Gonzaga Pulls Together by Leaving One Behind
<DIV ="byline">By Lee Jenkins</NYT_BYLINE>
<DIV ="timestamp">Published: March 13, 2007
<DIV id=article><NYT_TEXT>
SPOKANE, Wash., March 12  The Gonzaga Bulldogs practice in a new campus arena filled with luxury suites, video screens and advertisements for Toyota and Pepsi.
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Forward Josh Heytvelt works out next door in an old gym.
He was kept apart from the team for more than a month, then coaches decided last week that it was time to bring everybody together. So Heytvelt walked into McCarthey Athletic Center for practice Saturday and started shooting at one of the hoops.
Some of his teammates had not seen him since he was arrested Feb. 9 and charged with felony drug possession. He was suspended for the rest of the season.
The players greeted Heytvelt. They shook his hand. They offered their support.
Then they went back to doing what they have done for the past month  playing without him.
"It was kind of tense," said Derek Raivio, a senior point guard. "I thought it was a little strange to have him come over here. I didn't totally agree with it at first. But then they sent him back to the old gym, and we were able to get on with our practice."
A 6-foot-11 sophomore, Heytvelt has left a substantial void. He was the second-leading scorer on the team when, the police said, officers found more than an ounce of psychedelic mushrooms in the back of his car. Along for the ride was Theo Davis, a freshman forward who was arrested and charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Heytvelt pleaded not guilty Monday and asked to be placed in a diversion program that could clear his record after a year. "I wish I could be a part of everything that is going on right now," Heytvelt told reporters.
Many college teams, numb to arrests and violations, would be writing Heytvelt's number on their high-tops right now, using his case as motivational fuel. But Gonzaga is a Jesuit university that is unaccustomed to scandal.
"What Josh did was pretty messed up," Raivio said. "It's like what I told the guys in the locker room, All we have is each other now."
In less than a decade, Gonzaga has accumulated all the trappings of an elite college basketball program: the new facilities, the charter flights, the top-10 rankings, the ESPN broadcasts, and most recently, the attention of the local police.
But the real evidence of the program's growth will be on display Thursday night when Gonzaga plays Indiana in the first round of the NCAAtournament. Every major college team faces off-court problems. The best ones are able to overcome them.
"We have had some tough times this season," forward David Pendergraft said. "But I think we can be one of those programs that make up the ground that we lost."
This year, no television crews came to Gonzaga for selection Sunday. No analysts picked the Bulldogs for the Final Four. They are seeded 10th in the West Region, reminiscent of 1999, four years after their first N.C.A.A. invitation, when they were seeded 10th and reached the Round of 8.
Back then, Gonzaga was an endearing upstart, just wading into the big time. Now, the Bulldogs are beginning to see the downside of major college sports.
"When Josh was arrested, we all sat in the office and asked ourselves what we should do, and we really didn't know," Athletic Director Mike Roth said. "We didn't have any experience with something like this. You think it happens to other schools."
It is difficult to compete with those other programs and not share any of their problems. Last season, Adam Morrison left Gonzaga early to become an N.B.A. lottery pick. This season, the Bulldogs were on ESPN more than any team except Duke.
Roth was left to wonder if all those television cameras and N.B.A. scouts, all that attention and distraction, somehow helped lead one of his players astray.
"I just don't buy into that," Roth said. "I don't think it changes who or what you are."
Coach Mark Few has been at Gonzaga for 15 years, and in the first 14, he did not hear of anyone on the team being arrested. Every coach dreads that early-morning phone call from a player stuck in jail, but Few had not had to take one.
Then the phone rang at 6 a.m. Feb. 10. By 6:30 a.m., the local news was broadcasting from the Spokane County Jail. By 10 a.m., the former Gonzaga player J. P. Batista was calling from Lithuania. Few finally recognized how far his program reached.
"It was like a punch to the gut," he said.
Arizona Coach Lute Olson and North Carolina Coach Roy Williams called with words of encouragement and tips about crisis management. College basketball, after all, has plenty of experience with drug arrests.
But it does not have so much experience with psychedelic mushrooms. They are mainly identified with the 1960s and '70s but remain popular on college campuses.
With Heytvelt suspended indefinitely, the Bulldogs lost at home for the first time in 50 games. Their lineup was so skinny that they had to use a four-guard offense. Their record was not good enough to merit an N.C.A.A. berth without winning their conference tournament.
Few just needed to go fly-fishing. It is what he always does when the stress of the job becomes unbearable. He retreats to the Spokane River or Coeur d'Alene River, where he is as famous for catching steelheads as he is for drawing up plays.
When he comes back, he is somehow able to come up with more plays than he did before.
"It's a big part of who I am," Few said. "Some guys play golf to wind down. I think golf would make me more upset."
Sitting in his office the night of selection Sunday, Few showed off a photograph of a 52-pound king salmon he caught and released in Alaska. He was asked what river it came from. "I can't tell you," he said. "That would be like a magician telling his tricks."
Few is more open about his basketball team and the changes it underwent midstream. In the West Coast Conference final, Jeremy Pargo hobbled on an injured leg, and Raivio played with a stomach virus. At one point, Raivio drew a foul, went to the bench to vomit, then ran back onto the floor.
This is why college basketball fans fell for the Bulldogs in the first place  their toughness, their resilience, their willingness to spill their guts.
"I don't want to sound cocky," Gonzaga guard Micah Downs said. "But I believe we can go as far in this tournament as anybody."
Players celebrated their bid Sunday by taking half-court shots, cracking each other up with chicken dances and challenging reporters to 3-point shooting contests.
Gonzaga has kept its personality while improving its talent. Now, the roster includes top recruits and transfers. Downs, for instance, is a 6-foot-8 transfer from Kansas, too big to be covered by guards and too quick to be covered by forwards.
Few is optimistic that Heytvelt will rejoin the group next season. He is enrolled in classes while the district attorney's office investigates his case and the university investigates whether he broke its code of conduct.
Few meets with Heytvelt, talking to him about classwork and basketball. He says it is important that Heytvelt be around the team again.
Only now, the dynamic has shifted. Heytvelt's teammates do not seem to be looking for his support. They are trying to show that they can advance on their own.
