Huskies are finding talent in Tacoma

TACOMA — There's a basketball buzz here, a feeling the old-timers say has never swept through this city. At least not like this.

You can see it in the faces of the boys who play pickup games in the afternoon at the People's Community Center in the Hilltop neighborhood.

And you can hear it in the voices of the kids at Al Davies Boys & Girls Club. They talk adoringly of the three Tacoma natives on the Washington men's basketball team as if they were American Idols.

Huskies sophomore star guard Isaiah Thomas and freshmen Abdul Gaddy and Clarence Trent, lifelong friends, play basketball for something bigger than themselves and bigger than the Washington Huskies.

They play for Tacoma, a city that might be at the beginning of a basketball explosion similar to the hoops revolution in Seattle 15 years ago that produced Jason Terry, Nate Robinson and Brandon Roy.

"What Nate, B-Roy and all of them are doing for Seattle, I want to do for Tacoma," Thomas said. "I want to be the first to make it out of Tacoma. And I know Abdul feels that way and Clarence, too."

The excitement in Tacoma for its trio of stars — four if you include former Bellarmine Prep star Avery Bradley, a freshman at Texas — is comparable to the enthusiasm on Montlake surrounding the Huskies.

Eight months removed from capturing the first outright Pac-10 title in school history and a two-point loss to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Washington is one of the new darlings of the college basketball world.

The Huskies begin the season Friday against Wright State ranked 14th in The Associated Press poll, their highest preseason position since 1985 when former coach Marv Harshman led UW to shared back-to-back conference titles.

Gone are Jon Brockman and Justin Dentmon, and senior captain Quincy Pondexter and Thomas are poised to carry the scoring load and assume leadership duties.

The Huskies look to be more athletic than last season's team, which compiled a 26-9 record and was 14-4 in conference.

Sophomore forward Darnell Gant returns at power forward and junior center Matthew Bryan-Amaning replaces Brockman. The guard position vacated by Dentmon will be filled by either Gaddy or junior Venoy Overton, who appears as if he'll start to open the season.

"Our versatility will be a strength of this team," coach Lorenzo Romar said.

Washington will seek contributions from guard Elston Turner and forwards Justin Holiday and Tyreese Breshers, who redshirted last season while recovering from leg injuries.

Romar also said the team's chemistry has improved "because these guys are closer in terms of age and there seems to be a closeness about them."

Thomas, Gaddy and Trent admit their bond is strong because they've known each other since grade school when they were playing pickup games at the Boys & Girls Club.

"Back then I never thought anything like this would happen and we'd all be on the same [college] team," Gaddy said. "Isaiah is older than me so we played for the same AAU team, but I was after him.

"And Clarence, I've always known him. I knew he was good. But we weren't thinking this far. It's just luck, I guess."

It was a little more than luck that reunited them again, said Northwest Panthers coach Gary Ward, who coached Thomas and Gaddy during the summers.

"Five to 10 years ago, we didn't know what we were doing," said Ward, a 52-year-old Boeing engineer. "We had good players, but we didn't know what we were doing. And when I say we didn't know what we were doing, I mean we couldn't get the kids through the educational process. We didn't understand how to utilize prep schools. We had no knowledge of that.

"You got Clarence Trent, Isaiah Thomas and Avery Bradley. Here's three of our better kids — two of them are at the University of Washington and they all had to leave the state to become eligible to play in college. That's a problem."

Thomas starred at Curtis High where he was the Class 4A state player of the year as a junior before transferring to South Kent School in Massachusetts for two years.

Trent began at River Ridge High in Lacey, played two years at Gig Harbor High, a year at Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev., and The Patterson School in North Carolina. Bradley also went to Findlay Prep.

Gaddy, a 2009 graduate of Bellarmine Prep and a McDonald's All-American, is the only one in the group to take the conventional high school-to-college route.

FSN college basketball analyst Francis Williams said the best basketball talent in the state no longer resides in Seattle.

"It's shifted in the last few years," he said. "It's in South King County and Pierce County. I don't know that the best talent is still right here in the city. And that's not say there hasn't been talent coming out of there before."

To be sure, Thomas and company aren't the best or even the first standout recruits from Tacoma. There have been others, including former Huskies C.J. Massingale and Curtis Allen.

And Ward appears as if he's priming the pump on Tacoma's talent.

Devonta Lacy, a 6-foot-2 combo guard at Curtis High, received an offer from Eastern Washington last week and Donald Gaddy, Abdul's younger brother, is a 6-foot junior guard at Bellarmine Prep who is starting to receive national attention from colleges.

"It's starting to grow and starting to pick up," Romar said. "I don't see why Tacoma won't continue what it's doing."

Barely into their college careers, their legacy at Washington has yet to be decided, but at the People's Center, Thomas, Gaddy and Trent are rock stars.

"I always go back as much as I can," Trent said. "I go to talk to the kids and just play around."

They live in Seattle and wear Washington across their chest, but Tacoma is never far from their hearts.

"I know some people may not understand this, but I'll never represent Seattle," Thomas said. "You can put that in bold print. I'm not from Seattle. I never represent Seattle. I go to school here, but I rep where I'm from and Tacoma is where I'm from.

"That's just how it is and how it's always going to be. I love the people who support this program. I love everybody around the program, but I'm going to represent where I'm from until the day I die."

Romar understands.

"When people would tell me or introduce me as being from L.A., I'd say, 'No, I'm from Compton,' " he said. "And the Tacoma guys are like that, too. They're from Tacoma. They take pride in being from Tacoma."

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com