A Grip on Sports: There is little guaranteed in the sports world, not even when teams like Gonzaga seem to reach a certain point year-after-year

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There are few sure things in life. One of them is in the Spokane forecast today. Snow. Enough of it to make skiers smile and the rest of us frown. Even the phone’s weather app lists the probability of the white stuff today at 100%, a rare occurrence. But you want to know what’s not guaranteed?

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• If you’ve read this far, my teaser worked. Got you wondering what’s not guaranteed.

What popped into your head? Your new snowblower, the electric model that quit working seven minutes into its first pass at today’s mid-February dump? Probably not, because if that’s not guaranteed, it’s time to find a different place to shop.

How about the unrelenting love of your cat? Stop laughing. When it’s as cold as it has been around here, even the cat seems attached to our presence. That’s either love or the knowledge it’s a lot warmer sitting in your lap than on the bed.

Walking into the supermarket and seeing egg prices have risen again? A losing lottery ticket? The neighbor’s kid crying every time dad takes him to daycare?

None of those comes with a guarantee, do they? Heck, you might actually have won a thousand bucks with that Lotto ticket you bought walking out of Winco yesterday. You’ll probably need it next time eggs show up on your shopping list.

But we digress. Again. We were talking about non-existent guarantees.

Want to know one that seemed etched in stone but might melt away come spring this year? OK.

The Zag men and their streak of nine consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances.

It may seem strange to wonder about such a happenstance the morning after their best offensive performance of the season but here we are. Mr. Negative. Though that moniker really doesn’t apply.

Mark Few’s team is playing better. The Zags have won six of their last seven games. Even their loss, the 62-58 decision at Saint Mary’s to start this month, featured a more-connected, better effort – especially on the defensive end.

If such attributes continue from now to Selection Sunday, not only will Gonzaga have another four or five wins to add to its 20-7 record, it will be assured of its 26th consecutive tourney appearance.

We can guarantee that. But, thanks to this team’s early season struggles finishing tight games against better competition – a pattern that continued in Moraga – the Bulldogs’ hopes of playing the second NCAA weekend once more is markedly tougher.

Say Few’s group wins its final six games: at Washington State, Saint Mary’s in the Kennel, at Santa Clara, against USF in the Chase Center, a WCC semifinal and the seemingly guaranteed final matchup with the Gaels.

If all that happens, and it’s no sure thing, the Zags should have a NET resume that includes a 5-5 Quad 1 record, a 5-2 Quad 2 mark and no bad losses. But will that be enough to lift them from the purgatory that is the 6-11 seeding lines?

Nope, not guaranteed.

None of the more-respected bracket guessers see it as a foregone conclusion. And though they are not perfect, they have a good handle on the committee’s final decisions. The Bulldogs currently reside in the muddy middle, with ESPN’s Joe Lunardi assigning them an eight seed and Jerry Palm on CBS and Joe Rexrode in The Athletic both assigning them a nine.

Of course, six wins – which would build a 12-of-13 finish – would boost their resume and their seeding. But how much higher? They are already 10th in the NET ratings this morning. They are also in the top 20 in all the major analytical rankings that help the committee make decisions. And they are still a mid-range seed. Even a perfect finish – certainly not guaranteed – can’t get them into the top 16 seeds. After all, Saturday’s first reveal of the committee’s thinking seemed to guarantee all those spots to Power Four schools.

Say the Zags win out. Earn a sixth seed, which would be a decent jump. Win the opening round against an 11, which has a 50/50 shot of being a play-in-game winner. Then what?

A battle with a third seed, probably near to the school’s home base. Iowa State, Kentucky, Wisconsin or Texas Tech, if the committee’s first reveal plays out. Maybe in Milwaukee or Lexington or Wichita.

The Zags have done such things before. Though it’s been a while. The last time they had to top a three-or-better seed to advance to the second weekend was 2016. The also coincides with the last time they were a double-digit seed. The 26-7 Bulldogs, seeded 11th, rolled sixth-seeded Seton Hall in the opener then cruised past third-seeded Utah by 23.

Can they do it? If they share the ball as they did last night in the 107-55 destruction of the visiting Waves – the Zags set a school record with 33 assists – and defend as they’ve done since the 103-99 home loss to Santa Clara, sure.

But unlike today’s snowy forecast, there is no guarantee.

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WSU: The Cougars had a chance to make a statement Saturday night. Playing West Coast Conference-leading Saint Mary’s on the road. The first half showed potential, as the Cougs were within four heading into the locker room. The final? Gaels 77, Cougars 21 points less than that. Greg Woods watched and has this game story. … The Wazzu women had a golden opportunity as well, though, like the men, it came on the road. And they couldn’t get it done, either, mainly because a local woman, Portland’s Maisie Burnham, who played her high school basketball just down the road from The Harvester restaurant in Spangle, scored a career-high 31 points, including 12 in the final quarter, as the second-place Pilots won 84-79. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, we don’t want to move on without sharing the result of Saturday’s Nos. 1 vs. 2 matchup at Alabama. Auburn won 94-85. … UConn suffered one of the worst losses ever for a defending national champion, let alone a two-time one. The Huskies fell at 7-18 Seton Hall 69-68 in overtime. … Washington’s men have one remaining goal this Big Ten regular season. Win enough to make the conference’s tournament, open to the top 15 teams. They took a big step last night, winning 75-73 at Penn State. The Huskies are tied with Northwestern for 16th in the standings. … Oregon State showed once again it is hard to beat at home, handling Pacific in Corvallis. Now all the Beavers, 1-6 in other teams’ buildings, need to do is win on the road, as their final four regular season games are there. … Saturday was a great night for the former Pac-12 mountain schools. It started with Utah shooting down No. 17 Kansas in Salt Lake City. And continued with Colorado picking up its first Big 12 win of the season, getting past UCF. … Not such fun results in Arizona. The 13th-ranked Wildcats went toe-to-toe with No. 6 Houston, but Kelvin Sampson’s team gave him something he’s never had before: A win in Tucson. … Arizona State also suffered another defeat, falling to TCU at home. … The worst loss for former Pac-12 schools? Let’s give the nod to USC, which led by double digits against visiting Minnesota and saw it all slip away in the second half. … Boise State and San Diego State may share some similarities, but the Aztecs have been playing rough and tumble for years. And they were at home last night, where they manhandled the Broncos. … Speaking of dominating, Colorado State did that to Wyoming. … First place in the Mountain West standings is on the line today at the Pit. Second-place Utah State (12-2) faces New Mexico (13-1). … In football news, Washington hired a linebackers coach. … Oregon State filled an opening, hiring a familiar face as offensive line coach. … Oregon is taking a new receivers coach from Syracuse. 

Gonzaga: We mentioned above most of the salient points from last night’s Kennel blowout, so we won’t go into them again. We’ll just point you toward Jim Meehan’s game story and his work with the office folks on the recap with highlights. … Theo Lawson caught up with one fan in the stands last night for his thoughts. Why? That fan just happened to be Anton Watson, as the G League is off during the NBA All-Star weekend. … Theo also has the buzzer beater notebook. … Tyler Tjomsland has the photo gallery from McCarthey. … Earlier in the day, the women held court, hosting Loyola Marymount on a deeply personal cancer awareness day. Greg Lee has this game story covering their 69-57 win. Gonzaga wore down the Lions and their nearly non-existent bench. … Elsewhere in the WCC, USF bounced back from its loss at Gonzaga on Thursday by swamping USD 84-61.

EWU and Idaho: We spent some time yesterday in front of the TV set. (Way-too-much time, actually.) We watched much of the first half of the men’s game from Cheney, in which the Eagles came back from a 14-point deficit to top Idaho 75-73. Dan Thompson was there and has this game story. … We can also pass along this photo gallery from James Snook and another one from the earlier game, which the Eagle women won. Dan has a story on that as well. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the men’s regular season title now runs through Missoula where Montana rallied to top Weber State 65-58 last night. … Northern Colorado dropped its share of first by losing 82-71 at Portland State. … Montana State kept its late-season surge going with a 74-69 win over visiting Idaho State. … The Montana State women have won 17 consecutive games after Saturday’s 74-60 road win over Idaho State. … Weber State is not that hot but it won its seventh conference game, holding off visiting Montana. … In football news, Jason Eck professed his love for Idaho, but it was just another pit stop on his rise up the coaching ladder.

Whitworth: Want a guarantee? Or something akin to it? The Pirate men will win the Northwest Conference’s regular season title. Their 92-87 Fieldhouse victory last night gave them that distinction once again.

Preps: It was an interesting day in the District 6 basketball playoffs. At all levels. Dave Nichols traveled around and covered games at Central Valley, where the Bears swept, and at Gonzaga Prep, where the Bullpup boys won. The latter story also serves as a roundup of the 4A/3A games. … He has a roundup of the games featuring the smaller schools. … There was also 2A wrestling District action, with Madison McCord at East Valley for this story.

Chiefs: Spokane came home not happy after Friday’s loss in the Tri-Cities. They quickly avenged the defeat with a 6-3 win over the Americans at the Arena last night. Dave has the story.  

Mariners: Big news for the M’s bullpen. Matt Brash is progressing back from his arm injury at the expected pace. … As we linked yesterday, Bryce Miller knows he has to keep evolving on the mound if he wants to survive. The story is on the S-R site today.

Seahawks: Just who might the Hawks take in the first round of the draft? Bob Condotta has a few possibilities to share.

Kraken: We spent the dinner hour focused on hockey. The U.S. vs. Canada. The Four Nations Face-Off. It was fun. Multiple sets of gloves on the ice even before the action really began. Great play. The U.S. won 3-1, assuring itself a spot in the Boston-based finals. Canada has to defeat Finland to join them.

Sounders: Seattle made a trade Saturday, sending Josh Atencio to Colorado.

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• We can guarantee this: No matter how early we rise on Sundays, we read way too many stories and have to do way too much research to make it easy to hit deadline. Happened again today. Until later …