NCAA tournament returns to Spokane Arena with underdogs hopeful

The last time the NCAA men’s basketball tournament tipped at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, two underdogs emerged victorious.

Bonnie Moffitt, decked out in South Dakota State gear Thursday, predicted another upset.

“It’ll be all Jackrabbits, all the way,” Moffitt said, pumping her fist moments before the team took the floor for a practice open to the public. “All the way.”

Her prediction is more than a little bit biased. The grandmother of senior guard Keaton Moffitt, Bonnie was one of three generations of Moffitt fans who traveled to Spokane from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, ahead of Friday’s tip against the Maryland Terrapins. The Spokane Arena welcomes its fifth slate of NCAA Tournament championship games since 2003 this weekend, with the University of Idaho handling hosting duties for the first time.

As a No. 12 seed, the Jackrabbits will have history on their side. Harvard knocked off Cincinnati as a 12th seed at the Arena in 2014, and South Dakota State’s Summit League rival North Dakota State beat Oklahoma that year, also in a 12-5 matchup.

Mark Moffitt, Keaton’s dad, said the Jackrabbits played in the same early-season tournament as Maryland in Cancun, Mexico.

“We played all the same teams, but we didn’t play each other,” Mark Moffitt said. “They’re good. They’re huge and they’re good.”

Moffitt’s brothers, Kade and Kyler, also took in practice Thursday. The family’s devotion to the Jackrabbits runs deep, as Kyler’s Final Four picks show.

“I have the Jacks, Oklahoma, Michigan State and Indiana,” he said.

The youngster’s upset-heavy predictions aren’t unique, especially in a year when the nation’s top teams have lost at a clip unseen in nearly 70 years. Joel Wipf, a South Dakota State graduate who moved to Chicago, will take in his first Jackrabbits game of the season at the Spokane Arena on Friday.

“There are eight to 10 teams that could end up in the Final Four,” Wipf said. “There’s not a clear favorite. All of the teams have shown they’re beatable.”

The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors also look to capture some Spokane magic when they take on California in the early game Friday. Albert Kanno has held season tickets for 40 years but will watch his alma mater square off in the NCAA Tournament for the first time Friday.

“This is a fun team to watch, we’ve had a great time watching them this year,” said Kanno, who graduated from Hawaii in the early 1970s when the so-called “Fabulous Five” took the school to its first NCAA Tournament. “There’ve been a lot of heart-stopping moments.”

One of those moments came Christmas Eve in Honolulu, when Hawaii fell three points short of beating Oklahoma, a team many believe could contend for a Final Four berth. The Rainbow Warriors are seeking their first victory in the NCAA Tournament.

Kanno, who sat in the stands with his son, Blaine, echoed a question that was broadcast all over social media this weekend when selections for destinations were announced. St. Louis, Brooklyn, Oklahoma City, Denver – all cities larger than Spokane – will also play host to opening-round games this weekend.

“I have to ask you a question, why do they have it in Spokane? It’s so hard to get to,” Kanno said.

Spokane has earned the NCAA’s approval for subregional games because of its hotel capacity, its threshold of airport traffic and continued financial support from the community, as well as speedy sellouts when the games are announced every few years.

Fans of the Cinderella teams aren’t the only ones who will be packing the Spokane Arena on Friday. The Oregon Ducks will take the floor as the first regional top seed to play in Spokane, and their faithful added more than the usual St. Patrick’s Day green to the stands on the eve of their tilt with Holy Cross. Jim and Melissa Schroeder watched the squad from Eugene take the floor as granddaughters Harper and Addison Thoburn, clad in Duck cheerleader outfits, munched on cotton candy.

“You don’t want to lose the first one,” said Jim Schroeder, an Olympia resident whose son attended Oregon. “You don’t want to set that precedent.”

The Schroeders are among the lucky Oregon fans who have tickets to this weekend’s games. Late session tickets for the Ducks’ matchup with the Crusaders stood at $106 on Thursday evening.

“I’m retired, man, I can’t afford these high prices,” said Dennis Petty, a former schoolteacher who said he moved from Portland to Idaho 12 years ago, following “a good woman.”

Petty, a longtime Ducks fan, said he was pretty confident Oregon would be able to keep the flawless streak of No. 1 seeds intact.

“They always talk about the first one seed to go out, you don’t want to be that one,” Petty said. “I watched the game Tuesday night. I didn’t think Holy Cross – they got a couple players of fairly good caliber – I think it’s not going to happen this time.”

Jim and Melissa Schroeder said they traveled to Las Vegas to watch the Pac-12 tournament and were looking forward to the passionate but polite crowds the NCAA Tournament is known for.

“Sometimes you have rivalries, right? Some of the students get pretty bad,” Jim Schroeder said. “Here, everyone respects each other a lot more. Because they got here. That’s a big deal.”

Peg Moffitt, wearing a Jackrabbits button with her son Keaton’s number, 12, bedazzled in rhinestones, will join her family and more than 10,000 others clamoring amid the madness at tipoff just before noon Friday. The Moffitts will stick to Bonnie’s ritual just before gametime, she said.

“We’re going to say a family prayer and sing a family prayer before the game,” Bonnie Moffitt said. “They don’t, but I do. With my grandson involved, they’re going to whether they want to or not.”