Gonzaga's shooting star

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2006 | by Malcolm Moran

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The house was not a home until it had a hoop. White and blue, it is well-worn now, its net restrung many times, standing in front of the neatly kept house on a cul-de-sac within view of the high school.

John and Wanda Morrison and their three children arrived at their new home more than a decade ago, when they decided to relocate here rather than Fort Collins, Colo., or Billings, Mont. Right away, Wanda Morrison looked at Adam, their youngest, a fourth grader, and saw something was wrong.

"His face just fell," she says. "There was no basketball hoop out here. So that was the first thing we did. We unloaded our U-Haul, and John and our brother-in-law bought the hoop. We put (it) up before we really unpacked."

Eventually, the sounds near the...