A Grip on Sports: Another maddening thing about March hoop? How hard it is to avoid connections during the NCAA tourney

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We were tempted, for about 27 seconds, to ignore college basketball completely today. It seems it’s all we’ve blathered about over the past couple weeks. And, certainly, all we will lament upon over the next few. Why not take a day off? Throw out thoughts on the Seahawks, college baseball, whacking balls around at the golf range. Lucky for everyone, we couldn’t do it.

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• Ever hear of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon? Sure, you have. The silly, and fun, game of matching up everyone who has ever worked in Hollywood with the hard-working Bacon. Funny thing. It’s not that hard. It usually doesn’t take six turns.

Neither is it all that hard to connect college basketball folks with Pullman, the out-of-the-way Palouse town of some 32,000 folks that seemingly never should have such a legacy. But it does. At least with the men.

Tonight’s late First-Four game in Dayton, Ohio – another out-of-the-way community with a high-flying heritage – illustrates the point well. The easiest-to-connect dot starts with Virginia head coach, Tony Bennett. Everyone in the town over a certain age remembers when Coach McDreamy – man, we still despise Grey’s Anatomy for that nickname (and other things) – stalked the Beasley Coliseum sidelines. When you win almost 70% of your games for Washington State, you are hard to forget.

But the water runs deeper and we’re not just referring to UVA assistant Ron Sanchez, who was with Bennett in Pullman, or WSU grad Ronnie Wideman, the assistant athletic director who runs the basketball office in Charlottesville.

Tonight’s opponent, Colorado State, has a Pullman connection as well. Assistant coach Ali Farokhmanesh grew up in the community, coming of age as his mom, Cindy Fredrick, and dad Mashallah, coached the Cougars to the multiple successful seasons.

And, lest we forget, one Virginia player, Blake Buchanan, spent his youth just across the border in Moscow, as mom Debbie coached the UI volleyball team.

One of tomorrow night’s games has a connection too. Boise State coach Leon Rice is a WSU grad, attending the school as George Raveling’s successful career was ending and Len Stevens’ short stint commenced. And he came within a hair of taking over the reins at his alma mater in 2014, when he was offered the position but decided to stay in Boise.

• How about the team that has no-degrees of separation from Pullman? You know, this season’s Cougar squad? Funny, they’ve become the poster child for this year’s tournament. In the who-is-going-to-be-upset category.

In that, they have a close connection to their Inland Northwest cousins, Gonzaga. Both schools are trendy picks for the, shall we say, dishonor.

Thirty-win McNeese State seems to be everyone’s choice for the seemingly inevitable 12-5 shocker when the two meet Thursday in Salt Lake City. A 7-10 upset is less of a shock, especially when the 10th seed is regularly cited as one of many seeds the committee got drastically wrong. That’s how many feel about WSU’s opponent in Omaha later Thursday night, Drake.

If the pundits are right, the Inland Northwest will be devoid of NCAA participants before Thursday morphs into Friday on the East Coast.

• Instead of sharing who we believe will win the title April 8th in Phoenix, we would rather take a stab on the lowest seeded team making this year’s Final Four.

If you recall, last year featured a four (champion UConn), two fives (runner-up San Diego State and Miami) and a nine (Florida Atlantic) seeds. Why should this season, another without a true dominant team, be any different?

In theory, it shouldn’t. Why not seventh-seeded Texas winning the title? Or mercurial BYU, a six? How about hot-as-Hades North Carolina State, an 11th seed riding high after winning five games in five days at the ACC tournament? All good choices.

But we will look elsewhere. To Duquesne, the 11 seed in the East who we expect to ride a wave all the way to the regional final. And then lose to UConn. After all, we sort of expect all four No. 1 seeds to make it to Phoenix.

You know. The biggest upset of all.

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WSU: Before we zero in on the Cougars, we want to pass along Dave Boling’s column today. Great minds think alike, as Dave writes about the hoops hotbed that is the Inland Northwest these days. … Did you know there are still polls to dissect? Greg Woods shares the news WSU fell to 25th in the A.P. poll this week. … We linked this Jon Wilner column a few days ago. It runs in the S-R today. Wilner believes the smartest hire Stanford could make is Kyle Smith. He’s probably right. Which means the Cardinal will go in another direction. … He also makes picks for every NCAA game. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, John Canzano posted a mailbag yesterday. … The NCAA’s Division I tourney hasn’t started. But the transfer portal is already open. Coach your team, recruit players from other schools. Seems about right. … Oregon is focusing more on the former, though a former assistant coach might just be re-joining the staff soon. … There are deep connections between the Colorado and Boise State coaching staffs. … Can Caleb Love find some consistency for second-seeded Arizona? … In Eastern Washington, the Oregon State women welcome an NCAA opponent to Corvallis with some connections. … Second-seeded Stanford is a little ticked off and has something to prove. … As a one seed, USC’s path through the tournament should be easier. … There are high-quality teams headed to UCLA for the opening rounds. … Arizona is ready for its play-in game with Auburn. … In football news, Wilner passes along this high-end recruiting summary in the Mercury News. … The Colorado Buffaloes are focused on improving the offensive line this spring. … USC is about to start spring practice.

Gonzaga: We mentioned above the Zags are a trendy, ready-to-be-upset pick. The reason? McNeese State won 30 games this year under former LSU coach Will Wade, who was dumped by the Tigers two years ago as the NCAA was knocking on the door. Jim Meehan delves into the Cowboys successful season. … The Zags haven’t wasted time getting ready for McNeese, as Theo Lawson relays. … The fifth seed? Thanks to BYU’s not playing on Sunday, an adjustment was made. And Gonzaga was the beneficiary. Theo has that information covered as well. … There is a good chance Brynna Maxwell will be facing some old friends. If the Gonzaga women get past UC Irvine on Saturday, they could match up with fifth seed Utah on Monday. Greg Lee has this story on the sharpshooter from Gig Harbor who transferred from Salt Lake City two year ago. … Would the Zags host the first two rounds? That was a tough to answer question going into Sunday’s bracket reveal. And even most of the way through it. Jim Allen shares how that wait wore on the GU players. … There is an interesting name for Bulldog fans in the 27th spot of this NBA mock draft. … Elsewhere in the WCC, can the Saint Mary’s men actually get to the Sweet Sixteen this season?

EWU: The last (and up until this week, the only) time the Eastern women participated in the NCAA Tournament? That would be 1987, when Bill Smithpeters’ squad upset Montana in Missoula and earned a berth. Dave Cook recounts their story through the eyes of the participants. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the Montana women are headed to the WNIT, hosting Boise State. … So is Northern Colorado, who hosts U-T San Antonio in the first round. … Idaho State got hot to end the season. Now the Bengals’ Ryan Looney will have to rebuild a roster as the portal takes its toll.

Preps: Dave Cook also touches base with a trio of local high school basketball products who are in this year’s NCAA tournaments. All of them keep track with how the local schools have fared.

Seahawks: Yes, the Hawks signed an interior offensive lineman. A much-needed interior offensive lineman. The roster seems really close to being set.

Kraken: And that’s what happens when a dream dies. Seattle’s sad homestand reached a nadir last night, with the Kraken’s 6-2 loss to Chicago. The reality of a season ending without a postseason appearance seems to have sunk in.

Mariners: Bryce Miller threw a simulated game yesterday as he prepares for the season. … Thanks to another good game from J.P. Crawford, Seattle defeated Texas. … Mitch Garver seems like a good fit for the M’s.

Reign: We also could have put this story in a Sounders’ section. After all, the MLS franchise has finally finished negotiations to by the NWSL one.  

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• We are ready to enter a bracket challenge. Just one. Where we will finish well down the list. But it’s all in good fun. And we’re trying a new philosophy. No, not flipping coins. That was new for us some 30 years ago. This year we are using a secret weapon. We’ll share what it was after the tournament is over. Until later …