SEATTLE - The state's Huskies and Bulldogs are at it again.
Washington wants to renew its heated, high-profile rivalry with Gonzaga -- at Seattle's KeyArena. Gonzaga says no way, not unless the games are played on each school's campus.
Bulldogs athletic director Mike Roth said Wednesday night from Spokane that while he thinks renewing the cross-state series that began in 1910 but has been dormant since December 2006 is a good thing for the state and the Northwest, "it is a series that should be equitable for both schools. I have always believed it is a game best played on the two campuses."
He acknowledged that Tuesday night he received a proposal for an official at Washington, the defending Pac-10 champion, to resume the 43-game series for three years, beginning next season inside KeyArena at Seattle Center. That's the former home of the NBA's since-departed Seattle SuperSonics. And it's where Gonzaga, the perennial champion of the West Coast Conference, has been playing an annual "home" game against high-profile national opponents in front of wild, pro-Zags crowds since the 2003-04 season.
"I have always been of the opinion this is a good game for both schools, a good game for the state of Washington and a good game for basketball in the Pacific Northwest," Roth said in a statement released by Gonzaga hours after Washington confirmed its proposal. "At the same time, it is a series that should be equitable for both schools. I have always believed it is a game best played on the two campuses because of the great college basketball atmosphere in both campus venues."
Then Roth chided Washington for essentially backing Gonzaga into a very public corner over the issue of restarting this hugely popular and sometimes intense rivalry.
"The renewal of this series is something that will be decided by the two athletic directors and the two head basketball coaches in private discussions," Roth said.
Washington is proposing even splits in ticket allocation and in all revenues from the three games at KeyArena. Some estimates are that each school could see net profits in the series of up to $300,000 per game from ticket sales alone, not including any network television interests.
"We're excited. Gonzaga is a great program," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said earlier Wednesday. "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."
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," Huskies athletic department spokesman Richard Kilwien said.
Gonzaga finds 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.
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.
Washington's Hec Edmundson Pavilion seats 10,000.
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.
