their stories in order. To UW fans, the cancellation of the series was a necessary step to combat Few’s aggressive, “me-first” personality. Playing a “neutral” game in Seattle wouldn’t be unfair because both sides would make a ton of money ($1.5 million each, according to Dan Raley) and it’s not like Gonzaga fans wouldn’t be able to travel. To Gonzaga fans, UW couldn't take losing to a small school from a small town, so they kicked over the table and blamed everyone else for it but themselves. Then, they suggested that they replace the home and home setup to one that favored UW, and did so publicly, so Gonzaga would appear to be the one deciding to end the series. 

A lot of the hostility and one-upsmanship (is that a word?) seemed to stem from the recruitment of Josh Heytvelt. The state of Washington isn’t exactly flooded with blue chip talent, and in their zeal to convince Heytvelt to set up shop in Seattle, UW committed recruiting violations by contacting him during a “dead” period (where coaches aren’t allowed to contact recruits at all). Washington State, Seattle University, and Gonzaga all reported the violation to the NCAA. Ultimately, assistant Cameron Dollar, was suspended for one month because of the violation (covered by SI). While all three schools reported the violations, Gonzaga is the one most often blamed by the UW faithful. There’s a lot of anger here, and it’s clear that the growing talent level in the state has elevated the stakes in the state of Washington. To Lorenzo Romar, Coach Few’s decision to report Washington’s violations was personal, and turned an otherwise acceptable rivalry into one that was having a tangible and negative impact on his program.

I can’t be truly objective about this as a Gonzaga fan, but I think it’s clear that this series won’t be resumed until Few and Romar become civil with each other. Gonzaga has consistently put together a murderer’s row of non-conference opponents willing to come to Spokane (Michigan State? Yeesh) in order to make up for the top-heavy nature of the WCC, and Washington has done the same in order to ensure that they don’t end up on the bubble again (though they played Nevada, Marquette, and Duke last year, which isn’t half bad). Reading articles from both sides leads me to one conclusion: both schools could use a game like this, and the fans and players continue to crave a renewed rivalry.  

Dan Raley wrote a couple pieces on the topic, one in 2006 (here) and another in 2010 (here), both for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The 2006 piece is a lot more even-handed than the 2010 one, which to me illustrates the growing divide on the issue. Rather than simply chalk it up to headstrong coaches on both sides refusing to budge on their list of demands, Raley puts the onus on Gonzaga to resume the series, and describes Few as difficult to work with (including anecdotes about Few being relatively obtuse to local beat writers, which Raley might have taken personally). Eamonn Brennan at ESPN also has a couple brief articles on the series, (here and here), both lamenting the fact that the series won’t be resumed any time soon. As a national columnist, Brennan is a little more removed from the biases that plague your humble writer, and his basic argument can be found in this quote (from this article):

"The two teams broke off their series in 2007 after playing for 10 consecutive years, with Gonzaga winning eight of the 10 home-and-home meetings. The Zags were simply dominating at times, handing the Huskies losses by margins of 30, 24 and 20 points and also dealt them blows on the recruiting trail. 

So maybe Washington offering a less-than-neutral site series wasn't the best idea. And maybe Few could have said something more politically correct in response. 

But wouldn't it be nice if the West Coast's top two teams could settle their differences by slugging it out on the court?"

The rivalry had an angry tinge to it near the end, but players from both schools enjoyed the games and wanted to keep it going. Some overzealous Gonzaga alumni even bought a billboard in Spokane asking the Huskies to resume the series. No amount of posturing by the fans or players can rekindle what was once such a special part of College Basketball. The power, ultimately, lies with the coaches. Ideally, Washington would make a good faith effort to resume the series behind closed doors (rather than make a public spectacle about how hard you’re trying) or Coach Few could swallow his pride and try to get things started himself. Neither seems likely, which is a damned shame. Personally, I don’t think Few owes Washington anything. They ended the series and haven’t made a fair offer yet, but that kind of thinking doesn’t get us anywhere. Someone has to be the “bigger man,” but that’s not an easy mental step to make. Until they do, we’ll be stuck with the two best basketball teams in the state of Washington ignoring each other like pissed off high-schoolers.