A Grip on Sports: This time of year makes us a little sad even with all the great sporting events on tap

A GRIP ON SPORTS • What’s it called? Seasonal affective disorder? That’s what Google says. A self-diagnosis done with artificial intelligence’s help hints it may be in play this morning. And it turns out it’s not just the shorter hours of sunlight. Or the dreary weather. For me, there’s a sports component as well.

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• It hit hard this morning. No energy. A tough night of sleep. Trouble concentrating. Shoulders hurting. An idea that nothing is worthwhile, most notably any thoughts shared here. It tracks.

And not even my usual cure, reading stories about baseball’s offseason, college football, hoops, the Seahawks’ playoff chances, none of it, helped shake the feeling it’s time to start spending winters in warmer, sunnier climes.

Like college basketball teams are wont to do.

The Virgin Islands. Bahamas. Puerto Rico. So Cal. Texas. New York City?

OK, that last one is not like the others, but I’ll get to it in a moment. The other spots are all holiday destinations for local college teams, whether it be during Thanksgiving week or in December, before scattering for Christmas.

Talk about a great way to rid oneself of the slip-on-the-morning-ice blues.

It’s nothing new, of course. Though the trend of playing away from home in late November and December has accelerated in a keep-up-with-the-Blue-Bloods type of way. If Duke and North Carolina are doing it, everyone who recruits in the same player pool needs to do it too. Even those who only hope to dip their toes in those waters someday are obligated.

Hence the Washington State men heading to Palm Desert during Turkey Week. Or the Gonzaga women spending the holiday in the Virgin Islands. Stepping off a bus in flip-flops, T-shirt and sunglasses before heading into a practice gym sure seems better than throwing on a third sweater and wool socks after three hours of sweating.

Then again, if the opponent is right and the money righteous, then a mid-December trip to Madison Square Garden isn’t bad either. No. 2 UConn. No. 3 Gonzaga. A men’s showdown in the best Christmas city in the world.

It has to be so. Films as diverse as “The Godfather” to “Big” to that disappointing second “Home Alone” adventure made that clear. And who among us wants to argue with the movies?

• OK, I am feeling a bit better. Thinking of walking around a New York draped in holiday cheer – in mid-December you probably only are the target of two or three obscenities per block – picked me up a little. Then I remembered why Gonzaga is there.

A great nonconference matchup. In a somewhat-neutral site. It’s all the rage in the sport these days.

In that regard, Mark Few’s Zags may have been trend setters. The old Battle in Seattle broke the ice. A go-anywhere, play-anyone nonconference philosophy morphed into a play-anyone-but-not-on-their-campus one. It’s worked for Few and GU. Now, in this name, image and likeness era, it’s becoming the norm.

The Bulldogs are all in. Besides the UConn matchup, they already faced Baylor in the Spokane Memorial Arena and will meet UCLA in the Clippers’ new Intuit Dome. Oh, and Kentucky over in Seattle. Four top-rung nonconference matchups. None on campus. Any campus.

They are not alone, of course. UCLA lost to New Mexico in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. It’s facing Arizona in Phoenix. North Carolina in New York. The Bruin faithful, many of whom remember the days when it was common for teams to use Pauley Pavilion as their winter getaway, have been complaining since the high temperature in Westwood stopped hitting 80.

Though Arizona, which just happens to be joining the Zags in the Bahamas next week, hosts Duke tomorrow night in McKale. The game is such an outlier these days, there have been stories written in Tucson wondering if it is an end of an era. A throwback to a bygone time.

You know, like last week, when the Wildcats traveled to Madison and were run out of the Kohl Center 103-88 in front of 16,838 jumping-around fans.

Hey, that might just explain a lot. Maybe it’s easier to defend at a neutral site. It’s certainly getting easier to defend playing games at them.

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WSU: Speaking of neutral-site games at warm-weather sites, tonight’s matchup between David Riley’s Cougars and Dan Monson’s Eastern Washington Eagles has half of that in play. The game is at the Spokane Arena (6:30, SWX). The warm part? If the game draws near the 10,000 or so the Arena holds for hoop, maybe it will get that way. Loud too. We’ll see. Dan Thompson has a preview of the nonconference matchup that features so many weird connections between the players, the coaches and the fans as to be off-the-charts wonderful. … Then there is the little matter of the football game this weekend. Greg Woods preps us for the Pac-12 showdown – the only one this season – in Corvallis with this story detailing the on-going offensive line fine-tuning. … There is also a preview from Corvallis. … Jon Wilner also has a look at the Beavers in the S-R this morning. … The Times’ Mike Vorel sounds an NIL alarm bell concerning John Mateer. His column ran in the S-R today as well. … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, the Mountain West and the nation, Wilner returns with a column about the CFP committee and how its underseeding BYU. … Has college football lost its way? John Canzano feels that is has. … This is interesting. If there still were just a four-team playoff, the SEC would be in major danger of being outside, looking in. That would have been fun. … Washington has won 20 consecutive home games. And the Huskies have no more left this season, so the streak will run into 2025. … Colorado just has to win three consecutive games to earn a playoff berth. … Arizona State is also in the same boat, as the Big 12 champion is in the CFP.… It will be Senior Day at Utah. It is a time to remember fallen teammates as well. … Running backs seem to be centerstage for the USC/ UCLA rivalry showdown Saturday night at the Rose Bowl. … Arizona is trying to finish on a high note. … In the Mountain West, Utah State’s former football coach Blake Anderson has sued the school for $15 million for his firing. … Colorado State has been on a heck of a winning streak. … Former Ram coach Jim McElwain, who played at Eastern Washington, has retired from coaching. … Air Force has a receiver who also is willing to throw the ball. … Hawaii might go with a freshman quarterback this week. … Where is Wyoming football headed? … One Boise State player is putting his teammates first. … The debacle that is the San Jose State women’s volleyball team’s season continues. A recent loss has put the team back in the spotlight, which includes the glare of a high-profile lawsuit. … In basketball news, Wilner has his Best of the West rankings for men and women. … The record for career basketball wins has left Stanford and now resides in Storrs, Conn. Geno Auriemma passed Tara Vanderveer last night. … Tonight’s visit to Corvallis by undefeated Oregon is big for the OSU men. … The Oregon women stayed undefeated by winning a foul-plagued home game against Auburn behind Phillipina Kyei’s double-double.

Gonzaga: The Zags’ in-McCarthey schedule continued Wednesday night, with another let’s-see-how-many-points-the-Bulldogs-can-score matchup. The answer was 84. Long Beach State had 41. The place started to empty long before the final buzzer. Jim Meehan had the coverage duties, putting together the game story and working with the folks in the office for the recap with highlights. … Theo Lawson has a buzzer-beating summary and a view of the Zags from the Long Beach perspective. … Colin Mulvany has the photo gallery. … Former Gonzaga pitcher Eli Morgan is on the move, traded by Cleveland to the Cubs. … Speaking of former GU players, Courtney Vandersloot and former Central Valley High star Lexie Hull will not be going overseas this winter. They are part of the new Unrivaled 3x3 league in the States. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s men are still undefeated. … Pepperdine lost at UNLV.

EWU: Dan Thompson returns with a preview of the Big Sky’s football weekend, the last of the regular season. He looks at Eastern’s game at Northern Arizona as well as all the possible playoff-impacting rivalry matchups. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, from offensive line to medical school? It seems about right. … A Bozeman High product has spent six years playing for Montana State. … In basketball news, Montana State on Tuesday night came within three points of winning on the road against Big Ten member Northwestern. … Finally, Weber State is looking for a new soccer coach.

Preps: The large school volleyball state tournaments are in Yakima this week and Madison McCord has you covered with this preview, focusing on Mt. Spokane’s 3A hopes. … A former St. George’s standout has helped an Eastern school reach the NCAA soccer tournament. That news leads of the S-R’s latest local briefs column.

Mariners: Justin Turner coming back? We will see. … Ichiro’s status as a Hall of Fame player seems to be all the rage these days. … If it isn’t the unfolding free agent market. … Tarik Skubal, who pitched at Seattle U., won the American League Cy Young Award. For Detroit.

Seahawks: The stretch run is all that matters for the Hawks this season. They have won too often to get a high draft pick, so they might as well win the NFC West and make the playoffs. In a break from the past, this week’s game at home against Arizona is getting special emphasis from Mike MacDonald. … The weather disrupted the Hawks’ prep yesterday but not to a great degree. … Is Abe Lucas’ health a key component in Seattle’s success?

Kraken: Another win last night – over Nashville – capped an impressive 5-1 homestand.

Sounders: The storm and its impact on the area caused few issues with Seattle’s training.

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• Though I tried to take a light-hearted tone about the seasonal dip I’ve dealt with often since retirement, I have felt its grip recently. I use different strategies for keeping it subdued but occasionally it peeks out. It doesn’t help I somehow hurt my right heel recently – more and more such unexplainable issues pop up and for the life of me I can’t remember how such things happened – and that’s limited my exercise, one of my best ways to lift my spirits. Another way? Just doing this. Writing. Being honest. Thanks for being there for me. Until later …