A Grip on Sports: If Darwin were alive today, he may be studying football and basketball instead of finches

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Don’t believe it. It’s false. Spring really isn’t springing in the Inland Northwest, no matter what the thermometer is telling you. It’s still the middle of January. And the middle of winter sports season.

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• Funny how football can be considered, to some degree, a winter sport these days. But thanks to season-creep, the oblong ball has joined roundball in being played during the worst weather of the year, Northern Hemisphere version.

The difference? Basketball is played indoors.

Thank goodness for that tonight in Santa Clara. It would be pretty tough to play hoops in a place battered by wind, rain and whatever other meteorological phenomenon happens. (By the way, or is it just us? Does the term “atmospheric river” seem to be a new one? Did we not have those back in the day? Or were they just called “rainstorms?”)

Football, on the other hand, seems to revel in awful weather. Can’t see the 25-yard line because the fog is too thick? Big deal. Figure it out. Icicles forming on an offensive lineman’s helmet? Knock ‘em off and knock someone on their backside. Six-inches of snow coming down in an hour? Pull out some frozen-tundra poetry from the 1960s and play on.

There won’t be a weather problem for college football’s national title game Monday night – and not just because the game is in the L.A. Basin. It is also indoors. In the NFL’s latest Taj Mahal. Great for the TV folks, awful for the brand.

Wouldn’t it be more fun if TCU and Georgia were meeting in Chicago? Trying to run spread offense at Soldier Field while the wind off Lake Michigan howls at 32-miles-per-hour? Waiting between plays for four or five guys in their late 50s to pull out snow shovels to clear off the sideline markers?

Nope, not going to see that ever again. Nor will we probably see teams that feature weather-proof offenses or fullbacks or single-wing formations play for the ultimate prize.

We get it. But we can still be a little nostalgic, can’t we?

• Evolution isn’t confined to football offenses and Galapagos Giant Tortoises. Basketball has gone through it as well.

The typical NBA player of this era would be unrecognizable to the players of 50 years ago, and vice-versa. The college game has changed as well, though not as much due to a larger demand for talent. A great example of that occurred Thursday night in San Francisco, where Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, a throw-back in his own right, had to look up to two Dons much of the night.

Saba Gigiberia, at 7-foot-1, and Volodymyr Markovetskyy, the 7-2 Washington State transfer, both outsized the 6-11 Timme. And, in what really is the throwback aspect of it, both USF players spent much of their time anchored around the basket.

Big, less-mobile posts aren’t what you would call a staple of basketball anymore. But they still have their place. Even a skilled big such as Timme, who can do things around the basket unseen for much of the last two decades, found it tough to maneuver without space.

It wasn’t just Gigiberia and Markovetskyy, of course. The Dons also sagged off selected Zags such as Anton Watson, clogging the paint and making tough for Timme to find space. That’s not an unusual strategy. What was unusual, though, was the two large young men USF was able to utilize off the bench to make it work.

And it did, with Timme hitting just three of his 16 shots and finishing with 11 points. Not a usual stat line for one of the best players in the nation. And one that probably won’t be seen again soon.

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WSU: The Cougars, coming off a loss to Arizona State, are in Tucson, continuing their road trip with a matchup against fifth-ranked Arizona. … There was news made in Pullman yesterday, though Ben Arbuckle’s hiring as offensive coordinator has been reported before. Washington State just made it official. Colton Clark has the details. … Jon Wilner answers a lot of questions about the future in this mailbag. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, there was one men’s contest last night. Host California pounded Stanford 92-70 and has won two consecutive games. … Oregon faces what’s probably a must-win game at Utah if it wants to play in the NCAA tourney. The Ducks have won the last nine games against the Utes. … Oregon State hasn’t been able to put together a 40-minute effort just yet. It will have to if it wants to win at Colorado. … Both UCLA and USC picked up key recruits this week. … In football news, Wilner looks ahead at the future makeup of the schedule, standings and championship game in the Mercury News this morning. … Oregon State picked up a key defensive transfer. … Colorado picked up a kicker.

Gonzaga: The Zags continue their Bay Area trip with a game at Santa Clara tonight. Jim Meehan has a preview of the 7 p.m. contest as well as a look at the key matchup. … Theo Lawson’s job was to look back at the tight win over USF. … The women are at home this afternoon, also facing Santa Clara. Jim Allen has a preview. … Elsewhere in the WCC, the challenge of San Diego on the road faces BYU today.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, a Weber State player has returned to the lineup after surgery. … Northern Colorado is struggling and needs to figure out why.

Whitworth: The Pirate basketball teams hosted Lewis and Clark last night, with the men winning and the women losing.

Preps: The first of the vaunted spirit games happened last night at Mead High. Dave Nichols was at “Catmania” and has this coverage. … Colin Mulvany was also there and has a photo gallery. … Dave returns with a roundup of other action from Friday night.

Chiefs: There was a chance last night for Spokane to pick up a home win, what with Victoria in town. The Royals haven’t had much success this season either. But the Chiefs couldn’t get it done, falling 6-3. Kevin Dudley has the story.

Seahawks: The path to the playoffs is simple. But not all in the Hawks’ hands. They have to win Sunday. And so does Detroit. Either of those not happen and the quest ends. … Tyler Lockett moonlights as a real estate agent. But he couldn’t get Russell Wilson’s listing. … Bobby Wagner’s reception Sunday should be warmer than the one Wilson received. … Sunday is the regular-season finale.

Kraken: Shane Wright will spend the rest of his season in junior hockey.

Sounders: Training camp opens this week. What’s ahead for Seattle?

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• We can predict one thing about this Saturday. We will watch some basketball, some football and probably something on one of the streaming services. Other than that, no promises. Until later …