A Grip on Sports: The more things change on the Las Vegas sports scene, the more they stay the same – at least for Gonzaga

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It all seemed familiar, didn’t it, in a Thanksgiving-feast sort of way? Monday’s West Coast Conference tournament semifinals, we mean. And tonight’s title games won’t be much different either.

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• Let’s see. Gonzaga’s men are in their 27 consecutive tournament title game, a streak that dates back to 1998, the year before their amazing NCAA Tournament run. And, thanks to last night’s 89-77 win, the Bulldogs have won 30 consecutive times against San Francisco, the only WCC school with an NCAA basketball banner in their gym.

Monday’s game was also familiar, in that it was tight throughout, except for a Zag blitz that began before halftime and carried through into the second 20 minutes. Just like what happened in GU’s must-win game in the Chase Center less than two weeks ago.

It seems longer, doesn’t it? After all, going into that Leap Year night, the national narrative was Gonzaga was going to have to travel to Lost Wages and take Saint Mary’s lunch money if it wanted to keep its NCAA streak alive. Now both the Gaels and the Bulldogs are playing for seeding in tonight’s title matchup, the 11th time since 2009 the two have played for the automatic berth.

We’re the Zags perfect on Monday? Nope. Not even close. They were sluggish defensively in the first half, didn’t shoot it particularly well before halftime and showed some poise issues, with Graham Ike earning a stop-your-trash-talking technical foul from Michael Reed. As if that is a thing anymore.

We can actually understand Ike’s reaction, in a weird way. He had just scored his sixth point and time was growing short. For a guy who has been putting up 20 every game since Gonzaga went into its must-win mode, it had to be a bit of a downer. Frustration isn’t conducive to making good decisions.

But we digress. Back to the familiar. And our thought the Gaels, top-seeded tonight due to their regular season title, will do something different on Ike this time. There is no way they are going to allow him to torch them, as he did for 24 points in Moraga a little over a week ago, is there? Double him early or late? Use a big or a guard? The Gaels’ options are a bit limited due to injuries – power forward Joshua Jefferson is out for the season and backup post Harry Wessels is still nursing a banged-up shoulder – but Randy Bennett and his staff can’t just stand still. Or can they? We’ll see.

• The familiarity theme played out with the women too. Not to the same degree but having the top-seeded Zags face third-seed Portland in the final for a second consecutive year has some been-there, done-that, vibes as well. The Pilots, who have struggled – especially offensively – at times this season, have put it together in Vegas, quashing Loyola Marymount by 27 and then rallying past second-seeded Santa Clara last night when the Broncos’ last second shot was blocked by 6-foot-6 center Lucy Cochrane.

The 63-61 triumph gives the Pilots 20 wins this season, four less than the win streak 14th-ranked GU is on. But last year’s finals matchup, while less of a surprise, seemed one-sided in the Zags’ favor as well. And Portland earned the auto berth with an upset. If the same happens this afternoon, it will be costly for Gonzaga. As in it will cost it a top-four NCAA seed and the ability to host the opening round games. That’s worth its weight in gold.

• Before we head off to get a nap – we needed two cups of coffee to stay engaged last night with Gonzaga’s awful 8:40 tip time and the caffeine kept us up until the wee hours of Tuesday – we wanted to chime in on the Seahawks’ free agency moves. Such as they were.

Leonard Williams for three years was a must. Too much trade capital was sent to New York to acquire him to let the defensive lineman walk. And giving Noah Fant a bit of an over-pay was crucial too, seeing the other regular contributors in last-year’s tight end room had already left for Southern California.

But there are still way-too-many holes to fill. Holes the draft alone can’t sew up. More signings have to be on the agenda. Right?

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WSU: Monday is poll day. And bad news was expected in Pullman after last week’s home loss to Washington. The Cougars did fall. Four spots. They will enter the Pac-12 tournament as the nation’s 22nd-ranked team. Greg Woods has more in this story. … Greg kept tabs on NFL free agency and how it hit former Washington State players yesterday. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner throws out this thought in the S-R today. WSU would be better off, financially, if they lose in the Pac-12 tournament, though it would help if Arizona also lost. That would ensure three conference teams in the NCAAs and add to the war chest it shares with Oregon State. … Wilner’s conference awards, which we linked in the Mercury News yesterday, are on the S-R website today. … Will the Pac-12 still earn two of the four No. 1 seeds in the women’s NCAA? We think so. … USC is assured of one not too many years after the Trojans finished last in the conference. … Colorado is just hoping to get a top-four seed and host the early rounds. … John Canzano has his thoughts on the men’s tournament this week. … Oregon State making noise in the upcoming tourney? We don’t think so. … Utah’s best player is trying to write his own story. … Arizona State’s best player just left the team to get paid in his home country. With no NIL money for international players, we get it. … Arizona still has hopes for a No. 1 seed even as it struggles a bit to end the season. … Christian Caple continues his exit-interview series on Washington football. … Canzano had his Monday mailbag. … We are torn. How deeply should we cover spring football on the West Coast? Stay with the Northwest schools? Skip everyone? See what we can find on Mountain West teams? We have to make a decision. Soon. For now, here are some position stories on Oregon from the offensive side of the ball. Of course, we will pass along anything on Oregon State we find, including this story on the Beavers’ offensive coordinator. … Another year, another story on Cam Rising returning for Utah.

Gonzaga: We start with Jim Meehan’s game story, which contains this quote from Mark Few: “We had 23 assists and three turnovers. I’ve been doing this 25 years and we’ve never had a line like that.” We saw the assists last night but skipped over the turnovers. No wonder Few’s team scored 89 points. … Jim also teamed with the folks in the office for the recap with highlights. … Dave Boling’s column focuses upon Ben Gregg, who Few termed a Mr. Zag, a hard-earned moniker over the years. … Theo Lawson has a bunch of stories, including the difference makers, and a preview of tonight’s (with a reasonable 6 p.m. start on ESPN) championship matchup with 21st-ranked Saint Mary’s. He also covered the Gaels’ 79-65 semifinal victory over Santa Clara. … Earlier in the day, Theo posted about the Zags’ ranking. … Tyler Tjomsland makes his first appearance here with his photo gallery from the men’s game. …   We added a TV Take, looking at the game from the safety of our TV room. … Tyler returns with another photo gallery from the earlier women’s semifinal. … Greg Lee took care of the words, with this game story and a preview of today’s (1 p.m., ESPNU) championship. We will be watching – anything has to be better than the disjointed ESPN+ feed, right? – and will have a TV Take after. … As for the stories from the Bay Area on the men and women, we can pass along coverage from the Chronicle and Mercury News as well as Jeff Faraudo’s column on the Portland women’s game for the WCC website. … One of our favorite folks in college hoops, Dan Monson, saw his 17-year tenure at Long Beach State come to an end yesterday.

Idaho: The Vandal women began, and ended, Big Sky tourney play against Montana yesterday. John Blanchette has the coverage of their season-ending 73-61 defeat. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, it was a good day for the Montana teams. Besides the women winning, the men are the only top-four-seeded team still standing after a win over Portland State. … Montana State knocked out Weber State with a massive second half. … The Bobcat women rallied to knock out Northern Colorado in overtime.

Preps: For the first time we’ve noticed this spring (in the sports lexicon), we can pass along a roundup.

Mariners: Logan Gilbert pitched well. The bullpen did not. The M’s lost to San Diego. … Jorge Polanco seems like a good fit with Seattle.

Kraken: It’s a busy time for the Kraken.

Seahawks: We had some quick thoughts on free agency. Here is the Times’ news story as it ran in the S-R. And we can pass along more. … No, Bobby Wagner isn’t the greatest Seahawk of all time. Steve Largent still holds that distinction. And will until someone comes along and retires with the number of NFL records Largent grabbed.

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• As we said, we were working on about four hours sleep this morning. Fine for 27-year-old Vince Grippi, who may or may not have been nursing a hangover. Not good for the teetotaling 67-year-old version. Plese forgive us any sins of omission or of the typing variety. We had trouble seeing the words. Until later …