A Grip on Sports: As we fall back into morning darkness as the clocks leap forward, we are ready for a season-defining hoop week
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Daylight Saving Time? More like Kill-Our-74-Remaining-Brain-Cells Time, are we right?
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• We’re not the biggest fan of the clock changes every year. We understand it. Enjoy parts of it, actually. Don’t think it should be thrown away. But a fan? Nope. Sort of like how we feel about all our local sports teams.
A couple of them will be in action today in Boise. Three more take the conference-tournament court for the first time Monday. And one more will start on Wednesday.
By this time next week, we will know who is playing in the NCAA’s tournament and who will be hoping to play in some other one.
Hopefully, we will also be adjusted to the time change by then. We doubt it but hope is a wonderful thing. Speaking of that, who has hope, who has expectation and who just has hoop dreams of the NCAAs?
There are two schools (and three teams) in the true expectation category. They know the NCAA Tournament awaits no matter what happens the next few days. Surprisingly, if you want to look back from an October perspective, one of those is Washington State’s men.
Back then, we would have joined the chorus who felt the Cougar women had a better chance. That was, however, before Kyle Smith worked his magic and Kamie Ethridge saw her star guard, Charlisse Leger-Walker, end her WSU career with a torn ACL.
The WSU women are solidly in the hoping-for-a-bid category. They have a high ranking in the NCAA’s NET analytical rating system (29) but the Leger-Walker injury might be held against them. The men? They have their bags packed. They want to do damage this week in Las Vegas, earn the highest seed possible and then see what happens in their first Big Dance since 2008.
Both Gonzaga teams will be dancing. The next two games – when the men start Monday against USF in the WCC semifinals, the women will have already played Pacific earlier in the day – are all about conference crowns and seeding results.
We can’t decide who has more at stake.
The women, ranked 15th in the Associated Press poll and 10th in the NET, need to roll in Vegas to ensure hosting the first two rounds at McCarthey. That’s a big deal. But the higher the seed the 19th-ranked men receive, the better the chances to continue their eight-tournament streak of reaching the Sweet Sixteen. That’s a big deal too.
All that is nothing, however, than what is on the line for Eastern Washington. For both Eagle teams, it is all or nothing this week, despite both winning the Big Sky regular season title. Another team still in the hunt for the conference’s automatic berth, Idaho’s women, need to win out to make a near-impossible dream happen.
The Eastern men we understand. Their 21-10 record includes way-too-many early season nonconference misses. The tough schedule may have laid the foundation for conference success, but it also eliminated any at-large chances, which are always miniscule for the conference’s champion anyway.
The women, however, suffered just a couple bad losses – at UC Irvine and against Montana State at home, though they weren’t at full strength for the latter. The other three – at California and Northern Arizona and at home to Gonzaga by two points – were all understandable. But it doesn’t matter. Their NET ranking of 79 won’t improve this week and will preclude an at-large berth.
Funny thing, though. A conference tournament loss won’t necessarily be the end for anyone except Idaho’s women. There are 100 spots available for women’s teams between two NCAA-owned events. Even more for the men, as two more tournaments can come calling.
That doesn’t take away from what’s at stake this week. An NCAA bid is the goal. The dream. The hope.
As it should be.
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WSU: Being that the Cougar basketball team doesn’t play until Thursday in the Pac-12 tournament, against the winner of Wednesday’s Cal/Stanford game, we can excuse Greg Woods’ absence in these story links today. We do, however, have this baseball roundup that leads with Washington State’s tough loss to Utah in Pullman yesterday. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, Kyle Smith’s name keeps coming up as Washington looks for a new basketball coach but we would put more money on Utah State’s Danny Sprinkle. The Aggies won their first Mountain West crown with a win at New Mexico on Saturday. … John Canzano is trying to read the tea leaves in Las Vegas concerning the Pac-2’s future. … The women hold their tournament title game this afternoon, with top-seed Stanford taking on second-seeded USC. Both have a good shot at earning a coveted one seed in the NCAA Tournament. … Utah’s star, Alissa Pili, appreciates gifts from fans. Especially this one. … The final games of the men’s regular season yesterday elicited one major upset as USC showed it’s become the team everyone thought it could be, thanks to getting healthy. The Trojans handed fifth-ranked Arizona a 78-65 loss at the Galen Center. The two teams could meet again Thursday in Las Vegas. … UCLA also won its final Pac-12 regular season game, topping Arizona State 59-47 at Pauley. The Sun Devils’ top scorer left the team before the game. … Oregon held off Utah 66-65 but that wasn’t the worst of it for the Utes. They lost their best player, Branden Carlson, to an injury. … Colorado had no trouble in Corvallis, topping Oregon State 73-57. … Finally, Arizona’s new athletic director has bet on herself.
Gonzaga: Staying the course. That’s what the Zags did as the losses mounted in the early season. It’s also the main thrust of Dave Boling’s column about their recent resurgence. Well, that and a Graham Ike floor burn. … Jim Meehan and Theo Lawson got together this week and discussed the Zags once more. … Gonzaga will play the Dons on Monday after USF’s 72-51 win over Portland last night. … The women are ready for the matchup with Pacific, who upset USF 76-71 Saturday. Greg Lee has more on the GU women in this story. … Elsewhere in the WCC, USF’s Jonathan Mogbo has been everywhere. … Santa Clara had no trouble dropping San Diego in the men’s quarterfinals.
EWU: LeJuan Watts didn’t have it easy growing up in Fresno. But that upbringing, with athletic older siblings around, built the toughness the Big Sky’s freshman of the year exhibits on the court. Dan Thompson has that story. … Former Eastern football star Kendrick Bourne expects to make a full recovery from offseason knee surgery. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, it’s been a while since Idaho State won a men’s tournament game. The Bengals topped Northern Arizona 68-60 Saturday. … The Idaho State women fell apart in the fourth quarter and fell to Sacramento State 73-55. … Weber State handled Portland State 62-53.
Idaho: The Vandal men saw their season end Saturday with a 72-64 loss in Boise to Sacramento State. Yet, there is optimism for the future, as John Blanchette shares in this game story.
Preps: It is that time of year. Winter all-GSL selections. Photographs. Lists. All that. Here is what Dave Nichols has to pass along, as well as Colin Mulvany’s photos.
Chiefs: They built momentum in a loss Friday night in Seattle. The Chiefs kept it Saturday night in Spokane, defeating the same Thunderbirds 5-1 at the Arena, boosting their playoff chances. Dave has all that and more in this story.
Velocity: Spokane started fast in their first-ever USL League One contest. It scored first but then saw host Greenville answer three times in a 3-1 defeat. Ethan Myers has the match coverage while Garrett Cabeza connected with fans at a downtown brewery.
Mariners: Julio Rodriguez was already a good hitter. Really good. But that wasn’t enough. Not for him. He wants to be better. That’s what he decided this offseason. He made changes with his swing. And they seem to be working. … The M’s have partnered with a national company and The Warehouse to open a youth training facility. Justin Reed has this story on Saturday’s opening. … The Mariners picked up a win.
Kraken: Not every player on the roster suits up every game. Some are healthy scratches. Often. Such as Ryker Evans.
Sounders: If you happened to turn on the Sounders match with Philadelphia yesterday, as we did, all you saw was rain. Puddles. The ball going nowhere. And, finally, a stoppage. Then a postponement. The right thing to do.
Seahawks: Free agency arrives Monday. Legal negotiating can take place. Wednesday the signings start. Where are the Hawks in all this?
Storm: The preseason will begin in Canada against the Sparks.
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• We’re going back to bed. For at least a little while. Well, first we have to wander the house and fix clocks. That chore is easier these days, thanks to the miracle of modern electronics. We wonder if some person in the mid 1800s said the same thing about lighting the home fires after matches were invented? Until later …