A GRIP ON SPORTS • Did you watch the NCAA selection shows yesterday? Was it appointment TV or did you just go on with your life and figure you would catch up with all the outrage later? Read on.

••••••••••

• Around these parts it was the former but I sort of wish now it was the latter. After all, getting all riled up about whether UCLA should have been included or whether Virginia deserved a top seed or whether Dayton should get to play in its area code is really just another way to sell blood pressure meds, isn't it? All sound and fury, signifying nothing. It's also our annual exercise, designed to fill the empty days between Selection Sunday and the first tip on Thursday – with apologies to those eight teams playing on Tuesday and Wednesday in what is the final year of calling them first-round games. The best days of the college basketball season are ahead of us, Thursday and Friday, with wall-to-wall games on the television, buzzer-beaters here and blowouts there. It's like the world's greatest buffet, all for $4.99. And this year there will be two teams from the 509 included. The last time that happened was in 2008 when the Cougars and the Zags both had teams that could make some noise in the tournament. WSU ended up getting to the Sweet 16 that season, a destination Gonzaga hopes to reach after this upcoming weekend. And its neighbor to the east, where does Eastern hope to end up? Right now, the goal of the Eagles is to get to Portland safely and have a shot at upsetting Georgetown in the first round. After that, every thing else is gravy. When it's been 11 years since you've danced, making pronouncements about winning the whole thing would be premature. It would probably be the same for the Zags, considering undefeated and rarely tested Kentucky is in the field, but there is a quiet confidence over at McCarthey, obviously stoked by Sunday's coronation of this year's team as Mark Few's best-ever. And who wants to argue with the experts in the local newspaper? Though they might not buy as much as they used to, they still buy their ink by the barrel, after all. So if you are doing a bracket this week – and according to the experts in Vegas, just about everyone does – you might as well pencil in Gonzaga as a Final Four team and be satisfied with that. As for Eastern, if the Eagles can take down Patrick Ewing's old school, very few in Washington, D.C. will be surprised. Unhappy, sure. But surprised, no. I'm just hoping Eastern coach Jim Hayford breaks out a new bright-red sport coat for the big dance. And maybe a vest. Then he can top off the ensemble with a big old white towel in homage to John Thompson the elder, Georgetown's one and only NCAA-winning coach. Now that would be worth talking about.

•••

• WSU: Any Cougar fan who stayed up last night waiting to see if their team was headed to one of the lesser tournaments were disappointed, though there was no chance of that happening. Though Washington State had posted what could be termed a successful season, considering, there was little desire on campus of extending it. The time would be better spent building recruiting relationships that might pay off down the road. Still, that doesn't mean Jacob Thorpe is blowing off the next couple weeks. No sir. He's holding his bracket challenge again here on the blog. I may go out on a limb and pick Kentucky to win it all. ... The Cougars' bats went silent in Los Angeles yesterday and they lost the rubber game to USC.

• Gonzaga: One, two or 17 in a row, getting picked to be in the NCAA tournament never grows old. That's the premise of Jim Meehan's story today as well as this blog post. ... John Blanchette has a column today that covers the Zags and Eastern, comparing and contrasting the emotions yesterday's selection show elicited. ... Bud Withers has a column on the Zags' opponent in Seattle, North Dakota State. ... WCC tournament runner-up BYU is also an NCAA tournament runner-up, slotted to play in Dayton on Tuesday vs. Mississippi. ... St. Mary's is headed to the NIT, in which it will host Vanderbilt on Wednesday night.

• EWU: There was a celebration in Cheney yesterday afternoon as the Eagles learned their NCAA fate. Jim Allen was there, of course, and he has this story on the festivities. ... If you are looking for more on the tournament, I always find these quick summaries of the regions, from East to West, South to Midwest, interesting. ... Eastern was considered the 53rd seed, which is probably one too high, considering the school that was slotted in the 54th spot by the committee. ... Northern Arizona's coach was suspended by the Big Sky for his role in the postgame ruckus at Montana the other night. No word on whether the officials were disciplined for missing Montana's sixth person on the floor. ... Finally, because I haven't been able to put a whole bunch of NCAA bracket links in the Eastern section before, I do just that. And if you want the best bracket for viewing first-round games, we include that as well.

• Chiefs: The Chiefs led 3-0 after one period in Portland last night, then led 5-3 headed into the third. But they lost, 8-6. Yep, the gave up five goals in the final period.

• Seahawks: Football talk is sort of on the periphery of the stories we are passing along, one on a proposal, the other on an act of kindness by the newest high-profile Seahawk.

• Mariners: Danny Hultzen is still recovering from his arm injury. The left-hander will now do it in the minor-league camp after he and 10 others were cut yesterday. ... The M's lost to the Dodgers, 5-3.

• Sounders: If the Sounders' up-and-down start seems familiar, it's because it is. They started pretty much the same way last season.

•••

• This is it. The best basketball week of the year is underway. Today is the quiet day, then the storm builds. Enjoy it. Until later ...

---

---