A GRIP ON SPORTS • The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is halfway done. We have gone from 68 teams dreaming of a national title to 32; from two in our area to one. Have you had enough excitement yet? Read on.

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• Really, yesterday was pretty much devoid of drama. The higher seeded teams were perfect for 15 games, with only a couple of smaller schools coming near an upset – and failing. (We're looking at you UC Irvine. A last shot would have been nice. Or maybe a foul call. But we are left wondering what might have been.) Oh, there were some exciting plays, and exciting players, including one for North Dakota State. Four minutes into Gonzaga's game last night, I knew John Blanchette's column today would be on Dexter Werner (40, pictured), the Bison's backup post. After all, Werner's game is a mirror image of Blanchette's, circa 1986. The body is similar as well, though Werner has about six inches on Flett. But the moves? Pure Blanchette. The old school head fakes. The up and under and under again. The slight fade-away. The quick release. Using the lower body (read: butt) to create space. His career-high 22 points kept North Dakota State in the contest, not just because of the number but because he seemed to make every big shot the Bison had to have. Of course, when you are 240 pounds and not used to playing so many minutes, mistakes happen and that occurred last night as well. A tired Werner clipped Kevin Pangos on a late 3-point attempt and the key 4-point play ended NDSU's chances. So Werner injected some excitement into what was, relatively, a dull day. Chalk is great on blackboards but not for viewing during the NCAA tournament.

• There was one nice upset yesterday with a local tie, though it came in the women's tournament. Gonzaga, which squeaked in as at-large team with an 11-seed, dominated George Washington from the get-go and sent the sixth seed home, 82-69. It didn't hurt the Bulldogs also didn't have to face the one can't-miss WNBA player on the floor, Jonquel Jones (pictured), for too many minutes. The 6-foot-4 Jones, who will probably play wing on the next level, was in foul trouble from seemingly the opening tip, picking up two quick ones, a third when GW gambled last in the first half and her fourth before the second half was all that old. Despite playing just 23 minutes, Jones grabbed 14 rebounds and scored 11 points, though she was only 4 of 15 from the floor. With Sunny Greinacher (19 points, including a big 3-pointer) and Emma Wolfram (10 points, including perfection on six free throws), who was forced to play extended minutes due to Shelby Cheslek's foul trouble, the Zags won the inside battle against the Colonials. And that keyed the upset.

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• WSU: Once again we are limited to passing along a couple of football pieces, including the mailbag from ESPN.com's Pac-12 blog. The blog also has a look at the linebackers in the North next season.

• Gonzaga: The coverage of the men's game from yesterday is extensive, with Jim Meehan leading the way with the game story and a blog post. Blanchette has his column, linked above, and Jacob Thorpe chips in with a North Dakota sidebar. Colin Mulvany has this photo report from Key Arena. ... There are stories from the West Side newspapers as well, with Christian Caple's game story for the News Tribune, a column from Dave Boling, another column from Jerry Brewer and Bud Withers' coverage as well. There is also this game story to pass along. ... Other than Tom Clouse's game story from Corvallis and Jim Allen's notebook, there was little in the way of coverage of the women's contest. ... BYU's women are the other WCC school in the tournament. ... The baseball team got past BYU yesterday. ... Finally, we pass along this Odyssey-like report from Jess and Ralph Walter.

• EWU: Jim Hayford didn't have much time to reflect on the defeat yesterday, as Jim's story relates. I did, however, text with Hayford some yesterday and passed along John Adams' comments on the morning show, comments I added to my blog post yesterday. An admission what turned out to be a key call in the game was wrong probably didn't brighten Hayford's day much.

• Idaho: The Vandals revamped some future year football schedules again. Sean Kramer has the details in this blog post.

• Chiefs: The Chiefs are locked into their playoff position, and they played like it last night. As Chris Derrick's game story and blog post relates, Spokane was not very good in a 7-2 loss to Seattle. ... Tri-City, needing a win in its quest to make the playoffs, got it at the expense of Portland. The loss dropped the Winterhawks a couple of points behind Everett in their race for the U.S. Division title.

• Seahawks: In what can only be considered "key offseason news," the Hawks re-signed their long snapper, Clint Gresham. ... The details of Ahtyba Rubin's contract were revealed. It's a bargain considering the prices free agents get these days.

• Mariners: Did the M's draw? Yes they did. A late Alex Jackson bomb allowed Seattle to tie the Rangers, 4-4. ... There were some roster changes made yesterday with a lot of familiar names (a pictured James Jones, Stephan Romeo, Jesus Montero) sent to the minors. ... It looks as if the M's have decided on Taijuan Walker as the fifth starter and are this close to getting the rotation lined up.

• Sounders: Seattle waived forward Kevin Parsemain yesterday.

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• If I were 11 again, I would be ticked today. It's Saturday. It's been nice all week. But it's raining. Not fair. But if I were 11 again and complained to my dad, I know what he would say: Life's not fair. Remember that little nugget while you are watching games today. Until later ...

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