Gant says Huskies felt disrespected at WSU
Feb 25, 2011, 3:48 PM | Updated: Apr 4, 2011, 7:54 pm
Washington State fans rush the court after their team beat Washington in January. (AP)
MyNorthwest.com staff
Washington might have a little extra motivation when the Huskies play Washington State on Sunday.
Cougar fans rushed Friel Court following Washington State’s 87-80 win over the then-No. 18 Huskies in January, a move Washington forward Darnell Gant said was unwarranted and disrespectful.
“I feel like that’s not the way college basketball is supposed to go,” said Gant, who had nine points and a season-high seven rebounds that game. “Schools only do that when their team hasn’t won a lot of games and the team that they just beat is the No. 1 team in the nation or a top-10 team and (your team is) on a losing streak and you won that game to get out of your losing streak and the fans are just excited.
“But this was just a backyard rivalry game and we’re all racing for the Pac-10 title and they got the win and the crowd celebrated like it was the Super Bowl. It was only January. We’ve got another two months of basketball and you guys are acting like your season is over with that last game.”
Washington, which still has a mathematical chance of winning the Pac-10 regular season title, hosts Washington State on Sunday at 7 p.m.
“When they get here … we’re not going to do anything out of the ordinary,” Gant said. “We’re just going to play hard and try to get the win. But we really took that as disrespect.”
You can listen to the entire interview with Darnell Gant here. Washington State guard Klay Thompson joined the Groz show on Friday. You can listen to that interview here.
