Misadventure strikes Gonzaga

The home-court winning streak survives.

And the goody-two-Nikes reputation? We’ll have to get back to you on that.

But it certainly took a hit Saturday – and we’ll let the unfortunate double-entendre stand.

The flipside of basketball fame slapped Gonzaga University across the face with the midnight arrests of two players, Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis, for felony drug possession – on the eve of a game no less, though of course stupidity doesn’t wear a wristwatch.

For the Bulldogs and coach Mark Few, a day that began with a horrible punch to the stomach ended with considerable honor – a 60-49 victory over Saint Mary’s hammered out with an uncommon determination, and with their most gifted teammate, Heytvelt, presumably watching on television somewhere with appropriate regret.

Problem is, the honor lasts only until the next tipoff.

The pain in the gut figures to remain.

And we’re not just talking about the indefinite suspensions given to Heytvelt, the team’s second-leading scorer, and Davis, who was sitting out the season anyway to recover from an injured shoulder – although, yes, the questions began to dog the Zags as soon as the game ended.

What happens to the two players beyond Tuesday? How will the team weather Heytvelt’s open-ended absence once the natural adrenaline rush from facing up to adversity wears off? Is this still a team with NCAA tournament chops if its one guaranteed means of entrée – the West Coast Conference’s automatic bid, given to the league tournament winner – is snatched away?

Good questions, all of them, but not as meaty as the big bone – the referendum on Gonzaga’s, well, ethic.

It’s already been in high gear because a number of their rivals and especially rival fans – fueled by either envy, embarrassment or simple disbelief – are convinced the school had to sell its soul for this incredible run of basketball success.

There was no particular hard evidence to back that up – no death spiral in the graduation rate, no police blotter backlog. Just some vague and unsubstantiated complaints that Gonzaga was admitting basketball talent that wouldn’t pass academic muster at its brother WCC institutions.

Now there’s this.

But just what is it? And will people change their view of Gonzaga because of it?

“They certainly shouldn’t,” insisted Few.

“I think it’s an isolated incident where (two kids made) a mistake, plain and simple. Just look at colleges across America. You’re hoping that stuff like this doesn’t happen and it shouldn’t happen, but it does. And like my dad always says, ‘Let he without sin cast the first stone.’ Anybody passing judgment may need to take a look inside themselves.”

That, of course, was the first cynical reaction – that Gonzaga, for all its big wins and postseason success, now had its first true taste of the basketball big time and the misbehavior that has come to be regarded as part and parcel of it. Except this sort of stuff is hardly exclusive to the big time. We see the headlines when the players rip off laptops at UConn, for instance, but we don’t hear a peep about the dope and handguns at Columbus State.

That said, Few knew from the moment he got the dreaded call – at 7:30 a.m. – that suspensions were in order, with no mitigations.

“From my end, it was definitely a suspension (just) for being out at midnight in Cheney the night before a game,” he said. “When you’re out somewhere else before a game, you’re not playing for me if I find out about it.”

That’s a hard line that we haven’t had a chance to observe simply because Gonzaga’s players have stayed out of trouble. If that’s made some of the school’s supporters maddeningly overpious about the pedigree, it’s hardly unexpected. Why shouldn’t it be a source of pride – as long as it’s accompanied by the reality that one slip-up will have the school in the wrong kind of news?

So these arrests are “a huge hit, absolutely,” as athletic director Mike Roth admitted.

“That goes back to the shock and disappointment we’re feeling. And it’s not just myself or coach Few or Fr. (Robert) Spitzer – our student-athletes have taken pride in that, and the players who have gone through the program have taken pride in how they’ve represented Gonzaga. The prestige of the program has meant a lot to all of them.”

Which brings us back to the two players of the midnight hour, still awaiting their due process and any additional punishments for being not just stupid but selfish. Depending on how it all plays out in the legal system, the campus consequences could be anything from reprimand to community service to suspension to expulsion.

Though the guess here is the toughest punishment will be walking into the locker room.

If the Zags without Heytvelt lose a few more games and the conference tournament and the NCAA says, “No thanks,” how does he look seniors Derek Raivio and Sean Mallon in the eye? What does he say to Richie Frahm or Ryan Floyd, guys who helped launch this astounding run?

“It’s tough,” said Raivio. “They got themselves in kind of a tough situation. It wasn’t too responsible, I don’t think, on their part. But hopefully they’ll learn from that.

“That’s going to be the tough thing, coming back through here.”

And for Gonzaga, a place secure with the sense of what it is, the toughest thing may be reassuring everyone else.