COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN — And for all we know, there could be another. And maybe another after that. For more on Washington State's quarterfinal CBI matchup with Wyoming tonight, read on.

Good evening from …. not Pittsburgh. We made it roughly halfway, to Minneapolis, thanks to two hours of sitting on the tarmac at the Spokane Airport due to mechanical issues with the plane. I wrote once we got airborne — hey I had some time on my hands — and the topic was the birth certificates of Gonzaga and West Virginia.

It's young vs. younger.

Here's my article that will run in Wednesday's S-R.  There's a number of articles on GU and WVU out there, but one in particular worth your attention. Dave Boling, former S-R staffer, writes about Mark Few and basketball is barely mentioned.

We'll be back with more, hopefully, from Pittsburgh, tomorrow.

In the five seasons I've covered Gonzaga, here's the travel pattern when it comes to the NCAA tournament. 2008, Raleigh; 2009, Portland; 2010, Buffalo; 2011, Denver; 2012, Pittsburgh. Pretty much alternating far from home with close to home every other year, no?

Anyway, Gonzaga will trek east to face West Virginia in Pittsburgh, a little over an hour's drive from the Mountaineers' Morgantown campus. The seeding GU (7) and W.V. (10) is the same as it was when GU (7) took on Davidson (10) in Raleigh, about 2 1/2 hours from Davidson, N.C. in 2008.

You can see what the players and coaches think of the matchup in my article that will run in Monday's S-R. Here's John Blanchette's take on the tournament bracket and Gonzaga's draw. GU players certainly didn't seem too bothered by anything as Marquise Carter took a turn operating a TV camera, donning the headphones to look even more official.

There's more info on Gonzaga, West Virginia and the other half of the bracket (Ohio State and Loyola-Maryland) below. 

Good evening from Denver. Gonzaga practiced at D-II Regis University, where Donny Daniels' son, Eric, is an assistant coach. Press conferences here this evening and then a short, fan-friendly practice capped by the usual half-court shooting contest (Monninghoff hit the only one).

Here's my game preview. A capsule look at the matchup below.

OK, it's been a long day but there is women's basketball news to pass on between periods of this scoreless hockey game … Courtney Vandersloot is an All-District player (along with an Iowa player, the Zags' opponent in the NCAA Tournament Saturday afternoon at McCarthey); Sherri Murrell is Big Sky co-coach of the year.

And Montana sophomore Katie Baker (Lake City) ftells Greg Lee the NCAA Tournament fulfills another goal.

There's more, read on.

I spent a couple hours at Gonzaga today after watching the selection show on CBS. Here's a link to the article I put together that will run in Monday's S-R. (There's an update on Sam Dower at the bottom). And here's John Blanchette's column on GU and the curious NCAA selection process.

Interesting draw for Gonzaga, which would probably gladly trade a spot on the seeding line (most had them as a No. 9 or No. 10 seed) to stay reasonably close to home. St. John's is a tough, talented Big East team that went 6-5 vs. the top 25 RPI, but the Red Storm lost key swingman D.J. Kennedy to a torn ACL early in the their Big East tournament quarterfinal loss to Syracuse.

There's also a capsule look below at GU and the other three teams in their Southeast bracket.

We'll have much more on GU right here over the next few days leading up to Thursday's game.

UPDATE: Ticket information here.

I’ve been chasing comments on the NCAA’s decision to lift its postseason ban on Eastern Washington University’s football program all day and, for the most part, fans seemed jazzed.

But coaches and players have taken a much more subdued approach to the news, realizing there is a lot of work still left to do on the football field in order to make the NCAA’s latest ruling meaningful.

I’ve included an unedited version of the sidebar story on their reaction that will appear in Wednesday morning’s S-R, along with some links to related stories.

Read on, and please feel free to leave any thoughts you might have on the NCAA’s decision, or the players’ reactions, right here.

The baseball season is over for Washington State, but the lessons learned during the run to the NCAA Tournament will last a long time, according to coach Donnie Marbut. After the Cougars lost to Oklahoma on Sunday, Marbut insisted they will be back – and soon. For more, read on.

Washington State had one bad inning against Oklahoma on Sunday, but the seventh inning was bad enough to end the Cougars’ 32-25 season, the school’s best since 1990. Here’s the Daily Oklahoman’s quick, end-of-game story about the 7-2 defeat to the Sooners in Norman. We’ll be back tomorrow with links to all the game stories. Until then …

It’s a do-or-be-out day for Washington State, facing Oklahoma this morning at 11 then, if the Cougars win, turning around and dealing with Arkansas at 5 this afternoon. WSU has already faced the Sooners this year, splitting an early season four-game set in Pullman. For more on Saturday’s win over Wichita State, read on.

WSU just eliminated Wichita State, 3-2, behind the 10-strikeout pitching of Chad Arnold (a career high), a two-run home run from Derek Jones (his 12th) and a solo shot from Jared Prince (his seventh). The two home runs were on back-to-back pitches in the sixth. The Cougar bullpen, which struggled mightily in the loss to Arkansas, came through this time with Jeremy Johnson getting the save, his 10th. Now WSU will wait to see which team they’ll play. It will be the loser of today’s Arkansas vs. Oklahoma game. To win the regional, WSU has to win four consecutive games. With today’s win, the Cougars need three more.

Washington State will be back on the diamond in a couple hours, so let’s catch up with what happened yesterday. Even if you don’t want to, read on.

The day started so promising for WSU. But a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth collapsed quickly, with Arkansas exploding for nine runs in a 10-3 NCAA-opening-round win. You can read the wire story here. When our story appears we’ll link to it for you.

With the baseball team doing something today it hasn’t done since 1990, that is, playing in the NCAA Tournament, we have stories that will get you ready to listen. Read on.

Back with a ton of unedited cut-and-paste material to post. Read on for more.

(I’ll post John Blanchette’s Q & A with Rev. Robert Spitzer and Blanchette’s profile of Akron coach Keith Dambrot in the morning).

Gonzaga will open the NCAA men’s basketball tournament against No. 13 Akron on Thursday in Portland. The Zags are the fourth seed in the South Region. North Carolina is the top seed in the South.

The Gonzaga-Akron winner faces the winner of the No. 5 Illinois-No. 12 Western Kentucky on Saturday.

Meanwhile, John Blanchette sat down with Jeremy Pargo for this column that ran in Sunday’s S-R.

More later.

Stuff happens.

Usually when I’m on vacation — which was the case once again last week when all hell broke loose at Eastern while I was busy carving out an 85-86 golf win over one of my closest friends on his home course in Fort Worth, Texas.  I even used his clubs.

But now I’m back, trying to catch up on the NCAA sanctions that soiled EWU’s football program while I was away.

Read on.

Let’s change gears. As you probably know, the NCAA handed down its sanctions against Eastern Washington’s football program Wednesday for violations that occurred while current WSU coach Paul Wulff was in charge. Wulff was also hit with two penalties: missing the first three days of this fall’s practice and having to attend compliance seminars for the next three years. The news was well covered throughout the state. Read on.

The NCAA has slapped Eastern Washington University with a postseason ban this fall and other sanctions for violations that occurred during now-Washington State coach Paul Wulff’s tenure. Wulff was also punished by the NCAA and will have to miss the first three days of WSU’s fall practice this year along with attending rules seminars for the next three years. You can read our story here.

UPDATE: Eastern Washington has issued a statement concerning the violations and the NCAA’s actions, with comments from acting president John Mason. You can read WSU’s release here. It contain comments from athletic director Jim Sterk and Wulff.