Knight's shining for the Zags despite injuries

When Erroll Knight awoke the other day in Salt Lake City, he assumed the basketball gods were whistling one more cruel technical foul on him. He was feverish, vomiting and would soon need an intravenous tube to replace fluids.

It seemed par for the course for Knight, who was looking at possibly the last game of his college career. In three seasons at Gonzaga, he has been a walking — OK, skying — version of Grey's Anatomy gone bad.

You name an injury, it seems that Knight has had it — thumb, wrist, ankle, and oh, those knees. He has endured four knee surgeries, including a procedure early in the season when an infection set in after an innocent dip in the surf off Kaanapali at the Maui Invitational.

"I'm a warrior," the 6-foot-6 Knight said later in reference to his flu before the Indiana game. "I'm not going to let this stop me."

He then went out, and in 23 minutes — his third-most this season — scored 11 points on 4 of 5 shots. One of the baskets was a fierce rebound jam — signature Knight — another an improbable tip on which he suddenly materialized at the right of the key from the left.

When it was over, and Gonzaga had secured a spot in the Sweet 16, it had another reason to be thankful for Knight's transfer from Washington after his freshman season in 2002, when ex-UW coach Bob Bender had called him "maybe as good an athlete as has ever worn a Washington uniform."

Apart from the incessant string of injuries, it has been a feel-good story on both sides. The Huskies have prospered under Lorenzo Romar, who had hoped to keep Knight at Washington when he got the job. Knight, a Chief Sealth High grad, has gone away from home, and is about to become the first from his family to get a degree, in sports management and communications.

Meanwhile, it's harder to find somebody to say a discouraging word about him than it is to find a No. 16 seed in the tournament this week.

"I'm still thankful we got him from Washington," said Adam Morrison, one of Knight's close friends on the team. "He just does what he needs to do every night. He always has our back.

"He's the best."

You get similar words from Che Dawson, Knight's old coach at Sealth, who is now at Highline Community College.

"I couldn't be happier with where he's at right now in his academic and athletic career," Dawson said. "A big part of that was him leaving Seattle and going over there. Nothing against coach Romar and the Huskies — it was just the timing of it. He needed to go do something different.

"Everybody certainly wishes his basketball career could have been different in terms of him being healthier. But that is what it is. I couldn't be prouder."

When Knight left Washington, there were some who believed he might be in the NBA before he ever saw a senior year at Gonzaga. He was supremely athletic, and he showed a shooter's touch at the UW, going 30 for 70 on three-pointers.

But he didn't seem a great fit for Gonzaga's offense, averaging only modest numbers each year. Of course, there were the injuries, intervening with maddening regularity.

So Knight sort of reinvented himself, becoming Gonzaga's defensive stopper and energizer off the bench.

"The energy just seems to radiate from him," said Gonzaga coach Mark Few. "We just seem to raise our level."

Early in January, Few had broached the possibility that Knight's troublesome knee cartilage might never allow him to be a contributor again.

"We played a game at North Idaho College right before New Year's, and [Knight] came to it," Dawson said. "He said he could barely even dunk at the time, it was so painful."

"I feel fine," Knight insisted this week. "I'm just fortunate I don't feel any pain now. It's just like I never had surgery."

He has made four three-point shots, and they've been meaningful. One was the corner dagger that felled San Diego, 64-63, in January. Another aided a 15-point comeback against Loyola Marymount in the WCC tournament. A third allowed the Zags to keep tracking Xavier in the NCAA first round.

Knight has a 9-month-old son, also named Erroll, with Jessica Tovar, a former Spokane Falls Community College softball player.

"That's what keeps me going," Knight said. "It's motivation in a way."

Saturday, the Huntsman Center at Utah was deserted, and the postgame interviews were behind them, and Knight and Morrison were walking up the long, steep ramp to the exits.

"Wonder how Majerus made it up this thing every day?" Morrison said mischievously, referring to Rick Majerus, the portly ex-Utah coach.

Knight chuckled. His own long pull through college is near the end now, fulfillment through the frustration.

Notes

• Morrison practiced after sitting out a workout Monday with flu-related symptoms.

• UCLA point guard Jordan Farmar returned to practice wearing a brace on his injured left wrist. His right thumb has a slight sprain, coach Ben Howland said.