A Grip on Sports: Today is your last chance in a couple areas of life, including the sports arena as college hoops biggest month looms

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We have a warning and a service. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. And Ash Wednesday as well. Plan accordingly. Don’t be that person running around the house looking for something, anything, to repackage as a Valentine’s gift, while simultaneously trying to hide away all the chocolate somewhere until Easter arrives. Neither will go well.

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• Valentine’s Day has always been, it seems to us, a trap. A trap bigger than the one laid by the NFL with its new playoff overtime rules. Should we take the ball first – or not? Should we actually take our significant-other literally on their protestations of “no, don’t get me anything.”? Or not?

No matter your choices in these conundrums for the ages, you’re out of luck.

Ask 49ers’ coach Mike Shanahan. Or your best friend. They both will have stories. For the record, we believe Shanahan when he said he pored over the consequences before the game, thought having the ball third while still tied – with a chance to win on a field goal – was the most probable outcome, and made his decision from there.

As for the other question, don’t be a numbskull. In all cases no means no. If your love tells you they don’t want anything, they mean it. Don’t even acknowledge the holiday. And in a few weeks, if you need good legal representation for the inevitable court proceedings, we know a guy. He even gives us a cut of his fee.

• As for the other aspect of Wednesday, the start of Lent, that got us to thinking. No, not about how cool it was to be a second-grader at a Catholic school and having Fr. Callahan put ashes on your forehead at Mass. We started thinking about all that happens between now and Easter this year.

In the time between our Fat Tuesday revelry and Mr. Bunny hiding eggs in the front yard, the world will change. Well, the college basketball part of it anyway.

Some years (like next year), Lent includes the entirety of March Madness. The Masters. Opening day. All of spring’s good stuff. This year? Well, not as much.

Easter is March 31.

Yes, baseball will be in play. Heck, the season begins early this year in Seoul, where the Dodgers and Padres will play two games March 20th and 21st. Everyone else, pretty much, will start on Thursday, March 28th. Which means there is still an opportunity for teams to bring back the quaint tradition of an Easter doubleheader, though it will have to include a rained-out game from the week prior. No one schedules doubleheaders anymore.

As for college hoops, by the time Easter rolls around, there is a good chance every local college basketball team will be done playing.

Sure, March 17, Selection Sunday, might be historic for the Cougars, with Washington State earning its first NCAA tourney bid since, well, since we were still gainfully employed. And Tony Bennett still lived in Pullman. That would be 2008 for the uninitiated. But do you really think the Cougars will have won four games and their fans will be celebrating Easter figuring out how to get to Phoenix for the Final Four? Our suggestion, if that happens: Just float there.

We’re also sure Gonzaga will not be in the picture either. It seems pretty obvious the Zags’ run of 10 consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances will have ended as well. Oh, we’re still sure they will be in the tournament. But we’re also sure their stay will be a short one. Just as we are sure neither the Gonzaga nor Eastern women’s programs will still be playing come the last day of March. Their seasons will still be successful, sure, with the Zags assured of an NCAA berth and the Eagles having a good shot at one. But winning and winning again and again is a tall order.

• What else will happen before Easter? Not a lot. This year’s Lenten calendar isn’t filled with must-watch events. Nothing really major other than the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s Super Bowl, which, for some reason, kicks off the season every year instead of ending it.

Which gives us an idea. We’ll keep chocolate on the menu. Instead, we’ll give up watching sports on TV. Well, except college basketball, of course. The NCAA Tournament has always been something of a religious experience for us.

Especially when our alma mater’s red-hot NCAA title hopes turn to ash.

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WSU: Myles Rice won another Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award. His third consecutive one. Sixth overall. Which will make hurt even more when USC’s Isaiah Collier or someone from UCLA wins the Freshman of the Year award. Just kidding. Sort of. Anyhow, Greg Woods has that news and takes a look at the Cougars in the NCAA mock brackets as well. … As former WSU star Klay Thompson’s NBA career winds down, his game has continued to evolve. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has his thoughts on the conference’s NCAA outlook as well as how the Cougs fit in. His entire power rankings can be found in the Mercury News. … John Canzano answered a lot of questions in his weekly mailbag. … The biggest news yesterday in the conference happened in the football realm. UCLA replaced Chip Kelly with an alum who has never been more than an assistant coach: DeShaun Foster. It’s a risk – especially for next year. If the Bruins had been able to poach a sitting Power 5 coach, like Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck, which was reported to be their first choice, the transfer-portal rules might have helped the roster. A sitting coach can bring along players. Now UCLA will lose more – maybe not a lot because Foster is popular within the program, but any would be too many now – with no way of filling the gaps. … Jedd Fisch talked about his Arizona departure and explained how the NCAA’s rules make talking with players tougher. … Most of the West Coast coaching changes were met with good grades in this rating. … In basketball news, we can pass along another power ranking. … Oregon’s NCAA at-large prospects are fading. … Oregon State keeps making youthful mistakes. … Colorado is really good at free throws. … Fifth-ranked Arizona is lucky to have Pelle Larsson. … Speaking of the Wildcats, the athletic department’s budget is in limbo at the moment. … Oregon State is just about locked into the women’s NCAA tourney. … Colorado slipped a few spots in the rankings and the Buffs may have to face OSU once more. … There was one game last night as JuJu Watkins led No. 10 USC past host Arizona. … Finally, don’t know if you saw the video, but a California softball game in Louisiana over the weekend got a little crazy.

Gonzaga: According to most experts, the Zags win against Kentucky didn’t assure anything. We differ with that assessment, of course, as no one with the Bulldogs’ NET ranking has even been left out – and we’re sure GU won’t be the first. Anyhow, Theo Lawson is right, though. More work is needed. The Zags can’t lose to a WCC also-ran. … Jim Meehan and Richard Fox, in their latest Zags Basketball Insiders Podcast, discuss that and more. You can listen here. … Braden Huff had a great week. He also has more WCC hardware. Theo has that story. … The women moved up a couple spots to 17th in the latest A.P. poll. … Elsewhere in the WCC, the conference handed down a suspension after USF’s and Santa Clara’s dustup last weekend. … Streaking Saint Mary’s is back in the rankings at 18. … USD is inching closer to a .500 record in conference play.

EWU: One thing we know about Casey Jones. He is the conductor of the Eagles’ energy train. The google-wearing power forward supplies more energy than Avista just about every possession. But he’s more than that, as Dan Thompson’s story relays. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Idaho State’s men swept Portland State this season for the first time in eight years.

Sounders: Seattle’s MLS franchise is saying goodbye to its Starfire training facility. It’s a bittersweet departure.

Seahawks: Was Ryan Grubb just the guy who got the job when everyone else turned down Mike MacDonald? The new Hawk coach says that wasn’t the case. … Re-signing Leonard Williams may just be a priority for the Hawks. … OK, one other Super Bowl story. We like Travis Kelce. And, like Jerry Brewer, understand his Super Bowl misstep.

Kraken: We asked a question yesterday about the playoffs. The answer seems to be yes, they are slipping away. The Kraken lost 3-1 to the visiting Devils on Monday, and making the postseason got that much harder.

Mariners: Yes, we passed along the Times’ story on Ty France’s swing changes earlier. We pass along the link again today in the S-R. … The M’s have one of baseball’s many young, dynamic players on their roster. No, it is not France.

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• Here is the deal in our household. Kim denies wanting anything for Valentine’s Day. And every year we buy something for her. Heck, we’ve had the card since last year, when we forget where we put it and had to race out for another one at the last minute. We found the original one a couple days later. Anyhow, that’s our strategy and it’s worked for almost 50 years. As for Ash Wednesday, we haven’t had our forehead anointed since we were too young to have a special Valentine (if Mary Ellen Burns in sixth grade doesn’t count). But maybe tomorrow morning. Until later …