John Blanchette

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Sports >  Area sports

John Blanchette: Well-traveled Jim Fitzgerald takes over Sasquatch during hairy times

Sun., June 7, 2020

It is simply not the case that Jim Fitzgerald has either attended or worked for every college and sports franchise between here and Seattle.

Sports >  Area sports

John Blanchette: These sports memories might not have been big time, but we still miss them

UPDATED: Sat., May 30, 2020

Among the lesser and self-evident lessons from our ongoing limbo is just how much sports can be missed when they’ve been furloughed.

Sports >  WSU football

John Blanchette: Washington State’s Dallas Hobbs designs angelic memorial to Bryce Beekman

UPDATED: Fri., April 10, 2020

Often the most difficult part of helping is deciding what part of ourselves to give.

Sports >  Spokane Indians

John Blanchette: Spokane Indians owner Bobby Brett prepares for inevitable changes

Tue., April 7, 2020

In Spokane, it’s possible that while there could be fewer baseball games this year, there could be more in 2021 and beyond.

Sports >  Area sports

John Blanchette: As NCAA slogs through coronavirus shutdown, money issues loom

UPDATED: Mon., March 30, 2020

So your favorite collegiate rower or third baseman will have this lost spring of athletic eligibility restored. Good deal. Any sliver of doing-the-right-thing by the NCAA deserves a huzzah. And if it throws a little chaos – or even a lot – into the machinery of college athletics, that’s almost a bonus for some of us.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Shattered dreams pale in comparison to potentially shattered lives

UPDATED: Thu., March 12, 2020

This is now the Year of Playing Dangerously. Presuming anyone gets to play from this point on.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

Gonzaga AD Mike Roth says it’s unfortunate teams, fans won’t get ‘full tournament experience’ after coronavirus alters NCAA plans

UPDATED: Wed., March 11, 2020

You could say feelings were mixed when the Gonzaga Bulldogs learned Wednesday that NCAA Basketball Tournament games would be played in virtually empty arenas – though there was one overriding sentiment.

Sports >  NCAA basketball

John Blanchette: Mark Few trusted NCAA to ‘do the right thing’ and it did in limiting patrons at tournament games

UPDATED: Wed., March 11, 2020

It’s unlikely that any fan base will feel as emotionally empty – OK, robbed – as Gonzaga’s local mob, which has been teased with seeing the Zags launch a tournament run here in town.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Familiar WCC title win has special feeling for Gonzaga

UPDATED: Tue., March 10, 2020

When do you suppose came the signal for the Gonzaga masses that it was safe to exhale?

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga avoids Black Monday, settles for an Off-Black one after men rally to beat San Francisco

UPDATED: Mon., March 9, 2020

A bit more than four minutes remained when Joel Ayayi got loose in the paint and pulled up for a 10-footer that would give Gonzaga the lead for good and paint a whole new shade on the day.

Sports >  Gonzaga women

John Blanchette: Return trip to Las Vegas reminds coach Lisa Fortier, Gonzaga to always carry on

Sun., March 8, 2020

Australian accents tickled Hayden Mispley, an affinity shared by many.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: With WCC tourney in Year 12 in Sin City, go all-in with Gonzaga’s All-Vegas teams

Fri., March 6, 2020

Somebody suggested it would be a good time to pick Gonzaga’s All-Vegas team.Can’t do it, I demurred. No credibility. I’m never up at 5 a.m. to see which Zags fans are still blinking through the cigarette haze and piling up chips at the Orleans Casino craps tables – and somehow still manage to make their tee times. No, they said. Basketball. Oh. Well, that’s different.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Mac Graff’s Senior Night moment upstages Rui Hachimura’s return to Gonzaga

UPDATED: Sat., Feb. 29, 2020

After Gonzaga’s next-to-last regular season game on Thursday night, coach Mark Few made a modest appeal about toning down, or powering through, the sentiment – “the pomp and circumstance” he called it – of Senior Night.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Those in the know share some ‘Mo-mentos’ from Adam Morrison’s storied Gonzaga career

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 27, 2020

Adam Morrison had his Senior Night on Thursday, 13 years delayed.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Just like his No. 3 jersey, Adam Morrison plans to hang around Gonzaga

UPDATED: Wed., Feb. 26, 2020

Something sort of eerie is going on with the jerseys Gonzaga elects to raise to its rafters.

Sports

John Blanchette: It’s a perilous fight to get rid of these overused phrases

UPDATED: Mon., Feb. 24, 2020

As with tires, the tread on terms and expressions gets worn after a lot of hard miles. I’d say we’re risking a rash of blowouts here on the old sports thruway, but in fact in all of these cases we’re down to riding on the rims.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga learns new lessons while passing familiar test as conference champions

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 20, 2020

So it turns out the West Coast Conference still can teach the Gonzaga Bulldogs a thing or two.

Sports >  WSU basketball

John Blanchette: Washington State beats UW on day former coach George Raveling honored

UPDATED: Sun., Feb. 9, 2020

From the warm reconnection with some of his former players on hand to the halftime raising of the banner with his name stitched on it to standing for snapshots with the current Cougars afterward, the good times rolled on Sunday.

Sports

John Blanchette: Academy again has its blinders on when it comes to diversity and snubbing of sports flicks

Sun., Feb. 9, 2020

It’s hard to be holy about inclusivity when 18 of your 20 acting award nominees are white. Oh, and you female directors? We’ll catch you next year, gals.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Razor-thin margin could be the difference in cross-country trek for either Gonzaga or San Diego State come March Madness

UPDATED: Sat., Feb. 8, 2020

The month-before NCAA Tournament bracket reveal has become part of the sports furniture – or perhaps it’s more accurate to say it’s blended into the woodwork.

Sports >  WSU basketball

John Blanchette: George Raveling lifted Washington State basketball into the spotlight – now the program will return the favor

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 7, 2020

George Raveling’s name goes up in those same rafters on Sunday at halftime of the Cougars’ game with rival Washington, and as appropriate as Klay Thompson’s day of tribute was last month, this one’s an even better idea.

Sports >  Area sports

John Blanchette: Michael Roos hopes his post-NFL curling obsession turns into an Olympic opportunity

UPDATED: Tue., Feb. 4, 2020

It can be said that professional athletes are not like us civilians. And even when they are, they’re not.

Sports >  Gonzaga women

John Blanchette: With a top-10 ranking on the horizon, Gonzaga women’s basketball is more than ready to step into the national spotlight

UPDATED: Sat., Feb. 1, 2020

Jeff Judkins is one of those rare head coaches in college basketball who wanders out from the locker room to take in even the earliest portion of warmups instead of hiding out until the anthem. Which, in some gyms, could make him an easy target.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Unprecedented fall from the perch of college hoops polls won’t do much to derail Gonzaga’s confidence, focus

UPDATED: Sat., Jan. 25, 2020

Having dispatched the Pacific Tigers in a fashion that evolved from street fight to stupefying on Saturday night, the Gonzaga Bulldogs figure to wake up Monday morning ranked, what?

Sports >  WSU football

John Blanchette: Nick Rolovich’s Apple computation adds to his growing popularity at Washington State

UPDATED: Thu., Jan. 16, 2020

It took 25 minutes for Nick Rolovich’s introduction as Washington State’s 33rd head football coach to crest on Thursday afternoon.