A plague on all your houses
A GRIP ON SPORTS • First the Seahawks lose the Super Bowl on the final play. Then it rains mud around here. What's next, frogs, locusts and another Ridley Scott movie? Read on.
••••••••••
• No, we're not suffering from some plague, though the mud falling from the sky last week did perplex me a little bit. Isn't rain supposed to wash everything clean? Maybe it's just rain and February aren't supposed to go together. Here we are a third of the way through the shortest month of the year, the heart of winter, and it's going to be 50 degrees again. Instead of seeing it as a deity-inspired plague, however, I've decided to believe the warm weather is a harbinger of other, not-to-be-believed events. Here are just a few ...
• The M's will win the American League West without Nelson Cruz hitting 30 home runs. OK, this is hard to swallow, but, hey, it was 57 degrees yesterday. And it was Feb. 9. ...
• The Zags will make the Final Four. I was going to write that GU was going to win the national title this season but it isn't going to be 70 this week and I'm not playing golf. But if does warm up that much and I do get out, then you can book Gonzaga as NCAA champs. ...
• Alex Prugh is going to win a PGA tournament. OK, this one isn't all that far-fetched. The Spokane native – and my son's former youth soccer teammate – finished a stroke out the playoff yesterday in San Diego, won by Jason Day. A couple of putts fall over four days and he's driving away with a new insurance policy from Farmers, the tourney sponsor. And a spot in the Masters. ...
• Eastern Washington becomes the first 16 seed to upset a No. 1 in the NCAA tournament. The most off-the-wall part of that prediction is the Eagles being given a 16 seed. If they win their way into the NCAAs, they should be three or four lines higher than that, despite their lack of pedigree. ...
• Pete Carroll says something negative about a Seahawk-related issue. Like snow this week, it's not going to happen. ...
• Ernie Kent's Cougars get hot, win the Pac-12 tournament and earn an NCAA berth. If Kent can do that, he should stop coaching basketball, part the Palouse River and solve the mystery of why the Carroll didn't give the damn ball to Marshawn Lynch.
•••
• WSU: Speaking of Kent, he was given a pretty nice welcome in his return to Eugene, more than likely from the same people who wanted him fired five years ago. Time heals all wounds right? Or did the Oregon faithful find the grass isn't always greener – except in a baggie – on the other side? Either way, they cheered for Kent and then cheered louder as their Ducks blew the Cougars' doors off, 95-72. Jacob Thorpe has the game story and a lot more, including blog posts with video of a couple players, Kent's postgame comments and the box score. He'll also be back today with more but before then has links in this post. ... Austin Meeks in the Register-Guard has some thoughts on Kent's return and the Eugene newspaper also has a game story. ... Wayne Tinkle, who some in the WSU community would have like hired instead of Kent, has Oregon State believing again. ... The Cougar women had another big lead on Oregon State yesterday but once again couldn't hold it.
• Gonzaga: Jim Meehan is home from San Francisco but before he began his journey, he put together a day-after post on the win over the Dons. ... There were a couple of national stories that included the Zags over the weekend I felt would be worth passing along. ... The BYU career scoring record is in jeopardy.
• EWU: Jim Allen has some thoughts on the week ahead in this blog post.
• Whitworth: Though spring training for the M's has yet to begin, college baseball is underway for the Pirates.
• Chiefs: Spokane didn't play Sunday but Everett did, hosting Portland. And the Silvertips won 4-3 in overtime.
• Seahawks: The Super Bowl TV ratings in Seattle weren't all that high. Geoff Baker may have found out why.
• Sounders: Seattle is once again revamping its defense, though this year's change has been made necessary due to injuries and DeAndre Yedlin's promotion. ... Clint Dempsey helped the U.S. to a 2-0 win yesterday by scoring a goal.
•••
• You know what comes with mid-winter warmth? The pressure to do yard work. I am resisting as long as I can. Any suggestions to get me out of having to rake up December and January's debris? Until later ...
