Sports

LEWISTON – John Snaza entered his first walleye fishing derby on the Columbia River in the 1980s.

Kyle Smith tends to wander when he talks. Washington State’s head coach might start talking about one player, then veer into chatting about another, then swing right into waxing poetic about the weather.

SEATTLE – Bobby Wagner hoped his return to the Seahawks in 2023 meant he would end his NFL career in the city he has come to call his second home.

LAS VEGAS – Tuesday’s West Coast Conference Tournament championship had many of the normal components of a typical Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s game.

LAS VEGAS – The Mike Hopkins era came to an end in a game that resembled his mercurial seven-year tenure as the Washington men’s basketball coach.

Jacinta Buckley posted a double-double and Eastern Washington regrouped on defense after a shaky first quarter to beat Northern Arizona 73-64 in the Big Sky Tournament Championship. The win secured Eastern Washington's first berth in the NCAA Tournament since 1987.

Portland women’s basketball coach Michael Meeks predicts more wins to come for Gonzaga.

Andrew Nembhard is having another solid season with Indiana, his second in the NBA after the Pacers selected him in the second round of the 2022 NBA Draft. Through 52 games (31 starts), the former Gonzaga Bulldogs guard is averaging 9 points, 2 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • This time of year we really try to look forward. To the weekend, where the temps are supposed to be in the, gasp, high 60s. To next month, with all that April offers, from showers to flowers to Masters. To the summer, with the lake and sun tans and long walks. But today we are forced to look back about 24 hours before we can cast our gaze ahead. Darn it.

SEATTLE – The Seattle Kraken trailed the Vegas Golden Knights after Tuesday’s second period. That really wouldn’t do against the team holding the second wild-card playoff spot in the West, a position the Kraken want badly but had only have 18 games left to secure.

Cheney High School junior Alma Smith did it again.

On Saturday, a brand new professional soccer team will run out of a brand new locker room into a brand new stadium to try to kick their way into the hearts of Spokane fans.

LAS VEGAS – Gonzaga entered the 2023-24 season in unusual territory, picked second in the West Coast Conference preseason poll by the conference’s nine coaches.

For Smith and Co. it’s already been a transcendent season. But how many more times will these Cougs sing?

PULLMAN – Andrej Jakimovski, the Washington State senior wing responsible for much of his team’s run this season, is on the mend from the shoulder injury he’s played through the past three games.

LAS VEGAS – If you could spare a little sriracha sauce for me, it might help the crow go down a little better.

Once more for … what exactly? Pride? A banner? Seeding?