Dave Boling: It’s not just ‘Hooptown USA,’ basketball is sprawling throughout the whole 509 area code
Basketball fans know what you’re talking about when you say “Tobacco Road.”
Three closely situated Division I schools in North Carolina – Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State – have won a total of 13 NCAA men’s basketball championships.
Toss in Wake Forest, an hour away, and the heated rivalries expand, kindled by the schools’ membership in the same conference.
The name conjures a rich history of hoop success.
If the collective excellence of men’s and women’s basketball in Eastern Washington continues at its current trend, somebody might have to come up with a name for the region, too. The Wheat Highway? Pretty weak. Not as evocative as Tobacco Road, but better for your health?
Some call Spokane “Hooptown USA,” but that largely refers to the massive Hoopfest 3-on-3 tournament held on the streets every summer.
Plus, Spokane doesn’t include Cheney and Pullman, other current hoop hotbeds. So maybe we should extend the assessed area to the 509 area code.
Of the six men’s and women’s teams at the three Division I schools, four of these 509’ers have advanced to NCAA Tournaments this week.
The Gonzaga men attend their 25th straight NCAAs (not including a berth in the COVID-canceled 2020 tournament). The No. 5-seeded Zags travel to Salt Lake for a Thursday meeting with the highly respected 12th seed McNeese State, which racked up 30 wins this season.
The Zag men, on a streak of eight straight Sweet 16 appearances, have long been the region’s flagship program.
Washington State’s men finished second in the final Pac-12 Conference regular season, but fell to Colorado in the tournament semifinals to draw a No. 7 seed and will face No. 10 Drake at Omaha. It’s the Cougars’ first NCAA bid since 2008, during coach Tony Bennett’s successful reign.
On the women’s side, Gonzaga’s No. 4 seed earned it the right to host a match against U.C. Irvine at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Others in the Zags’ pod include Utah and South Dakota State.
The Eastern Washington women won the Big Sky Conference tournament to get a No. 14 NCAA seed and will face Oregon State in what will be the Eagles’ first NCAA appearance since 1987.
Meanwhile, the Spokane Arena is host to men’s first- and second-round NCAA games for the first time since 2016, with matches featuring Auburn/Yale, Saint Mary’s/Grand Canyon, Alabama/Charleston, San Diego State/Alabama-Birmingham.
All six of collective 509 teams have never been in NCAAs in the same year, but it was close this year.
The two DI teams that failed to make the NCAAs? Eastern Washington’s men won the Big Sky regular-season title, but were upset in the conference tournament by Sacramento State.
And Washington State’s women appeared on pace for their fourth straight NCAA berth until star Charlisse Leger-Walker (a four-time all-conference player) was lost with a knee injury.
Although not in the NCAAs, the Cougars will play host to Lamar in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament on Thursday.
Of the state’s other two Division I schools, Washington and Seattle U, neither of the men’s and women’s teams were invited to the NCAAs, although the UW women are playing in the WBIT, along with the Cougars.
Washington fired its men’s basketball coach, Mike Hopkins, recently, although the Huskies upset both Gonzaga (in December) and Washington State (in the Cougs’ final regular-season game). Given the turmoil, Washington has announced it will decline an NIT invitation.
The Seattle U men finished fourth in the Western Athletic Conference and will appear in the College Basketball Invitational. The Redhawks women won just six games this season.
So, the state of basketball in the state of Washington is mostly about the east side from here on out.
Nobody has come up with a good name to capture the widespread success of these regional schools, but, with some of the best teams in the country coming to Spokane, and three of the area’s teams heading out other regions, the reputation will only grow.