A GRIP ON SPORTS • Sunday morning. Maybe 1966 or 1967. Everyone in the Grippi abode flying around, looking for hair pins or shoes or, in my case, a clean shirt. Mass is only minutes away and no one is dressed. Those were the days. Let’s imitate them, shall we? Let’s fly around the world of sports, looking for all that we’ve lost in the past few days. Just so we can say a few prayers.
BROOKINGS, S.D. – Kolton Mitchell scored 22 points, including a clutch made free throw in the final seconds, to help Idaho beat South Dakota State 84-81 in Brookings, S.D.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Reality really does bite, doesn’t it? It certainly bit Washington State – the school, the football program, the alumni base, heck, most everyone in Pullman – right in the backside Friday. The Cougars are looking for a football coach again.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • My dad used to say, often, no one wants to hear about the labor pains, they just want to see the baby. His homespun humor left its mark. I always ask how labor went. And I’m always willing to share my own. I guess it’s the contrarian in me. Sorry pops.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Want to know how college football programs build winners? Recruiting. Enticing the best players to their campuses. Of course, there are different roads leading to TitleTown U. these days. Wednesday’s high school classes are less important on the journey than they have ever been.
Denver ended on a 13-5 run, erasing Eastern Washington’s four-point lead and securing a 93-89 victory in a men’s basketball game Wednesday at Hamilton Gymnasium in Denver.
MOSCOW, Idaho – It was a challenge in name only. North Dakota could not provide much of one to Idaho in those teams’ iteration of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge series as the Fighting Hawks had no response to Idaho’s Isaiah Brickner going molten in the second half with 22 of his game and career-high 26 points.
MOSCOW, Idaho – The Idaho women's basketball team had another high-scoring game, but the Vandals slipped defensively and had their six-game winning streak snapped.
PULLMAN – Before the sun could make its way over the rolling hills of the Palouse on Wednesday morning, Jimmy Rogers was in the Cougar Football Complex. It was the first day of college football’s early signing period, and WSU was set to sign more than two dozen players, but the start time still registered as a little earlier than normal around here.
Haile is averaging 4.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 16.3 minutes. Her best game came in a 76-72 loss to undefeated Indiana at the Coconut Hoops Classic. She fell a rebound short of her first double-double with 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists in a season-high 24 minutes.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Everyone needs a catch-all phrase. Something to latch on to in times of dire need. Like “live long and prosper” or “don’t have a cow, man.” Ours? “Recruiting never stops.” Today, it is actually relevant. Though not as relevant as it was only a short while ago.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Ya, when I looked outside this morning I uttered the “S” word. After all, there is about 2 inches of the stuff outside the house. Snow in early December? What a shock. Though what was shocking was how bad the roads were last night as I drove home from the North Side of Spokane. There were three or four times when I exclaimed “oh snow, oh snow” trying to stop.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Did you know college football’s Rivalry Week – the capitalization courtesy of ESPN – just finished? How could you not, the way the self-proclaimed WorldWide Leader pounded you over the head with it for the past seven days? Did you buy in?
A GRIP ON SPORTS • I am sure you have plans for today. They probably include watching a lot of college football. It is rivalry Saturday after all. At least it is for traditional ones not decimated by realignment.
BOISE – Sam Houston State shot at a scorching clip during a dominant second half and blew past Idaho 94-68 on Friday in the Holiday Hoops Classic at Idaho Central Arena.
IRVINE, California – It's been an impressive run in nonconference play for the Idaho women's basketball team, which extended its winning streak to five on Friday with another lopsided victory.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • When I crawled out of bed this morning halfway through the 5 a.m. hour, it hit me. There was a period of years when getting up at that time was de rigueur on the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. Standing in the cold, lined up at Walmart or Target or the White Elephant. All to save a bundle on that one toy needed to make Christmas complete. Good times.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • The subject matter for this column is always clear the final Thursday of November. Thankfulness. Who am I to break tradition? Bend it, sure. Break it? No way.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • The shots were falling, inside and out. The bench provided a lift. And now, after two wins in Las Vegas, a chance for – put you right pinky against your lip and use your Dr. Evil voice here, as it is appropriate – “one million dollars” awaits. Man, Michigan looks really good.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s time to begin putting together your list. No, not the Christmas one. That better have been finished – some assembled is always required – weeks ago. Your Thanksgiving list. The things for which you are thankful. No one wants to be tongue-tied as everyone from Uncle Ron to little Navaeh stares at you.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • As my boys were growing up, I used to watch Sesame Street with them whenever I could. My least favorite character? The Count. He scared me.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Ya, I got pulled back in by the Cougars yesterday. Watched just about every minute of their 24-20 loss at 21st-ranked James Madison. And realized this might be one of the school’s gutsiest teams.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Let’s keep it simple, shall we? After all, Cougar fans have a morning date with their football team. And everyone else probably has a full to-do list to finish off before noon.
MOSCOW, Idaho – The Idaho women’s basketball team used a sharpshooting first quarter to open up a big lead and cruised from there, handily defeating nonconference visitor UC Riverside 89-75 on Friday night at ICCU Arena.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Remember the days of #Pac12AfterDark? Where fun once flowed freely in the late hours of Saturday nights during football season, realignment put a crimp in the hose. Replaced, it seems, by #BrunchWithTheWest. Ya, I know. Not nearly as catchy. Or fun, either.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • There is a lot of junk involved with college athletics these days. That’s undeniable – and easy to illustrate in just a couple of mouse clicks. But the smell of the refuse has been sprayed over recently by the best of what college sports has to offer. Competition. Upsets. Joy. And just plain fun.
Ron Douglas was not a runner when one of his friends recruited him to sign up for the first Bloomsday together in 1977, but he went along with it for one important reason: a promised six-pack of beer at the finish line.
PULLMAN — When Washington State is playing its best basketball, when the Cougars are whipping the ball around the perimeter and forcing misses and flying around in transition like heat-seeking missiles shot out of a howitzer, David Riley’s vision begins to zoom into focus.
Even though Straton Rogers was playing his first home game at Eastern Washington, the opponent he and the Eagles faced on Monday night at Reese Court was a familiar one.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Well, at least the defense was good. After a slow start. The Seahawks’ offense, which handed the Rams 14 points in a 21-19 loss? Treasonous might be the right word.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Watching a Saturday of college football these days seems designed to highlight the great divide in the sport. On one hand, every game featuring a school with a number before their name is breathlessly described as some sort of playoff elimination game. The rest? Bowls are mentioned. Maybe.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • If it is true that everybody is working for the weekend, and why would Loverboy lie, then work is over. It is the weekend. And all that entails.
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Cal Raleigh didn’t win the American League Most Valuable Player award Thursday. Not that anyone with a sense of history expected it to happen. At least baseball had the courtesy to disappoint the Northwest before the weekend, clearing the decks for football and basketball.
