Grip on Sports: Today is the day to get chores done, because the rest of the week is NCAA basketball

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The Madness has begun, albeit only in fits and starts. The first two of the four NCAA tourney play-in games – call them what you will, opening round, the First Four, whatever, but they are play-in games – whetted our appetite last night. There are two more tonight. Then it’s on to the basketball buffet. Read on.

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• And what a buffet it is. You know those chocolate fountains the 11-year-old inside is so enamored with (and the 42-year-old outside knows is a bad, bad thing)? Ya, that’s every game in the NCAA tournament.

And it’s all you can eat this first week.

Starting tomorrow you have to call in sick. Or, at least, have your work computer ready for some heavy-duty game streaming.

Heck, Thursday has the Ivy League champion Princeton – which doesn’t run the “Princeton offense,” by the way – matching brains with Notre Dame. And former WSU coach Tony Bennett trying to nurse 60 points outs of his Virginia team. And two of the best Cinderella teams of years past, Butler and Winthrop, playing each other. And the Zags.

All starting before noon around here.

But it doesn’t stop. Not ever. Kermit Davis, he of the old days of Vandal basketball, leads his Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders against the Pitino without the baggage, Richard, and Minnesota. Saint Mary’s tries to overcome VCU’s athleticism with execution. The Brainiac Bowl, Northwestern and Vanderbilt. Florida Gulf Coast getting its opportunity to beat up the big kid down the block, Florida State. And Arizona, with the second-most accomplished coach not sporting a Final Four on his resume, Sean Miller, facing the Big Sky champions from North Dakota.

And about a dozen other games.

Doesn’t seem like much time to breath, huh?

Which is why I’m putting together a list of items I must finish today. Any type of errand that has to be completed by Sunday. And I want them all done by 4 p.m. today.

That frees up Thursday and Friday. (And Saturday and Sunday.) No fake vasectomy for me. No excuses of any kind. Each day I’m turning off the cell phone, opening the Costco-sized bag of chips and a six pack of Diet Pepsi and disappearing in the Laz-e-Boy, not to reappear until after the dogs bed down for the night.

Tell my mother I loved her.

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Gonzaga: So where do we begin today? At the top. John Blanchette examines the 1 vs. 16 upset possibilities, and the phenomenon it would be if it happened. I mean, when it happens. … Jim Meehan stays in the statistical realm with his story on how much better the Zags have fared in the NCAAs after winning the WCC tournament. … Jacob Thorpe contributes a couple of stories, one on the Inland Northwest ties in the tournament and Przemek Karnowski’s Sports Illustrated cover appearance. … There was a mistake-riddled piece in the British newspaper The Guardian yesterday concerning Spokane and the Zags, one that needed a bit of clarification. Shawn Vestal took care of that, saving me the trouble this morning. … The Gonzaga women will face a physical Oklahoma team in the NCAA first round. Jim Allen has that story. … Saint Mary’s has turned the little town of Moraga (part of a huge metropolitan area of course) into a basketball destination. … BYU is ready for its NIT appearance, though it will be missing another starter. … Speaking of BYU, its coach, Dave Rose, thinks the Zags have what it takes to win it all. … One of those pieces is all-everything guard Nigel Williams-Goss. Another is big man Karnowski.

WSU: Don’t look now, but the Pac-12’s postseason just got off to a terrible start. You know how everyone was saying the middle of the conference was “average?” It doesn’t seem to be. “Bad” might be a better term. California couldn’t call on two of its better players and fell to, wait for it, Cal State Bakersfield in the NIT first round. At home. That’s bad. And Utah didn’t fare much better, also losing at home to Boise State. … The big boys start tonight, with USC facing Providence in a play-in game. It’s a chance for the Trojans to get a measure of revenge. And to play on. … Will Arizona’s Miller finally break through to the Final Four? He has his full team now. … UCLA’s depth of scorers is one of its biggest strengths. … Oregon is still trying to figure out its rotation. … Arizona State is not playing in the postseason but it will be soon according to Bobby Hurley. … Spring football is underway at Oregon State and Arizona State and getting started at California.

EWU: The Eagles will face Wyoming in Laramie tonight in the first round of the CBI tournament. Jim Allen has an advance. … The Big Sky thought the second year of its tournament in Reno was better. Jim also delves into that subject.

Idaho: The Vandals paid almost $40,000 and picked up one more home game, hosting Stephen F. Austin tonight in Memorial Gym. It will be the second game of a doubleheader, with the women playing Utah State in a WBI game first. Josh Wright has an advance of the men’s contest.

Whitworth: The Pirates’ Kenny Love will play in the NCAA Division III all-star game.

Chiefs: This story on the Yamamoto brothers by Josh Horton appeared in Sunday’s paper.

Mariners: In on-field action, the M’s held on to win 7-6 over the White Sox. … Off the field, there is a chance Seattle could open the season with eight relievers. That’s one more than usual.

Seahawks: The Hawks addressed their running back need in a big way yesterday, signing one of the NFL’s bigger backs, Eddie Lacy, to a one-year deal. The focus immediately centered on Lacy’s weight, something of a problem in Green Bray the past few years. … The free agent scrum continues as players fly in, talk and move on. Whether the Hawks will sign anyone else is unknown. … Earl Thomas is on his way back.

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• I’m signing off now. I have to get a whole bunch of things done. And somehow work in a nap. Have to be ready for a late night – by that I mean one that ends after 8 p.m. Until later …