A Grip on Sports: So many times over the years, big news events have featured a local connection, with the next major one possibly beginning its run today
A GRIP ON SPORTS • My favorite season is really here. No, not spring, but that’s my favorite calendar season, just edging summer. Talking about NCAA tourney season. One and done. For everyone. Except one. Who will that be? A school with a deep connection to this region. Of course.
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• It’s time for the Spokane Vortex to suck in another unsuspecting victim. Or would be except Kelvin Sampson isn’t a victim in any way, not even of the NCAA’s former all-powerful enforcement arm.
Sampson is a survivor. And his team, the Houston Cougars, will finally survive the mess that is the best tournament America has to offer.
Book it. I did. Picked the Coogs, as they refer to themselves, in two brackets. Which means, yes, I don’t have the local favorite getting to the Sweet Sixteen again, ending Gonzaga’s nine-year streak.
But Sampson was, long ago, a local favorite too. When he coached in Pullman. More than three decades ago.
When then-Washington State athletic director Dick Young promoted the then-31-year-old Sampson to replace Len Stevens as the Cougars’ head coach, he knew he was getting another apple from the Jud Heathcote tree. But Young may not have known just how well it would work out.
After all, after spending a year as a graduate assistant at Michigan State, Sampson’s only other coaching experience before Pullman was at Montana Tech, not exactly the cradle of coaches. Then again, Sampson won 20-or-more games for three consecutive seasons in Butte before ditching his head coach label and spending a season as Steven’s No. 1 assistant.
His defense-first approach was honed on the Palouse. It worked, as the Cougars won 22 games in 1992 and another 20 in 1994, making the NCAA tournament for the first time since George Raveling left for Iowa.
It was Sampson’s swan song as well. He took off for Oklahoma, taking his practice shorts, with a large block “INTENSITY” sewn into the back just below the waistband, with him.
At Oklahoma for 10 years, he took the Sooners to one Final Four, another Elite Eight and earned a promotion. To Indiana. A place where national titles are expected. An expectation one would follow NCAA recruiting rules? Not so much, at least not for Sampson.
Not at Oklahoma, where the NCAA dinged him for making too many phone calls to recruits. Not at UI, where his continued transgressions would lead to his dismissal. And, with an NCAA sanction on his head, six years of wandering in the wilderness.
If the NBA could be called a wilderness.
But by 2014 times had changed. Houston, looking to regain its former glory, took a shot. Made a call. Sampson was back on a college bench.
It took one year for the program to return to the postseason. Baby steps, to start, then two NIT appearances. Seven consecutive NCAAs followed. The last four seasons, Sampson’s Cougars have won at least 30 games. This season are once again a No. 1 seed. A little beat-up, sure, but when healthy are arguably the toughest team to play in college hoops.
Unrelenting pressure. Physicality. And, yes, intensity. This is the 69-year-old Sampson’s best hope for winning a NCAA title. To do it, though, his Coogs will have to overcome a Midwest Region that, on paper, looks to be as tough as any in the tournament bracket.
May have to overcome the most-powerful aspect of the Spokane Vortex, Gonzaga, in the second round. May have to deal with the SEC version of Houston, the Tennessee Volunteers, in the Elite Eight. May have Florida, possibly the most-talented team in the tournament, looming in the semis. May have to get past Auburn or Duke in the finals.
What a road. If Sampson wins his first championship, he will have earned it. Not just over the next three weeks, but over more than 40 years as well.
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WSU: OK, back to the current Cougar basketball program. And the new reality of the transfer portal. Greg Woods takes some time today to point out a freshman Washington State needs to keep around. … Jon Wilner looks into basketball success, media rights and the Pac-12’s future. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, we read this Washington Post story yesterday about an old-coaches reunion in Providence, R.I., mainly because we love how Chuck Culpepper writes. We link it today because it is on the S-R website. … We link this Athletic story about those incredibly overplayed March Madness commercials just because we want to help you smile if your bracket goes to heck today. … Oregon is a five seed. Historically, that’s not the best place to be. The Ducks have to get past 12-seed Liberty. … UCLA may have its hands full with Utah State, though the Aggies haven’t played all that well down the stretch. … The Arizona offense has been an inspiration for Akron, the Wildcats’ first-round opponent. … San Diego State had an awful end to its successful season. … Colorado State is also a 12 seed and plays fifth-seed Memphis. … Around the women’s game, Washington has its first NCAA game today. The play-in game against fellow 11-seed Columbia. Is it the start of a new golden age for the Huskies? … Who will come out of the two Spokane regions? … Oregon State might just be the Northwest’s last-stand come Sunday. You never know. … In football news, John Canzano has a column about expansion. … Stanford coach Troy Taylor is on thin ice. He’s been investigated twice for his behavior. … Christian Caple has a mailbag about Washington. … Oregon needs a new punt returner. … Colorado’s coaching staff seems to be a great place for old NFL players to land. … Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita is learning new skills.
Gonzaga: How much is NCAA experience worth? We may just find out this afternoon when the Bulldogs meet Georgia this afternoon in Kansas. Theo Lawson tried to find out yesterday and came away with one thought in this preview: The Zags are loose and relaxed. … Theo also has the key matchup, picking their frontline facing a freshman that GU recruited hard, Asa Newell. … One last Theo piece. It’s on Ryan Nembhard and Newell sharing an alma mater. … Your legs need to have healthy ligaments and tendons to perform at the highest level. Steele Venters knows that. He’s torn one of each the past two years while awaiting his chance on the court for the Zags. Jim Meehan talked with the Eastern Washington transfer in Kansas as he continues to rehab his Achilles tendon injury. … Jim also shares Ben Gregg’s and Graham Ike’s reaction to Anton Watson’s first NBA points. … Dave Boling focuses his column on Mark Few and his ability to coach desperation, a here-before hidden talent. … One thought. The Zags better be more desperate to grab rebounds today than they were against Saint Mary’s in Las Vegas. If the Bulldogs of Georgia out-rebound GU by a dozen again, Spokane’s Bulldogs will lose. … Tyler Tjomsland has a photo gallery from Wednesday’s open practice. … The GU women, led by two-time American Yvonne Ejim, are also playing Thursday, hosting a WBIT matchup with the University of Texas San Antonio Roadrunners. Greg Lee will be there and has this preview. … We wanted to pass along today’s NCAA TV schedule. You can find all the stations and times here. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s pins its hopes on defense. Again. … USF picked up an NIT victory last night.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, the Montana men know they will have their hands full with first-round opponent Wisconsin. … UC Irvine held off Northern Colorado in NIT play Wednesday night. … A former Weber State star made his first NBA start last night. … Montana State’s women have a tough NCAA assignment.
Preps: We can pass along a roundup of Wednesday’s action.
Velocity and Zephyr: Both teams played, and won, last night, though neither were in Spokane. John Allison has that and more in the USL roundup.
Seahawks: Cooper Kupp isn’t expected to replace DK Metcalf. And that’s actually a good thing. … Kupp sees similarities between Sam Darnold and Matthew Stafford. … The Hawks’ draft priorities are becoming clearer. …The Athletic believes they will take a corner in the first round.
Sounders: Coach Brian Schmetzer is back. So are a couple of players. Still, it’s appropriate to refer to Seattle as “injury plagued.”
Mariners: Want a fun story? This one about the M’s goat commercial fits the bill. … The Mariners won yesterday. … Emerson Hancock seems better prepared to step into George Kirby’s spot than he has been in the past. … Is Houston’s run of A.L. West dominance about to end? One can hope. … The M’s have two players on this list of top 100 offensive ones.
Kraken: Four goals in a period one night, a shutout loss the next. Life on the NHL road is hard. As has been scoring for Seattle at times this season.
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• I am well aware no one cares about other people’s brackets. So much so I didn’t even print out the two I put together and entered in a former high school classmate’s pool. All I know is I based them both on analytics. Took my way-too-imaginative brain out of it. And boy is my brain ticked. I promise next year I’ll go back to making selections due to uniform color or proximity to the nearest Wendy’s or some such nonsense. Until later …