A Grip on Sports: There are still stories to be written about this college basketball season but the ones already finished are special too

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We have a column to write today. No, not this one. We have that to write every day. Every morning. It’s fine. We’ll get it done. No, we have another. We’ve done the legwork. Now we have to do the finger work. Type. You know, the hard part. Which parallels the recent basketball paths for our local college teams.

•••••••

• Those two fingers we referred to in the above paragraph? They’ve typed something in this space a few times recently. And we stand by it. The arc of a college basketball season has changed drastically in the past few years. The portal, and its impact, positive or negative, has altered it. No longer is it about recruiting high school players, maturing them in your system and, oftentimes, letting them loose on an unsuspecting hoops world in October.

You know, how Gonzaga’s men have did it for two decades.

Now it’s about rebuilding a roster every year. Putting together a puzzle from a picture only the program itself can see with disparate pieces drawn from boxes near and far.

It can take time, even if a season contains a finite amount of that commodity.

Which is why we believe the NCAA Tournament selection committee needs to revamp its seeding formula. Again. Go back to when the group put added emphasis on the final stretches. When teams either are coming together or falling apart.

Even with that, we don’t think there is a perfect way to seed teams. Better, sure. Not perfect. Just like we don’t believe there is a perfect path to helping a team gel. It’s a personal preference.

Gonzaga’s and WSU’s men took different paths this season. Reached similar places.

The Bulldogs did what they always do, schedule tough in the nonconference, accept the results as part of a build for March, and then use the WCC schedule as the fine-tuning piece. Oh, and this year at least, throw in a late cross-country trip to see how it was all coming together.

The Cougars, with even more new-to-campus athletes, built confidence and continuity through a nonconference schedule that wasn’t among the nation’s best – it was rated 316th out of 362 by Ken Pomeroy – and then trusted the Pac-12 slate would help them slide into the tournament. It worked.

No right or wrong here. Just a decision based on personal preference and experience.

Washington State’s story was exceptional. As was its success this season. That it ended Saturday in Omaha against one of the nation’s top eight teams by just about any measure, is nothing to lament. Well, OK, anytime a great season ends – and WSU’s 25-10 year earned that moniker – there is mourning. But celebration is the appropriate action. As soon as the hurt fades.

Gonzaga’s story is still being written. This group may not be the most talented of Mark Few’s 25-season run but it has reached heights others might not have. Things it has maximized down the stretch: potential, offensive artistry, defensive continuity and fan surprise. None of which is cheap. All came through hard work. Unseen hard work. Saturday’s second half against Kansas was as good as it gets on an NCAA court. As good as it has been ever in these parts, relative to expectations anytime in the past six months. That’s not something our two fingers expected to be pounding out even as recently as February.

• That the GU women are a round behind in their NCAA journey doesn’t make anything that happened Saturday in the Kennel any less valuable. The place was electric. The start was not. But, as personified by the men’s season, that’s not as important as the finish. In that regard, yesterday’s game was exactly what 90% of those in McCarthey – all of them wearing red shirts of some sort – wanted. A 75-56 victory. A Monday night meeting with fifth-seeded Utah, one of six Pac-12 schools still playing. A Sweet Sixteen berth on the line.

And the subject of that other column we have to write today before we can say our work is finished. Or is just beginning? We’ll find out.

•••

WSU: We start with Dave Boling’s assessment of not only the 67-56 defeat but what the season meant to Kyle Smith and the Cougars. It’s accurate but comes with a huge caveat. Smith’s future. If it’s in Pullman, the anecdote Boling shares at the end of the column is endearing and illuminative. If it isn’t, well, it isn’t. The next few days and weeks will including a lot of pins and needles for the Coug faithful. … Greg Woods’ game story from Omaha – is it possible to say that city’s name anymore without thinking of Peyton Manning? Asking for a friend – covers some of the same ground but focus more on the on-court action. As does Greg’s difference makers. … His future piece? It has to do with Jaylen Wells, who emerged as a star. … The Cougars’ success, and that of their Pac-12 brethren, will enrich the banks in Pullman and Corvallis for the next few years. Jon Wilner delves into that a bit. … The folks in the office put together a recap with highlights from the game. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, Saturday’s games gave us few upsets but some interesting results. … One conference schools earned a Sweet Sixteen berth Saturday. Yep, it was sixth-ranked Arizona. The Wildcats took care of business and Dayton, 78-68. They’ll face today’s winner between Baylor and Clemson in Los Angeles next weekend. … Oregon had many opportunities to join them in the Sweet Sixteen. But despite two players combining for 60 points, late mistakes on the court and on the bench cost the Ducks against Creighton. Eventually, Oregon fell 86-73 in double overtime. … Colorado is the Pac-12’s other hope, with the Buffs meeting Marquette today. … Utah is still playing, albeit in the NIT. … The two Los Angeles schools began their journeys in the NCAA women’s tourney, with UCLA taking the court without its best big, Lauren Betts. The Bruins still got past Cal Baptist. … JuJu Watkins set another record as she led USC past Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a rout that had a sweet ending. … Arizona and Syracuse came down to the wire with the short-handed Wildcats running out of gas. Their season is over. … The Stanford women face a road block today in their quest for another Sweet Sixteen appearance. … Nebraska stands in the way of Oregon State reaching the same level. … Colorado and Kansas State have similar resumes. … In football news, we pass along only this spring preview of Arizona’s defense.

Gonzaga: It’s not all that often we’ve seen folks as happy about winning a trip to Detroit as we witnessed Saturday. Just kidding. We remember the Seahawks and the Super Bowl there. Next weekend’s Sweet Sixteen games in Motown won’t hold that level of historical significance, in part because GU is headed to its ninth consecutive second weekend. That’s hard to fathom. As is where the Zags have come from this season. Theo Lawson has the game story as they undressed the Jayhawks in the second half. … He teams with Jim Meehan on this notebook. … Jim takes care of the difference makers and giving us the update on Ben Gregg’s beat-up body.  … He also has this story on the relationship between Kansas and GU. … Tyler Tjomsland passes along the visual story from Salt Lake City. … The folks in the office have another recap with highlights. … Now over to the Kennel. Greg Lee did yeoman’s work while his tag team partner puttered along. Greg has the game story, a notebook that includes roster news and the difference makers. … We wrote a column. … Colin Mulvany put together a photo gallery of a couple dozen images. … Monday’s opponent will be Utah, which broke out fast last night then almost gave back all of its lead to South Dakota State before reasserting itself after halftime. … As is always the case, the farther GU advances, the more the Zags’ story becomes national news. The best of them? This Chuck Culpepper story in the Washington Post. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s is still trying to figure out what went wrong against Grand Canyon.

NCAA games at the Arena: Speaking of the Antelopes, their fans are driving the bus according to this story from Liam Bradford. They’ll be needed even more as the team has an even tougher matchup today, fourth-seeded Alabama. That, and the day’s other game pitting Yale and five seed San Diego State, are covered in this roundup.

Idaho: Hey, we mentioned Yale above. And we mention the school again here. Mainly because the band’s endowment must not hold the GDP of some countries, as the rest of the school seems to have. The group isn’t in Spokane. But there is a fill-in squad from Moscow, as Garrett Cabeza tells us.

Preps: This is not the usual high school story we highlight in this space. It’s a life-or-death one, with the emphasis on the life part. CPR. It’s a good skill to have. Elena Perry has this story on how members of Lewis and Clark’s track team helped coach Mike Hadway survive a heart attack.

Velocity: Spokane picked up a 1-0 victory Saturday at ONE Spokane Stadium.

Mariners: The future was on display yesterday. … The present? It looked good as well. … It’s not often there are doubleheaders to attend anymore. Even if this one consisted of two different sports.

Sounders: Soccer in Seattle is pretty poor these days. The Sounders are awful, as Saturday’s 3-2 loss will attest. Actually, the standings do a better job. They’re last.

Reign: The road wasn’t kind to the Reign either. They lost too.

•••       

• We’re done with this Sunday task. Now it’s time for reflection and rebooting. Breakfast too. Then off to the next chore. And the next. Isn’t life grand? Until later …