John Blanchette: Time to resume something that’s right for the area

Has there ever been a more unlikely hero in a basketball game than Duane Ranniger?

In a 1958 game at the Spokane Coliseum between Gonzaga and Washington State, the Bulldogs fell behind by 20 points about 3 1/2 minutes into the second half until Charlie Jordan led a furious comeback. The Zags led by one when WSU’s leading scorer, Dick Axelson, was injured in a pileup along the baseline.

That’s when Ranninger entered the game for the first time. He lost a jump ball tip, but coach Jack Friel’s Cougars intercepted and passed the ball back to Ranniger, who nailed a 25-foot push shot – his only touch of the ball – for a 68-67 victory.

And he doesn’t recall it.

“That was a long time ago,” he alibied, and correctly so. “Really, the only game I remember with any distinction was playing UCLA. I was 100 percent from the field and 100 percent from the line – and fouled out at halftime. I led the PCC in fouls that year. John Wooden was still asking Jack years later, ‘What happened to Ranniger?’ “

Even allowing for the charming self-deprecation, the story reveals the innocent flaw forever attendant to the geographic rivalry of the Cougs and Zags.

For the Cougars, the games that live on – that have lore to them – come in the heart of the winter, against UCLA and Oregon State and, of course, Washington. Just as the rise of Gonzaga’s program has been mostly absent of any dramas with Wazzu and instead has been plotted on magical March moments, and the pre-Christmas giant-killings of North Carolina, Michigan State, UConn and that crowd.

The Cougs and Zags? On the whole, just an above-average amusement.

Until now.

After 141 meetings, you could say they finally got it right.

“It’s good for college basketball,” said WSU coach Tony Bennett. “It’s why a lot of kids come to play – to be a part of an environment like this.”

It isn’t just that tonight’s meeting of Inland Northwest neighbors marks the first time both have entered the game ranked in the Top 25 – No. 8 for WSU, 17 for Gonzaga – though that’s certainly significant.

Just as appealing is the aesthetic – the clash of disparate styles and makeups, and of talents lured from here, there and everywhere. And though there are sides to be taken – and fans will obviously take them – this is not a series cracking from sketchy politics, ego-fed grudges or small-mindedness.

They can all just get along – and get after each other like mad.

For instance, there isn’t one aspect of the Cougars’ breakout that Gonzaga coach Mark Few doesn’t find remarkable.

“Tony’s just done a great job,” he said, “though maybe lost in all this is one of the most selfless acts in the history of sports – and that was (Bennett’s father) Dick taking the lumps and losses with that group and then walking away.

“I have a huge amount of respect for how they run their program and how they play. It’s been an amazing story, and I root for them every game except this one.”

And he says that knowing that WSU’s win over Gonzaga one year ago in Pullman was the catalyst for the best story in college basketball in 2007.

“That was the first time we had a significant crowd and finished in front of them,” Bennett said. “Our first year here, we played Stanford when they were undefeated and No. 1 and we had that game, and you could see the crowd ready to rush the floor. There was a great moment ready to be had and we couldn’t finish. To finish (the Gonzaga) game definitely was the start.”

Echoed guard Taylor Rochestie, “It was monumental.”

And this one?

Well, it’s still a December game. UCLA and USC still await WSU, just as Tennessee and Memphis await GU.

“Everybody we play is kind of our archrival,” reasoned the Zags’ Micah Downs. “I could see it being WSU – it was kind of UW in the past. WSU is the second-best team in the state in my opinion right now, so they’re our archrival, I guess.”

Well, there it is. A gauntlet, at least. Rivals require one.

Downs is right about the Washington business, anyway, though the series was enormously one-sided during its recent run – a big reason why it’s over. It’s a happy circumstance for Gonzaga that the Cougars have grown so good, given the difficulty of getting Top 25 teams on campus. The Huskies were 13th in the AP poll when they played here last year; five others have played in GU’s building – DePaul, at No. 7 in 1981, the highest.

And unlike the UW-GU series, this one is unlikely to be interrupted again.

“It’s great preparation for our conferences,” said Bennett, “and for the East Side of the state it’s very good. I would hope it would continue.”

It has to – now that they have it right.