Pendergraft proving to be genuine article

SPOKANE — Check out a Gonzaga basketball practice, and something is immediately evident: There's a lot of talent out there. Speed, size, skill. There's Jeremy Pargo, Josh Heytvelt, Matt Bouldin, Micah Downs and a cast of promising freshmen.

In this context, the name David Pendergraft does not scream out. But in a year, when Pendergraft's senior season is done, they're going to wonder: Who'll guard that power forward who's going off? Who's going to step up and take a charge? Who's going to run in for Heytvelt and impersonate a "five" man?

But never mind next year. Pendergraft can't believe it's this year.

"It goes by so fast," he said. "It's been a blast. I'd totally never go anywhere else."

A lot has happened to Gonzaga basketball in recent years — recruiting in places like Philadelphia and Texas and France, picking whom it wants to schedule, making the assumption it's going to be a part of March Madness.

The Zags are riding different rails these days, but they'll always save a scholarship for guys like Pendergraft, pretty much the consummate Zag.

It's hard to say what he'll want to tell his grandkids about first: taking on a who's who of college-basketball talent man-to-man — or spreading goodwill through the Inland Empire, spending time with cancer patients, ferrying dinners for Meals on Wheels.

Go ahead, try to think of somebody — let alone somebody from small-town Central Washington — who has seen the matchups Pendergraft has. Kevin Durant? Pendergraft has guarded him. Ditto Brandan Wright of North Carolina. He's banged with Josh Boone and Hilton Armstrong of Connecticut and Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough.

The list goes from forwards big and small, to centers, to the best off-guards: D.J. White of Indiana, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute of UCLA, Joey Graham of Oklahoma State, Morris Almond of Rice, Rodney Stuckey of Eastern Washington.

He'd just as soon forget Joey Dorsey, the manchild of Memphis. The Zags have a term: getting "beasted." It means being physically shown up by your opposing number, and Dorsey is one of the few who did it to Pendergraft.

"That's one of the things I pride myself on," Pendergraft said. "Ask any of the guys about this: I don't get beasted. I'm smaller inside, I don't weigh as much, but I beast other guys."

Except Dorsey, who last February tossed Pendergraft off like a hot sweater, created 3 feet of space and scored, "almost like he didn't try," said Pendergraft. At times like this, Pendergraft gives the Gonzaga bench a pained shrug, which looks a lot like he's saying, "What do you expect? He's from Queens, I'm from Brewster."

The Zags have always relied on Pendergraft for the intangibles — hustle, character, leadership — but late last season, he hinted of another dimension. A modest 7.3 points-per-game scorer off the bench, he made 7 of 12 three-pointers in the last three games, so he requires a hand in the face. In fact, his .486 three-point percentage, albeit in limited attempts (18 of 37), was best on the team.

Since Gonzaga bowed out against Indiana in the NCAA first round, Pendergraft has had some work done on a knee, including arthroscopic surgery to redirect a wayward tendon.

He's up and running now, but the down time offered him more opportunities to get into the community. Cancer patients have come to know him, schools request him to speak, Meals on Wheels seniors have looked forward to his visits.

"He's kind of the people's champion," said Jerid Keefer, Spokane's regional coordinator for Coaches Versus Cancer. "Whether it's the doctor, nurse at the station or the child in the room, he gets along with all of them."

"This last year especially, I've tried to do a lot more charitable events than I have in the past," Pendergraft said. "They don't force you to do anything, but how the community treats us here, I think we should do it anyway. It's a great opportunity to give back."

On campus, they notice.

"He's just a genuine guy," said Ben Folger, the Gonzaga student-body president. "He doesn't like a lot of the attention the other guys do. He's just one of the guys — just jacked to be a student."

In his other life, he's pumped to co-captain (with Pargo) a Gonzaga team that wants to get beyond some gnawing March disappointments to the NCAA's last weekend.

"The ceiling is as high as we want to take it," said Pendergraft, who talks about the potential for this being "the greatest season in Gonzaga history."

If it isn't, you'll still have a hard time convincing Pendergraft he didn't squeeze the last drop out of the college experience.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com