Provo • Thursday may have been Groundhog Day for Punxsutawney Phil and his fellow groundhogs back in Pennsylvania, but it didn’t just seem like old times again for former University of Utah basketball coach Ray Giacoletti.
Now an assistant on Mark Few’s staff at Gonzaga, Giacoletti returned to the Marriott Center on Thursday night — sans the bright red sport coat — for the first time since he was fired as Utah’s coach a week before the 2006-07 season ended.
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His Utah teams were 1-2 against BYU in the Marriott Center, winning the first year 72-58 behind the stellar play of eventual No. 1 NBA Draft pick Andrew Bogut, and losing the next two.
In 2006, BYU downed the Utes 72-60 and in 2007, three days after Giacoletti was fired, the Cougars pounded the Utes 85-62 at the Marriott Center.
Giacoletti said his return rekindled mixed memories of the place, telling The Spokesman-Review that the building was "enormous" and good for shooters because of its background behind the baskets.
Longtime Utah assistant Donny Daniels (1989-2000) is also now a Gonzaga assistant, having joined Few’s staff after the 2010 season from UCLA. Daniels was 7-4 at the Marriott Center as a Ute assistant.
Few likes BYU
Even before Thursday night’s game, Gonzaga’s first against BYU since the Cougars joined the West Coast Conference, Few was a fan of having the newcomer in the league.
"It is all right by me," Few said. "They have great tradition. Their RPI and power ratings are always high. That’s going to help us. It is going to enhance our situation."
The series was tied 1-1 prior to Thursday’s game, with BYU winning 89-67 in last year’s NCAA Tournament and the Zags getting the Cougars 46-41 way back in 1949.
Unhappy commissioner
BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe told John Blanchette of The Spokesman-Review that he received a phone call from WCC commissioner Jamie Zaninovich about BYU fans’ behavior (throwing paper and wadded towels on the court) during Saturday’s 80-66 loss to Saint Mary’s. Apparently, the commissioner asked Holmoe why it didn’t stop, and what he did to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
"The thing I’ve found about this league is that they don’t pay lip service to things that really matter," Holmoe told the newspaper. "And it is a privilege, really, to be part of a group that stands for something."
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