A Grip on Sports: There is a lot to experience today if we are willing to put down our phones

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The amount of personal electronics people use these days is astounding. Everywhere. We include ourselves in this, as we realized Saturday we watch our phone at games almost as much as the action unfolding in front of us.

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• There was a sports photo that made the rounds recently. It was of LeBron James scoring the bucket that took him past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and atop the NBA’s career scoring list. But it wasn’t the shot that caught everyone’s eye. It was the crowd.

All but one person in the frame was documenting it themselves with their phone. Taking a picture to remember. Not watching, focusing or savoring. Snapping a shot. Or video. Everyone. Well, everyone except Phil Knight, who sat in the front row – of course – just taking it all in. We’re guessing he had 17 people assigned to shoot photos from him. Or maybe he had one installed in LeBron’s shoe, that would give Mr. Nike an NFT no one else could ever own.

As we stood in line last night to enter the Orleans Arena with hundreds of BYU fans, we realized we weren’t the only one there with an extra phone battery in our clear plastic bag. Heck, the young lady next to us had a battery pack on her belt, with her phone and some other device connected to it. No way she was going to miss out on the action. From where ever.

If you’ve attended a basketball game live in the past decade, you realize the time outs are interminably long. And drain your phone battery. There is no way you can just sit there, bombarded by music and someone telling you how to have fun. It’s easier to peruse Twitter for high school basketball highlights or tap into ESPN for scores.

More productive too.

• When we planned out this trip to Las Vegas, Sunday was reserved for a couple non-basketball related items.

But our plans may have changed. We’re still trying to determine if we can squeeze in a trip to the Michelob Ultra Arena this afternoon to take in Washington State’s historic Pac-12 tournament championship game. Not time wise. Into the budget.

Hey, we live on a fixed income. Every penny has to be accounted for, even when a once-in-a-lifetime event happens.

It is on ESPN2 for free, right?

Between you and the bots listening in on our iPhone, the guess here is we will breakdown, spend the anywhere from $19 to $47 per ticket – yep, that’s what our online research shows – and make our way into the event. We just won’t eat in April.

• The Cougars’ run to the women’s Pac-12 title game is unprecedented for the school. There has been little in the way of basketball success in Pullman over the years, no matter the gender. But the women’s program has languished in mediocrity, for the most part, since the beginning. That’s changing under Kamie Ethridge.

Since the former Texas star became head coach five years ago, she’s built it into one no one in the conference wants to face. In a year of firsts, the Cougars have ticked just about everything off their bucket list – except, maybe, their first win ever over Stanford.

UCLA denied them that chance today by upsetting the Cardinal in the other semifinal Friday. But, after winning for the first time ever in Pauley Pavilion this season, Washington State knows it can win today. And take home the school’s first-ever Pac-12 tournament title.

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WSU: Colton Clark gets you ready for today’s game, going in-depth in this preview of the UCLA matchup. … Daiyan Henley’s trip to the NFL draft combine seems to have turned out to be productive, at least through the measurable results. Colton looks at those and other things in this story about Henley’s week. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, the regular season ended last night. Jon Wilner looks at the tournament matchups in the upcoming week. Washington State opens against California. … The Bears led Oregon State much of the game Saturday but, true to form, they succumbed to the Beavers’ rally, 69-66. … Oregon earned the final bye with a 73-68 win over Stanford. … Colorado handed Utah its fifth consecutive loss, winning 69-60, but also learned star point guard KJ Simpson would be unavailable for the tournament due to mono. … UCLA defeated Arizona 82-73 but the Bruins may have lost defensive star Jaylen Clark to an ankle injury for a while. He was on crutches after leaving the court. … The Wildcats have limped home a bit. … USC, beat up as well, edged visiting Arizona State 68-65. The Sun Devils will open the tournament with Oregon State. … In football news, Oregon’s Alex Forsyth should go early in the draft. … Spring football is about to begin for USC.

Gonzaga: It’s too bad BYU’s presence in the West Coast Conference tournament means the event takes Sunday off. After all, the Zags’ opponent in Monday’s semifinal, USF, had to go double overtime last night to get past Santa Clara 93-87. Dead legs and all that. But by the time Wooden Award candidate Drew Timme and the Bulldogs take the court late Monday, the Dons should be rested. Theo Lawson has the award story and Jim Meehan delves into the senior center’s well-rounded game. … How will the Zags look Monday? Dave Boling delves into that with this column in today’s S-R. … Former GU player Brandon Clarke will miss the rest of the NBA season after tearing his Achilles tendon. Theo has more in this story. … Speaking of NBA Zags, Zach Collins has blossomed in San Antonio. … The women are also teeing it up for the first time in the WCC tourney Monday, facing BYU in their noon semifinal. Jim Allen, who is the local expert on the team, takes a look back at a painful – in a physical way – season for GU, despite the Bulldogs’ 27-3 record. … We also have a contribution, a bit more personal look at those folks who have helped make the women’s program stand out in a crowded field of college basketball premier programs. … Elsewhere in the WCC, BYU will face off with Saint Mary’s one last time after the Cougars shot down Loyola Marymount 73-63. … The BYU women received 27 rebounds – we still think she had 28 – from Lauren Gustin to get past San Francisco 66-56. … Pacific defeated San Diego 71-57 and will play Portland.

EWU: The Big Sky tournament is underway (see below), but Eastern doesn’t play until tonight, when it faces Northern Arizona. Dan Thompson looks at the how the Eagles’ roster was constructed in this tournament preview. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana hopes to get on an era-defining run in the tournament. … Montana State will ride its seniors. … Northern Colorado defeated Portland State 84-80 to get started Saturday. … The Montana State women are one of the favorites. So is Northern Arizona. … Portland State handed short-handed Idaho State a 73-58 loss. … Weber State lost to Northern Colorado 63-52.

Idaho: The Vandals played their one and only game under interim coach Tim Marrion, one of the good guys in college hoops. They lost, 87-76 in the Big Sky tournament opener against Northern Arizona. John Blanchette covers that result and more in this story.

Preps: The high school basketball season is over in our area. It finished yesterday in Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane. As well as in Boise, for Idaho’s boys, where Lake City won its first 5A title and finished an undefeated season. … Dave Nichols covers the 3A/4A boys and girls action as the Spokane schools all won. … We can also pass along a 2A/1A roundup from Yakima. … In Spokane, Dan Thompson has coverage of the girls 2B and 1B title games. … Keenan Gray has the boys’ games from the 2B and 1B ranks. … There is also a roundup of the rest of the B action.

Chiefs: Spokane won one of its three games in Canada, topping Prince George 5-4 in overtime Saturday.

Mariners: A majority of the M’s starting pitchers are trying new pitches this spring. … It didn’t help George Kirby as he was roughed up in a Seattle loss.

Seahawks: The draft might include another Stanford receiver and a player who thinks Kam Chancellor is the best. … Seattle is reportedly hiring a new assistant.

Kraken: Every NHL team has its own dentist. Probably.

Sounders: Real Salt Lake wasn’t tough Saturday. Not after Jordan Morris got Seattle going with a header. The Sounders breezed to a 2-0 MLS victory.

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• We have days like this. When there are so many stories to link our computer struggles. But we got through it. Hope you have time to read everything. It means your Sunday isn’t filled with a to-do list. Until later …