A Grip on Sports: Despite a few turkeys, this really is a feast of a week for sports fans with time to spare

A GRIP ON SPORTS • ESPN calls it Feast Week, in a nod to the glutton of Thursday’s holiday that kicks off a season of them. In a sports-TV-watching sense, the conglomerate’s marketing department is right. From here until Cyber Monday, there is too much, too often, to digest it all. Hooray.  

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• It’s already begun, of course, because, you know, America. Anything worth doing is worth doing way too often. Just about every moment of Monday, a work day for almost everyone, was filled with some sort of fresh sporting event to pore over.

The Harbaugh Bowl – won by the elder, John, once again. College basketball from far – and farther – warm-weather locations. Polls. Court rulings. Shopping. Wait, that last one isn’t a competitive sport is it? If it is in your household, sorry. And somewhere in Connecticut, there is a young, up-and-coming executive trying to figure out a way to televise it on the Ocho come Friday morning.

But I digress, again. Let’s forget about Monday. The upsets. The profanities. The reported slurs. That’s enough about Connecticut men’s basketball. Moving on. Checking out what’s ahead.

About 20 college basketball games on the major sports networks, today alone. Almost all with some sort of tournament name. A couple of NBA games, part of a made-for-more-money in-season tournament, on colorful courts. A college football game. All of that on a Tuesday? Yep. And more.

The penultimate preliminary College Football Playoff reveal at 5 on ESPN. The second-to-last fake one before the real deal on Dec. 9.

Who knew a Tuesday could be so packed with excitement – and pressure? Besides that overworked kid at your local Taco Bell, of course.

The rest of the week looks to be similar, with the NFL chiming in on Thursday – Lions and Bears on the holiday? Yes, please, from here to eternity – and, in a blatant attack at the college game, Friday as well. Thankfully, the league is only offering leftovers – the awful Raiders at the Chiefs – not a main course on the nation’s top shopping day.

Sadly, so is college football. Remember the good old days when we all could complain because the Apple Cup was once again a Black Friday event? Those days are gone, just like the conference that held the two rivals.

Instead, there is a collection of bargain-basement games. Stanford at San Jose State? Utah at UCF? Oklahoma State at Colorado? Oregon State at Boise State? Heck, those last two kick at 9 a.m. on the West Coast. Even Larry Scott wouldn’t have allowed that.

Maybe that’s why he’s no longer working. Or maybe it’s the millions of dollars our regional educational institutions paid him to destroy a century-old conference. Sorry, once again I digress. Whine too. Where the heck is the Abe Simpson cloud meme when you need it?

The college basketball schedule is exciting. Or it could be. Just think, if the basketball gods have a sense of humor, folks in Spokane will be treated to a matchup between Gonzaga and Arizona on Friday at 2:30 p.m. For the coveted Battle 4 Atlantis trophy – if there is one. Mentor Mark Few vs. mentee Tommy Lloyd. Two West Coast blue-blood – 21st Century style – programs. A game neither coach would schedule if they could but might be inevitable considering the tournament’s bracket.

Before that, however, both teams have two games to win.

And we all other games to watch, including Washington State’s warm-weather tournament. In Palm Desert, east of the eastern part of the L.A. basin. For some ungodly reason tonight’s game with Fresno State is scheduled to tip at 9 p.m. On truTV, a channel usually reserved for March’s madness and impractical jokes.

I may, or may not, be asleep by then, worn out by today’s other games. They include a TBS matchup between No. 6 Houston and No. 9 Alabama from Madison Square Garden. Talk about non-stop, and high-flying, action. It even may be better than No. 1 Kansas and No. 11 Duke’s 6 p.m. game from Las Vegas. Or all the delectable matchups continuing in Maui.

The ESPN marketing folks got it right. Feast week. It fits.

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WSU: The Cougars contribution to our menu? A Saturday afternoon matchup with Wyoming. The regular-season finale. Senior Day. The last time to see John Mateer on Gesa Field? Maybe. Who knows? What we do know is the game kicks at 3:30 p.m., Washington State is favored by 17.5 points and Wyoming is 2-9. Greg Woods has all that and more in his first look. … The Cowboys may be without their starting quarterback. … More importantly, maybe, is what Greg has in his notebook, written after Jake Dickert held his usual Monday media event. The key piece of news? Dickert’s staff is not changing this week. Which doesn’t come as a surprise considering Dickert’s personality. And loyalty. … One Cougar basketball player has a piece of hardware to hang in his Pullman apartment. Cedric Coward was named the WCC’s player of the week. Greg has more on that as well. … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, the Mountain West and the nation, in the least-surprising news of the day, Jon Wilner reports the Mountain West asked the judge to dismiss the Pac-12’s poaching-penalty lawsuit. … Wilner also has a guess about tonight’s CFP rankings in the Mercury News. … John Canzano answered questions yesterday. … So did Washington coach Jedd Fisch, though not the ones about who will start at quarterback against Oregon. … The rivalry game in Eugene on Saturday may get lost in the jetsam of the week, but it won’t be overlooked here. We have stories to pass along, lots of stories, including snap counts and coaches’ comments. … Oregon State has little time to prepare for Friday’s early kickoff at Boise State. … Deion Sanders actually likes the idea of a short week for his Colorado team. … What is in store for Utah in the future? There are clues that may help us figure it out. … UCLA coach DeShaun Foster is still fuming over three penalties assessed on his team at halftime. … If Arizona State wins the Territorial Cup in Tucson on Saturday it will be headed to the Big 12 title game. Except for one unlikely confluence of results. But Arizona would like nothing better than to derail the Sun Devils’ comeback season. … In the Mountain West, Utah State is recruiting differently. … The new Hawaii athletic director will face many challenges. … New Mexico has hired its new one. And the Lobos face Hawaii in football this week. … San Diego State has turned the page. … Air Force still uses a fullback. … The San Jose State volleyball brouhaha continued in the courts Monday, as a federal judge in Colorado declined to grant an injunction that would have changed the upcoming Mountain West Conference tournament. … In basketball news, after an awful first half, the Oregon State women played better but still lost to No. 2 Connecticut. … Washington came close to upsetting No. 7 LSU but fell by a point. … No. 21 Oregon did lose, ending the Ducks’ undefeated start. … UCLA is still undefeated and reached the top of the A.P. poll for the first time. … The Oregon men have yet to lose. … Oregon State fell on a late 3-pointer.

Gonzaga: Today’s best feature story? We’ll give the award to Jim Meehan’s piece on GU point guard Ryan Nembhard. Jim delves into his development, the influence of his dad Claude and his older brother Andrew and just how successful the second Nembhard son has been in his stint at Gonzaga. There are a lot of similarities between the brothers, sure, but there is one big difference. Andrew is listed at 6-foot-4, Ryan at 6-foot. And the younger brother seems even smaller than that. And slighter than one might expect from the most-efficient point guard in the nation. … Nembhard’s Zags remained third in the nation in the latest A.P. rankings. Jim has that story as well. … Theo Lawson previews the Battle 4 Atlantis lineup with an assist from former WSU coach Kyle Smith. … Theo also has recruiting news, as former Florida State guard Jalen Whatley, who made a brief stop at Virginia before leaving after Tony Bennett retired, has decided to become a Bulldog. … Jim and TV analyst and former GU big man Richard Fox have another edition of the Zag Basketball Insiders Podcast. You can listen here if you want. … Elsewhere in the WCC, the USF men led Clemson at halftime. And lost by a lot.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, a position change has made all the difference for a Montana offensive lineman. … An injury kept an Idaho State player out of his final college game. … UC Davis appreciates the bye. And the home playoff game. … In basketball news, the Montana men picked up a win. … So did Idaho State. … And Weber State.

Golf: Tiger Woods is not healthy enough to play in his own tournament next month. That’s too bad.

Seahawks: The Hawks’ greatest asset this season? The ability to adjust. … It’s helped them start playing playoff-level defense. And a reinforcement will be around soon. … Geno Smith is the quarterback. End of story.

Mariners: I linked this Times story on the second base situation a while back. It ran in the S-R today. … The Mariners are hiring a new hitting coach. But Edgar Martinez is sticking around in another, yet-to-be-defined role.

Kraken: The road losing streak is over. Seattle went into Anaheim, stayed aggressive and picked up a 3-2 win over the Ducks.

Sounders: The L.A. Galaxy seems to be playing well. So is Seattle. Fun.

Reign: USWNT goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher is calling it quits. At least internationally. Her generation of USWNT stars is fading away.

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• This is a family-first week, right? Especially if you consider guys like Dave Pasch and Jay Bilas and the rest of the ESPN basketball team part of the family. Until later …