NCAA basketball

LAS VEGAS – What happens in Las Vegas … seems to happen every March at the West Coast Conference Tournament.

Gonzaga can thank one of oldest rivals, and a future West Coast Conference foe, for its latest bump in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.

PULLMAN – As much as Myles Rice is Washington State’s leader, steering the No. 18 Cougars in the right direction at nearly every turn, sometimes he remembers he needs to be pushed, too.

LAS VEGAS – Two more wins and the Gonzaga women’s basketball team will match the most victories in school history.

The nice guy had finished first, the nice guy had finished last, and now — at Washington, at least — the nice guy is finished. 

BOISE – During a third-quarter timeout Sunday, an Eastern Washington cheerleader appeared to fumble a catch of his female partner and she tumbled to the floor as a few spectators gasped. No harm, no foul – she picked herself up and was back to waving her pompom immediately.

BOISE – Once is traumatic, twice is ... a trend?

Degenhart is on his way to another honor-filled season after earning MWC Freshman of the Year honors in 2021-22 and first-team all-conference a year ago.

Coaches and players can be highly creative when it comes to generating sources of motivation. And sometimes it just shows up gift-wrapped and already assembled. Gonzaga and San Francisco squared off just 11 days ago – the Zags cruised 86-68 at the Chase Center – and both enter Monday’s matchup in the West Coast Conference semifinals at Orleans Arena with sizable chips on their shoulders.

The first few seconds of Saturday’s San Francisco-Portland game in the West Coast Conference Tournament couldn’t have been more unsettling for the Dons. The next 39 minutes and 58 seconds? Not so much.

SEATTLE – The last time Troy Dannen went looking for a head coach, the Washington Huskies athletic director moved with incredible pace to fill the void in the football program.

BOISE – If you throw the ball anywhere up in the solar system, chances are Julius Mims can go get it.

The Zags had swallowed the humility of slipping out of the national rankings for the first time in almost eight years, shuffled the lineup and rotation a bit, and fought back into the top 25. But the impressive revival could have unraveled without a strong final regular-season weekend, on the road at San Francisco and Saint Mary’s.

Three of LeJuan Watts’ siblings sat in the stands at Reese Court in February sharing a rare opportunity to see their younger brother play basketball in person.

They know what they did in the regular season.

PULLMAN – A few of the individual shooting performances that led to No. 18 Washington State’s latest loss, a 74-68 setback to Washington in Thursday’s regular-season finale, can likely be explained by funks. Uncharacteristic droughts. Off nights.

SEATTLE – Shortly after Thursday’s 74-68 win over No. 18 Washington State, one of the biggest wins in his career and only the second time he’d beaten a ranked team on the road, Washington men’s basketball coach Mike Hopkins talked with optimism about the victory possibly being a watershed moment.

Eastern Washington finds itself in a familiar spot entering this weekend’s Big Sky Tournament as the No. 1 seed – so familiar that David Riley is choosing not to shy away from talking about last season’s first-round exit.

Eastern Washington and Northern Arizona are the clear-cut No. 1 and No. 2 women’s teams in the Big Sky Tournament bracket, and they have the advantage of playing on the second, fourth and fifth days of the event if all goes to seed.