NCAA basketball

PULLMAN – David Riley has been around the Pacific Northwest basketball scene for too many years to count, enough to remember all the great post play that Gonzaga has put on display. Sitting in a chair courtside at Beasley Coliseum, the site of his Washington State team’s home matchup with the No. 9 Bulldogs at 7 p.m. Thursday, he begins to list off a couple names.

West Coast Conference women’s basketball coaches meant no disrespect by excluding Lauren Whittaker from the preseason all-conference team. In fairness to the coaches, they didn’t know much about the 6-foot-3 redshirt freshman forward. They had little evidence to support picking Whittaker to the preseason list. Whittaker is known now, though, and teams are getting to know her more every game.

PULLMAN – Ace Glass might prefer the anonymity he still had two months ago when Washington State was preparing for three games in three days at the Maui Invitational.

More than halfway through the regular season, ninth-ranked Gonzaga is precisely where it needs to be but probably nowhere close to where it wants to be after a few close calls in West Coast Conference play.

It may surprise some which women’s basketball team caused Gonzaga more difficulty in West Coast Conference regular-season play a year ago.

As the end of the college basketball regular season fast approaches, so, too, does the end of the existing conference structure across the western third of the country. The rebuilt Pac-12 comes online next fall, as does the revised Mountain West and the tweaked West Coast Conference.

Former GU center Richard Fox, analyst on Zags' telecasts on KHQ and SWX, and yours truly, went in depth on the upcoming matchups on the latest Zags Insiders Podcast.

PULLMAN – Sometimes, Adria Rodriguez will make a strategic move at the dining center. He’ll be eating dinner at the Gray W, the room in the Cougar Football Complex where Washington State athletes eat meals, and he’ll pack another meal. He knows he’ll be hungry late at night.

SEATTLE – Wearing her father’s Washington Huskies letterman’s jacket, Ally Grill stood on the Alaska Airlines Arena court where Christian Welp starred decades ago.

Zags face improved Washington State in Pullman on Thursday, and Seattle on Saturday.

Gonzaga had a strong one-game week, adding a Quad 2 victory over Santa Clara on Thursday. The same can’t be said for the nine Power 5 Conference foes on GU’s non-conference schedule. Alabama, Oklahoma, Maryland and Oregon each went 0-2 in conference matchups. Kentucky, UCLA, Creighton, Arizona State and previously unbeaten Michigan went 1-1.

There isn’t much Mark Few hasn’t witnessed or experienced in 27 years at the helm of Gonzaga’s basketball program. Major developments pertaining to conference realignment have occurred during Few’s tenure and the longtime GU coach has successfully navigated other landmark changes to the college athletics landscape, adapting to the transfer portal, Name Image Likeness (NIL) legislation and, most recently, NCAA revenue sharing.

PULLMAN – For a moment, Washington State appeared like they were about to stun everyone in the gym.

BOZEMAN, Montana – Montana State outclassed Idaho's potent offense and the Bobcats showed why they're the Big Sky Conference favorites, routing the Vandals 99-66 on Saturday at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

PULLMAN – Washington State set a season-high for points scored, but it wasn’t enough against the West Coast Conference’s top offense.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho’s Circadian rhythm has the blues.

The situation Eastern Washington found itself in late during Saturday’s game against Montana was a situation the Eagles’ men’s basketball team has been in many times this year: trailing, but victory within reach, so long as most of the final possessions went the Eagles’ way.

The final score is going to suggest that the Gonzaga women’s basketball team had no difficulty with the Portland Pilots.