Junkyard Dogs From Gonzaga Eye Big Show -- Spokane School's Team Of Castoffs, Walk-Ons Shoots For NCAA Berth

A bunch of walks-ons and castoffs are one weekend away from taking Gonzaga University to The Big Show.

The Bulldogs from Spokane, pushed along by former Washington Husky Jeff Brown and former Blanchet High star Matt Stanford, captured their first West Coast Conference basketball title in 15 years of membership and can earn their first trip to the NCAA Division I tournament by winning the WCC tourney this weekend at Santa Clara.

For the first time, Gonzaga enters the conference tournament as the heavy favorite.

The WCC is guaranteed only one NCAA tournament berth. It goes to the conference's tournament champion. Gonzaga, which finished league play at 12-2 (20-6 overall), has a slim chance of making the NCAA field even if it loses in the WCC tournament. Two WCC teams have been selected in the past. But if the Bulldogs are left out and Washington State also is popped off the bubble, the two Eastern Washington schools would make an attractive first-round draw for the NIT.

Gonzaga will play last-place Loyola Marymount in Saturday's first round of the WCC tournament.

Brown, 6 feet 9 and 240 pounds, was recruited by Andy Russo at Washington and played one year under Lynn Nance. He transferred home to Spokane after the 1989-90 season, after being informed he did not fit nicely into the Husky plan. He's done fine since, helping Gonzaga win 56 games in three years, including 27 straight at home in Martin Centre, called "The Kennel" by Bulldog fans.

"I actually had made up my mind to leave Washington about Christmastime of my freshman year," Brown said. "Jarrod Davis, who had played with me at Mead High School, was playing and enjoying Gonzaga and I decided to come, too."

Brown sat out the 1990-91 season, then led the team in scoring the past three years. A two-time all-conference player, he led the league in scoring last season with a 16.9 average. He is averaging 21.3 points a game this season and is a lock to become the conference's most valuable player. Brown, majoring in finance, carries a 3.64 grade-point average and recently was named to the GTE Academic All-America team for the third straight year.

"Brown has worked hard and deserves all the honors he gets," Gonzaga Coach Dan Fitzgerald said.

Stanford, a 6-6 power forward built like a tight end, entered Gonzaga with no athletic scholarship in 1989 and redshirted. He earned a "full ride" in his freshman season, highlighted by a 30-point night against Loyola Marymount. In the summer of 1991, he suffered the death of his father, Leo, a popular professor at Seattle University. Last June, Stanford injured his right foot and underwent the same surgical procedure as the Seattle SuperSonics' Rich King.

"Physically, I don't think I've been through much more than any other player who plays at this level for five years," Stanford said. "Scott Spink broke has hand, and Brown had work done on his ankles. It's part of the deal."

Spink, 6-6, the team's best rebounder, and 6-6 Jon Kinloch, one of its best long-range shooters, prepped at Sehome in Bellingham. Reserve guard David Cole is from Washington High School in Tacoma. John Rillie, a thee-point specialist from Toowoomba, Australia, transferred from Tacoma Community College. Geoff Goss, another walk-on, is the Bulldogs' floor leader and best ball-handler.

Another Husky transfer, 6-8 Jason Bond from Seattle's Lakeside High, has been slowed by back problems. Matt Bollinger, the former O'Dea High star who was expected to lead the team next year at the point, has a severe ankle condition and can no longer player basketball.

"We started the year with so many injuries," Fitzgerald said. "Bond, Bollinger, Stanford. . . . We were 1-3 and some people wanted to see me run across the border to Canada and never come back.

"What they've done is quite a tribute. . . . Not bad for a bunch of guys nobody wanted," players "willing to pay their own way to play here," Fitzgerald said.