Huskies ready for basketball rivalry with Gonzaga
SEATTLE (AP) - A heated, national-profile rivalry in the Northwest may soon be back on.
Washington has proposed resuming its cross-state series with Gonzaga for three consecutive years at Seattle's KeyArena, beginning next season.
Huskies athletic department spokesman Richard Kilwien confirmed Wednesday that the defending Pac-10 champions have sent the proposal to the perennial champion of the West Coast Conference and are waiting to hear back from the private school in Spokane.
"We've had initial conversations," Kilwien said of restarting the 43-game series that began in 1910 but ended after the 2006-07 season. "It's under consideration."
Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth didn't immediately respond to messages left for him Wednesday by The Associated Press.
"We're excited. Gonzaga is a great program," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "When we discontinued the series initially, we knew there would come a time when we would probably renew the series. We think it is something that is going to work well for both programs. We're ready to go."
Washington is proposing even splits in ticket allocation and in all revenues from the three games at the former home of the NBA's now-departed Seattle SuperSonics. The UW also wants an equal number of affordable tickets to be available to students from each school, and that the game be officiated by Pac-10 crews who also work games in the WCC - a common practice in such non-conference matchups.
"We want to make it a truly neutral site," Kilwien said.
Gonzaga may find that idea hard to fathom.
KeyArena, with a capacity for basketball of 17,072, is four miles from the Washington campus. It is 283 miles west of Gonzaga's campus, though the Zags have played one non-conference "home" game in the building at Seattle Center during each season since 2003-04.
Washington leads the dormant series 29-14, but Gonzaga has won eight of the last nine meetings. That coincides with Gonzaga's rise from a little mid-major darling to a national power making runs in the NCAA tournament each spring.
Washington and Gonzaga broke off their series in 2007, after 10 consecutive meetings alternating between their campus arenas. Washington saw little to gain by playing home-and-home sets anymore, especially when it sent the Huskies into the Zags' raucous McCarthey Athletic Center, which has a capacity of 6,000.
Many around both programs believed the renewal wouldn't happen until coach Mark Few leaves Gonzaga, if he ever does, because they feel there is animosity between Few and Romar.
That stems from the recruitment of Josh Heytvelt out of Clarkston, Wash., High School in 2004, which turned into a fierce battle between Gonzaga and Washington for one of the state's top prospects.
Washington - specifically Huskies assistant coach Cameron Dollar, now the head coach at Seattle University - contacted Heytvelt during a period when schools were not allowed to speak with recruits. Gonzaga, Eastern Washington and Washington State all called the NCAA to complain, and the Huskies were penalized. They dropped their recruitment of Heytvelt and, a couple years later, their annual series with the Zags.
But now Heytvelt's college career is over. And Washington's interest in playing Gonzaga is back on.
Last March, the two rivals stayed at the same hotel in Portland, Ore., five floors apart, when both were playing in the NCAA tournament there. Romar greeted Few in hallways of the arena that weekend. When Zags senior Jeremy Pargo walked by, Romar grabbed the guard's arm and raised it high. Then the coach playfully showed Pargo how he thought he should do a new high-five. Romar and Pargo both laughed before Pargo continued into an interview session.
Gonzaga has had great moments inside KeyArena over the last decade. Its annual "Battle in Seattle" events have often been high-profile games in front of wild crowds on national television.
Two seasons ago, the Zags played Tennessee there, and last season No. 2 Connecticut came to KeyArena for a thrilling overtime win over the No. 8 Bulldogs. This December Gonzaga will "host" Davidson in Seattle.
The Bulldogs also won two games in the NCAA tournament at KeyArena in 1999, upsetting Stanford and Minnesota en route to the regional finals as a No. 10 seed.
Washington has proposed resuming its cross-state series with Gonzaga for three consecutive years at Seattle's KeyArena, beginning next season.
Huskies athletic department spokesman Richard Kilwien confirmed Wednesday that the defending Pac-10 champions have sent the proposal to the perennial champion of the West Coast Conference and are waiting to hear back from the private school in Spokane.
"We've had initial conversations," Kilwien said of restarting the 43-game series that began in 1910 but ended after the 2006-07 season. "It's under consideration."
Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth didn't immediately respond to messages left for him Wednesday by The Associated Press.
"We're excited. Gonzaga is a great program," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. "When we discontinued the series initially, we knew there would come a time when we would probably renew the series. We think it is something that is going to work well for both programs. We're ready to go."
Washington is proposing even splits in ticket allocation and in all revenues from the three games at the former home of the NBA's now-departed Seattle SuperSonics. The UW also wants an equal number of affordable tickets to be available to students from each school, and that the game be officiated by Pac-10 crews who also work games in the WCC - a common practice in such non-conference matchups.
"We want to make it a truly neutral site," Kilwien said.
Gonzaga may find that idea hard to fathom.
KeyArena, with a capacity for basketball of 17,072, is four miles from the Washington campus. It is 283 miles west of Gonzaga's campus, though the Zags have played one non-conference "home" game in the building at Seattle Center during each season since 2003-04.
Washington leads the dormant series 29-14, but Gonzaga has won eight of the last nine meetings. That coincides with Gonzaga's rise from a little mid-major darling to a national power making runs in the NCAA tournament each spring.
Washington and Gonzaga broke off their series in 2007, after 10 consecutive meetings alternating between their campus arenas. Washington saw little to gain by playing home-and-home sets anymore, especially when it sent the Huskies into the Zags' raucous McCarthey Athletic Center, which has a capacity of 6,000.
Many around both programs believed the renewal wouldn't happen until coach Mark Few leaves Gonzaga, if he ever does, because they feel there is animosity between Few and Romar.
That stems from the recruitment of Josh Heytvelt out of Clarkston, Wash., High School in 2004, which turned into a fierce battle between Gonzaga and Washington for one of the state's top prospects.
Washington - specifically Huskies assistant coach Cameron Dollar, now the head coach at Seattle University - contacted Heytvelt during a period when schools were not allowed to speak with recruits. Gonzaga, Eastern Washington and Washington State all called the NCAA to complain, and the Huskies were penalized. They dropped their recruitment of Heytvelt and, a couple years later, their annual series with the Zags.
But now Heytvelt's college career is over. And Washington's interest in playing Gonzaga is back on.
Last March, the two rivals stayed at the same hotel in Portland, Ore., five floors apart, when both were playing in the NCAA tournament there. Romar greeted Few in hallways of the arena that weekend. When Zags senior Jeremy Pargo walked by, Romar grabbed the guard's arm and raised it high. Then the coach playfully showed Pargo how he thought he should do a new high-five. Romar and Pargo both laughed before Pargo continued into an interview session.
Gonzaga has had great moments inside KeyArena over the last decade. Its annual "Battle in Seattle" events have often been high-profile games in front of wild crowds on national television.
Two seasons ago, the Zags played Tennessee there, and last season No. 2 Connecticut came to KeyArena for a thrilling overtime win over the No. 8 Bulldogs. This December Gonzaga will "host" Davidson in Seattle.
The Bulldogs also won two games in the NCAA tournament at KeyArena in 1999, upsetting Stanford and Minnesota en route to the regional finals as a No. 10 seed.