http://www.inlander.com/spokane/articles.sec-66-1-college-hoops-2009.html What if a star player for the New York Yankees casually let drop during a press conference that he was gay? What if he were so self-assured (and even arrogant) that he assumed no one would really care? And what if he then became the idol of gay men...]]> Mark Few takes pride in Gonzaga’s strong academic reputation, but when asked if Bulldog coaches have been forced to “dumb it down” in preseason workouts for the team’s 10 newcomers, Few quickly answered in the affi rmative. “Absolutely,” he says. “We’re eons behind where we were last year.]]> Kelly Graves is a charming fellow who can “sandbag” with the best of ’em. Sandbagging, of course, is the ancient art practiced by many coaches of downplaying the talent on their team. When the mood strikes, Graves can make his Gonzaga women’s team sound like 20-point underdogs to the fi fth-grade girls team at Little Sisters of the Poor.]]> Koprivica and Thompson stressed their appreciation for what Bennett brought to the Cougar program. The key component was a gritty defensive style of play (first introduced at WSU by Bennett’s predecessor, father Dick Bennett) that wore down opponents physically and mentally.]]>