Say go, say ... ’shrooms.

It’s Monday, and everyone knows about the ill-fated traffic stop for a burned-out tail light Friday night that resulted in the arresting of two Gonzaga basketball players. Sophomore Josh Heytvelt and redshirt freshman Theo Davis were arrested for alleged possession of marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms, found after a search of Heytvelt’s SUV. The two were immediately suspended from the team, and sat out Saturday night at Gonzaga’s game against Saint Mary’s University. Gonzaga won, by the way.

Already, many of us have been invited to join a Facebook group with some variation of “Heytvelt and Davis tried to sell me ’shrooms” in the title.

After looking for more information, I entered the terms “Gonzaga” and “mushrooms” into the ever-trustworthy Google news search engine. Seattle had the story. So did city papers across Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, New York, North Carolina and Canada, among many others. College basketball bloggers across the nation were eating it up, and spitting it out with increasingly creative jokes on prison life and drugs in the Pacific Northwest.

Deadspin.com, a sports news blog, displayed Saturday, “If Gonzaga Bulldogs Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis are playing basketball today, they’re playing not for position in the WCC standings, but for cigarettes and the protection of their anal cavities.” Regardless of opinions on marijuana or mushrooms as illegal drugs, and regardless of the fact that many students, both at WSU and Gonzaga, do “experiment” with drugs in college, these two athletes, if the allegations are true, are like many other student-athletes across the country who get involved with drugs: just plain dumb.

Gonzaga prides itself on basketball. Even in its not-so-hot years, The Kennel is packed with over-hyped fans sporting red, white and blue, rooting the Bulldogs on. The athletes who play there – like athletes at any school and in any sport – represent their school and all the students who go there. They play across the nation while the fan base at a given campus watches, proud of the logo and screaming hoarsely for their team.

The vast majority of student-athletes have scholarships, allowing them to pursue a free higher education in exchange for playing their sport. They are the chosen few, playing in televised games nationwide, achieving super status on campus and basking in the glory when they win. Their actions, especially when they make national news, can make their universities look good or bad. It’s really not a difficult or complicated concept. Student-athletes should play their sport, go to class and enjoy the glory. Not pimp through Cheney late at night in an SUV allegedly stocked with marijuana and mushrooms. The mushrooms constitute a felony, and it doesn’t take a genius to realize the supposed errors made after baiting the most bored police in the state may have a far-reaching effect on Gonzaga and its prized basketball team. Situations like this should be avoided. But according to the police report, these two couldn’t figure this out and were arrested.

I guess we’ll never know how many student-athletes are cruising around with working tail lights and illegal drugs in their possession. But they should remember: Athletes should never be the ones to make their universities a joke.