One night of hoop later, we are now down to one team
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Now there is one. One college basketball team in our area still playing. That happened quickly. Read on.
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• Going into last night there were three. One at home, the Gonzaga women in the WNIT. One on the road, the Eastern men in the CBI. One prepping for this weekend’s NCAA Sweet Sixteen, the Gonzaga men. Then, in the course of about an hour, two of the teams’ seasons ended. Eastern saw Nevada explode in the second half and take a 15-point victory. Not too long before, the Gonzaga women experienced the same second-half problem and were knocked out of the WNIT by Utah. And this came on a night with so much promise. The Utes, a middle-of-the-standings Pac-12 team, came into McCarthey averaging less than 70 points a game. Their coach, Lynne Roberts, had experienced the place before – she was Pacific’s coach until this season – but her team hadn’t. And, after a smaller than usual crowd in the tournament’s first round – thanks in large part to a scheduling crossover with the men’s NCAA game – the Kennel was more than half full and in full throat. Beckoning on the horizon was a possible Wednesday night showdown with Oregon, and former GU coach Kelly Graves. But only if the Zags won. But it wasn’t to be. Utah shredded the Zags with the high pick-and-roll and eventually scored 92 points, the second consecutive time the Utes had eclipsed 90 points but only the third time all year. And that’s against a Gonzaga team that was giving up less than 60 point a game. Still, the Zags had every opportunity to pull out a win and ensure one more home game. The Utes built a 20-point lead midway through the third quarter but less than 5 minutes later the Bulldogs had it down to eight. And, with less than 6 minutes left, GU was once again within eight and had the ball. But, in order, the Zags’ Chelsea Waters and Kiara Kudron missed point-blank shots and Jill Barta turned it over. But the Utes gave it right back – then Barta missed another layup. Within 19 seconds the Zags had four chances to cut the lead to six and squandered them all. Given the reprieve, the Utes missed a 3-point attempt as the shot clock expired but grabbed the offensive rebound, scored and the Zag’ last chance, and their season, was over. Coupled with what was going on in Reno, our local college basketball participants were culled by two-thirds in a matter of minutes.
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• Gonzaga: The Windy City beckons the Zags and Domantas Sabonis this weekend but, as John Blanchette explains in his column, this has been a year that has been blown all over the map since the beginning. ... Dave Boling sees this year’s team as a reflection of its head coach. ... Jim Allen was in the Kennel last night and has this game story on the WNIT loss to Utah. Colin Mulvany was also there and has a photo report.
• WSU: Spring not only means pretty yellow flowers and ugly afternoon downpours, it also means football. The Cougars announced their spring practices yesterday and Jacob Thorpe put them up on the blog. Jacob also took a little time to look back on the 2015 football season. ... Where does California basketball go from here? ... The Oregon Ducks are the Pac-12’s one shining moment in the NCAA tournament this season. ... Washington’s basketball season came to end last night in San Diego, though the women scored a huge NCAA upset to move on. ... A Husky hero will play his seventh year of college football in San Jose.
• EWU: It probably comes as no surprise the Eagles came up short in their CBL matchup against Nevada in Reno last night. After all, Eastern was playing without its best player, senior Venky Jois, who missed the game with a bad knee. The Wolf Pack rallied in the second half for an 85-70 win.
• Whitworth: The Pirates’ softball team posted five wins in their seven-game trip to Florida.
• Seahawks: Agents all over America have made copies of Russell Okung’s contract and attached it to their resume.
• Mariners: Believe it or not, spring training is winding down. The M’s, who rode a big home run from Nelson Cruz to a win yesterday, have to make some decisions about roster spots. Not a lot, but enough they are important. ... It was an interesting pitching matchup yesterday. ... Just thought I would pass this story on.
• Sounders: Yes, Seattle has started slowly. But it’s too early to make changes. (At least that is one person’s opinion).
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• If there weren’t a couple of mitigating events just over the horizon – baseball’s opening day and the Masters – I would be in a funk today. I always hate to see the local college basketball season expire. And it isn’t done yet. The Zag men are still in the fight. Until later ...
