The changing of the seasons
A GRIP ON SPORTS
Not a lot of surprises today. There's no rest for the Washington State men, who had to hustle down to Corvallis on Tuesday for tonight's CBI semifinal against Oregon State. The Gonzaga women, on the other hand, got to catch their breath, with coach Kelly Graves sounding on the radio as if he needed the time just to let his voice return. The Zags will face Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen on Sunday. Read on.
••••••••••
• To use a cliché, call today the calm before the storm, though the snow and wind in Spokane belies that. We were speaking metaphorically, of course, because the action in the gyms or on the fields has been somewhat limited. To heat it up, we've got a poll question for you that is only valid until this evening. If you are a Washington State fan, you'll want to answer it. If you are not, you'll want to click neither. Just gauging the depth of interest on this one subject.
•••
•••
• Washington State: Christian Caple has both events covered, with football assistant Dennis Simmons profiled in this feature and the game previewed in this advance. He has more spring football previews on the blog, with running backs and receivers covered. And he has links to all of yesterday's action in this morning's blog post. ... To supplement Christian's coverage, we can add this financial-based story on Oregon State's hosting role from the Oregonian. ... We also want to pass along the Times' Steve Kelley's thoughts on Washington's NIT win over Oregon last night. ... Also just wanted to pass along this story on the Cal women and their loss to top-seed Notre Dame last night. The Bears gave the Irish all they could handle.
• Gonzaga: Not a lot here on the Zags, but we do have a story and photo package on their opponent, Kentucky.
• Eastern Washington: Spring football has started at some Big Sky schools, including Weber State. The new coach there, John L. Smith, has a lot of goals and a lot of Inland Northwest connections.
• Idaho: One WAC school is still playing hoops and that's Utah State. The Aggies will host Loyola Marymount tonight with a chance to go to the CIT semifinals.
• Chiefs: The WHL playoffs are about to get underway and another league player has assured his future.
• Seahawks: Not a lot here, though we did find this Dave Boling column on Matt Flynn we missed yesterday. ... The overarching news in the NFL yesterday was the Denver Broncos introducing Peyton Manning at a press conference and team poobah John Elway expressing his deep regret that he'll probably have to cut ties with Tim Tebow.
• Mariners: One day after cutting one veteran pitcher, the M's saw another put together his best start of the spring. Did Kevin Millwood just earn a roster spot? ... Guess what? Felix Hernandez loves pitching in Seattle. Who would have thought?
• Sounders: Captain Mauro Rosales's sprained right knee will cost him at least Friday's home match with Houston – and it could keep him out longer.
• Swimming: We don't have a category this Jim Allen feature fits into smoothly, but it's worth reading. It's a comeback story.
•••
• That's our report for this morning. The Cougars are on HDNet tonight at 7. If you are a Comcast customer like myself, you can watch. If you are a Time Warner person in Pullman, get yourself, as Christian did earlier, to a restaurant or some-such establishment that is showing it. Until later ...
