Grip on Sports: Zags’ fast start allow them to ease into second-round showdown against region top-seed Houston with another Sweet Sixteen on the line

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Take a breath. One NCAA day is done. Another long one begins. Maybe today we will get a buzzer beater or two to spike the blood pressure. That’s what this weekend is about, isn’t it? Tension. Upset stomachs. Chewed fingernails.

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• There certainly wasn’t any of that in Wichita, Kansas on Thursday afternoon. Not after the Zags got out to a 654-3 lead. OK, it was 27-3. But it certainly seemed larger. And ensured a Saturday showdown with an old nemesis.

We should have known. After all, Georgia, while residing in the same area of the country as Davidson – the grits zone – and a long-standing member of the SEC, where everything just means more, wasn’t about to end Mark Few’s long streak of winning NCAA first-round games.

After all, its freshman star Asa Newell is good, but he’s not Steph Curry good. And it seemingly will take a Steph Curry-like performance to keep Spokane’s Bulldogs from the tourney’s second round. You know, 40 points or so, as Curry put up in 2008, the last time GU fell on the first day.

Nolan Hickman did his best Curry imitation early with four quick 3-pointers, the GU defense pressured Georgia into quick shots and even quicker turnovers and this one was over before the second media break. But not before Khalif Battle scored 24 points in his first tournament appearance, an 89-68 win.

Other than some foul trouble – and a 10-point free-throw line edge for Georgia – it was near perfect performance for Few’s team.

• Now comes the woefully under-seeded (eighth in the Midwest) Zags’ showdown with the region’s top seed, Houston. And there is no way Coogs’ coach Kelvin Sampson can duck the Bulldogs this time.

When Sampson was at Washington State, starting out as an NCAA Division I coach more than 30 years ago, he played GU just once. In 1988. In the fun-but-no-longer-with-us Inland Northwest Classic, a four-team affair (EWU and Idaho) in the Spokane Memorial Arena.

The Zags won, 64-63, despite Brian Quinnett’s best efforts.

From then until Sampson left Pullman in 1994, the two schools never played again. To his credit, he didn’t hide why. He told the S-R’s John Blanchette back then playing Gonzaga was a losing proposition for his Pac-10 program. Win, and it was expected. Lose, and it hurts the Cougars’ resume.

Sound like someone else in the region recently, right Cougar fans?

Saturday (5:40 p.m., TNT), his team has to play Gonzaga. Though the stakes are higher, one thing hasn’t changed. If Sampson’s team loses, his personal resume will take a hit. And the Zags will be in the Sweet Sixteen for a 10th consecutive season. Not sure even Nostradamus could have seen this coming in 1988.

• One thing everyone saw coming? A few upsets.

Will Wade’s McNeese State team, a 12th seed, gave the coach his out-the-door-tomorrow 69-67 win, topping over-seeded Clemson, one of four five seeds that didn’t belong that high.

Eleven seed Drake, powered by a handful of Division II transfers, won for the 30th time this season, and six-seed Missouri really didn’t stay all that close. The Bulldogs won 67-57.

The only other real drama? John Calipari’s Arkansas team eliminating Bill Self’s Kansas squad – a 10 over a 7 – was dramatic in a way, but a 79-72 result. And fifth seed Michigan’s hold-on 68-65 win over UC San Diego came down to the final shot, but that was about it Thursday.

• We noticed something odd during the Zags’ win yesterday. One of the officials working the game, Nate Harris, calls Spokane home. An NCAA tourney game in the heart of the Midwest. One of four games that day in the Wichita venue. And a person who lives in the same medium-sized community as one of the participants was scheduled to work the contest?

Weird. Why put Harris in that position? Why not assign him the Houston vs. SIUE game? Or one of the other two games on site? There was a non-zero chance the game he was working could have come down to a key call at the end. No matter how he made it, the ghouls that populate society these days would have made a huge deal out of it. And possibly made his life miserable. It’s happened before.

To paraphrase Captain Renault, I am shocked, shocked, to find that the NCAA would make such a decision.   

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Gonzaga: Let’s get right to the NCAA coverage, all of which you can access here. We start with Theo Lawson’s game story, which he probably had mapped out before halftime. Maybe just after he put together this story on Battle’s brother Tyus’ winding journey to see his brother’s first NCAA game. … Theo also helped the folks in the office with the recap with highlights. … Dave Boling’s column delves into Few’s team peaking at the perfect time. … Jim Meehan has seen many of the best Gonzaga first-round performances and he uses that knowledge to inform his story on Hickman’s performance, the buzzer-beater notebook and coverage of Houston’s rout that set up Saturday’s meeting. … There is also the usual difference makers story. … Tyler Tjomsland has another excellent photo gallery. … There was another Gonzaga team playing last night, though the women didn’t qualify for the main NCAA event. They are in the organization’s secondary tournament, the WBIT, and hosted the University of Texas San Antonio Roadrunners. Yvonne Ejim did Yvonne Ejim things – 24 points, 16 rebounds and five steals – and the Zags won 67-51. Greg Lee has the coverage. GU moves on in the tournament, will travel to Colorado (coached by former Gonzaga assistant JR Payne) and will play the Buffs on Saturday (3 p.m., ESPN+).  … It’s the NCAA tournament. So there is national coverage as well. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s will face Vanderbilt today (12:15, truTV) and will rely on a former walk-on for a lift. … Portland’s women topped Stanford 69-68 in the WBIT last night, winning in overtime.

WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, former GU assistant Tommy Lloyd and his Arizona Wildcats will face Akron today in their first-round game. (We linked both stories yesterday when they ran in the Tucson paper.) … Jon Wilner wonders if Dana Altman and Oregon have another NCAA run in them. The Ducks start against Conference USA champ Liberty tonight (7:10, truTV). … John Canzano mentioned them too. … Utah State shot terribly against UCLA but, to be fair, the Bruins have done that to a lot of teams. Now the Aggies have to wonder if there will be a new coach again next season. … Colorado State is another of those 12 seeds that is a trendy upset pick against fifth-seeded Memphis. … Around the women’s game, Washington lost its play-in game Thursday, falling to fellow 11-seed Columbia. … Another coach with Spokane connections, Oregon’s Kelly Graves, hopes his Ducks will bust up brackets once more. Graves did it often when he was at Gonzaga. … Utah is ready for its NCAA opener. … So is UCLA, which carries the No. 1 overall seed. … Arizona fell to Northern Arizona in a WBIT upset. … In football news, Christian Caple has another Washington position preview. Today? The wide receivers. … California came to terms with NFL veteran coach Ron Rivera as its general manager. … Is it possible to fix Stanford football? Andrew Luck has the unenviable task. … Arizona is working on ball security. … San Diego State is hitting the road and headed to the far outskirts of Los Angeles for a spring scrimmage. … Utah is working hard on its new offense.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Wisconsin allowed the Montana men to hang around yesterday but the Grizz finally fell 85-66. … Montana State’s women, who have had an historic season, will have to deal with Ohio State’s pressure if they want to advance in the tournament. … UC Davis has extended its athletic director’s contract.

Preps: We can pass along Dave Nichols’ roundup of Thursday’s action.

Seahawks: Not only did Uchenna Nwosu give up his uniform number to Cooper Kupp, he also signed a reworked contract with the Hawks that freed up almost $10 million in cap space. … How interested are the Hawks in actually winning? … DK Metcalf talked about his exit yesterday. … Another lineman who visited Seattle signed elsewhere.

Sounders: Before Seattle takes the Lumen field turf for the start of its match Saturday, the franchise will honor one of the opposing players.

Mariners: The patch on the left sleeve this year? Embarrassing. But at least we can be sure the franchise will spend Nintendo’s money on improving the roster. Stop laughing. … We linked this Emerson Hancock story yesterday when it ran in the Times. … The M’s have one starting pitcher, Bryan Woo, on this list of up-and-coming stars. …

Sonics: Another hurdle crossed. With the Celtics’ sale – for $6.1 billion – the NBA has another to-do-before-expanding chore it can cross of the list. Good news for Seattle? Probably.

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• Stayed home yesterday and watched games. Usually I head out the first day but was bit under the weather. Nothing a few cold meds didn’t fix though. And today is much better, though my fingers hurt now after pounding through about 1.7 million stories and links. Until later …