A Grip on Sports: In a year of chaos, we’ve come to appreciate all of that element WSU’s basketball team injects into each game

A GRIP ON SPORTS • In a college basketball season dominated by disruption, there has been no greater disruptors than the Washington State Cougars. That didn’t stop Thursday night just because WSU was playing in the final Pac-12 tournament. If anything, the agents of chaos brought even more.

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• On the court, Kyle Smith’s team disrupted Stanford’s offensive flow to such a degree, each Cardinal huddle seemed to be filled with more discussion than the latest Hoover Institute seminar on early 20th century British conservatism. And had about as much relevance to what went on in Las Vegas last night.

And what was that? The second-seeded Cougs moved into the Pac-12 tournament semifinals – their first since the seminal 2008 season – with their 79-62 victory. They also hammered in the final nail of Jerod Haase’s coaching coffin, but that decision certainly was already made – barring an unexpected Cardinal run to the NCAAs. WSU made sure that wouldn’t happen.

Which brings us to the final disruption. The last Pac-12 tourney – as we know it, of course – will feature the top four seeds in the semifinals. Really. Regular-season champ Arizona vs. always-tough-in-March Oregon. The 22nd-ranked Cougars vs. the third seed, resume-light Colorado. Chalk. An upset of epic proportions in a conference tournament that has thrived on underdog runs.

For once, the Conference of Champions’ tournament will go out with a worthy champion. And, if it is either Colorado or Oregon, will include a third NCAA bid. Just the thing to help Washington State’s budget come 2025 and beyond.

Of all the disruptions this season has seen, that oddity is the oddest.

• Want to watch the Cougars’ quest for a 25th win? Tune into FS1 at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The other semifinal, matching sixth-ranked Arizona with the Ducks, tips at 5 on the Pac-12 Networks. The Pac-12 title game will be on Fox on Saturday night, starting at 6.

• That schedule leads us into our typical Friday question: What is there to watch this weekend? Besides the chaos that is conference basketball tournaments, we mean? Not much.

On our personal agenda, of course, is the Players Championship from Florida, the PGA’s version of a WWE event. Jordan Spieth vs. Rory McIlroy. Cue the cage and the folding chair across the back of the head and anything else you want to see. The Golf Channel covers today’s chaos starting at 10 a.m., while the weekend rounds will be on NBC (11 a.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. Sunday).

If you are longing to watch the region’s MLB team, the M’s are finally on Root. They face the Angels today, the Reds on Saturday and the White Sox on Sunday. All will start at just after 1 p.m.

But the schedule is dominated by college hoops. From bubble-popping (or expanding) matchups to the March Madness selection shows.

We have a small personal stake this season in the ACC tourney, and not for the usual reason: rooting against Duke. The Blue Devils are already out. But Virginia, with two local high school players in the starting lineup, is still alive after last night’s nail-destroying 66-60 overtime win over Boston College. Shadle Park High (and former EWU) player Jake Groves led UVA with 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Wahoos face North Carolina State tonight (6:30, ESPN).

But, really, all this weekend’s games serve as appetizer to the main course, Sunday afternoon’s announcement of who plays in the NCAA’s tournaments. Who will play in Spokane? (The Arena hosts men’s first- and second-round games next weekend while there is still a chance Gonzaga’s women will host as well.) Where will the Cougar men be playing? Will the WSU women make the NCAAs or be in the organizations new secondary tourney? What exotic locale – our money is on Omaha – will the committee send the Zags? The Eastern women? Will the Eagles’ male counterparts be invited to the NIT?

All those questions will be answered sometime Sunday. The NCAA men’s selection show is on CBS (3 p.m.), the women’s on ESPN (5 p.m.). The men’s NIT picks will show up on ESPN2 (6:30 p.m.) while news about everything else will probably require refreshing your browser often after that.

We better hope there is no disruption in our service, that’s for sure.

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WSU: Being in Las Vegas must be fun. Being in Las Vegas when the Cougars actually win a Pac-12 tournament game? Even more so. Unless you are there to work. Which is Greg Woods’s task. He has a game story on the quarterfinal win over the Cardinal. … Dave Boling has been there a while and he has this column on Washington State showing what it’s made of in the final 35 minutes. … Tyler Tjomsland has also taken up residency, a la Celine Dion, albeit with a camera, not a microphone. He has this photo gallery from the contest. … The folks in the office put together this recap with highlights. … There is also this Percy Allen story in the Times. … We can also pass along coverage from the Bay Area, coverage that focuses more upon Haase’s firing than the game itself. As it should be. After years of mediocrity, one had to wonder if Haase had earned tenure. He hadn’t. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, Arizona raced past seemingly hot USC, 70-49. … Colorado also routed its opponent, defeating Utah 72-58, and leaving the Utes outside looking into the NCAAs again. … Oregon found a way to get past UCLA 68-66, surviving a last-second tying effort to get it done. … Jordan Pope is all in with Oregon State. For the time being. Those are his words. … What’s it going to take to turn around Washington’s basketball program after Mike Hopkins’ tenure? … Some folks would like to see Arizona State replace Bobby Hurley. … Just how many NCAA bids will the conference’s women’s team earn? And how many host spots? … Will Colorado get to host? … In football news, the Pac-12 presidents once presented some reforms that might have changed college athletics’ downward spiral. At least postponed it some. But the reforms were dismissed out of hand. … Oregon began spring practice yesterday and, as always, it was bit sloppy. … Oregon State moved quickly to fill a coaching vacancy. … We believe we’ve read more stories on Utah quarterback Cam Rising than any other college football player in the past decade. … There seems to be some agreement to give a majority of the expanded CFP money to the Big Ten and SEC. Great.

Gonzaga: Stu Jackson has been the WCC’s commissioner for a year. In that time, as with every conference commissioner, he’s had to deal with change. The latest? WSU and Oregon State joining for hoops and other sports. Jim Meehan talked with Jackson recently and put together this story about next season’s basketball schedule and more. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s early struggles, like Gonzaga’s, built a foundation for now.

EWU: We mentioned this yesterday and we’re happy to pass along John Blanchette’s story on former Whitworth coach Matt Logie leading the Montana State men into the NCAA Tournament. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, for the men, Idaho State’s season was once again up and down. What does the future hold? Lake City High grad Kolton Mitchell has already entered the transfer portal. … Montana State delivered another dagger to its archrival Montana’s basketball hopes.

Velocity: The USL team opens its home season Saturday. It will be playing Richmond, the team from Virginia, not the one in “Ted Lasso.” Ethan Myers has a preview of the 2 p.m. match while Justin Reed has this feature on Michael Rojas, who grew up in Othello.

Preps: When Briann January played at Lewis and Clark High, it was obvious she would have a long career in basketball. She has. She’s also positioning herself for a long career in coaching.

Mariners: The M’s won again, riding Bryan Woo’s pitching past the Brewers. … The youngsters will get their moment in the sun.

Seahawks: The Hawks solidified their quarterback room yesterday, trading two draft picks to Washington for Sam Howell and two less valuable picks. … They also signed an inside linebacker out of the free agent market. … Maybe the impatience was unfounded.

Kraken: The current homestand seemed like a last-stand for Seattle. Win or miss the playoffs. So far, not so good. Another loss last night, this one 2-1 to the Washington Capitals.

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• We enter the weekend on a bit of a down note. Our friend and former co-worker Shawn Vestal – is it OK we call you a friend Shawn? – is leaving the S-R. Headed to an online publication. We’ve been off the paper’s full-time employment rolls for more than a decade, which means fewer and fewer of our peers are still working in the big old building on Riverside. Shawn was always one of our favorites to read, not because we agree with all his opinions – we didn’t – but because no matter what he was writing about, he did it with such mastery and style we always came away being in awe. His talent was obvious – and aspirational, at least for us. We never have reached that level. Thankfully, we’ll be able to continue to read his work, even if that means subscribing to yet another website. Between streaming and pay-to-read sites, we may just have to keep pounding away at the keyboard until we turn 80. Until later …