John Blanchette

The scripture coming from the athletic director’s office at Washington State is that Spokane is important to the Cougars. Well, OK. If he says so.

The lower-bowl exodus to The Kennel’s merlot tap began at the last TV timeout in the first half, confirmation that Wednesday’s Gonzaga-Portland game was living up to its billing. Or down. Your pick.

So Larry Scott – you may know him better by his stage name, marketing magician Brandini the Magnificent – wants to move the Pac-12 basketball tournament to Las Vegas. Say, there’s an outside-the-box idea.

It is rare – in the same way that finding a touch of refinement on “Jersey Shore” is rare – that the Gonzaga Bulldogs hook up with one of their own and can legitimately regard themselves as the hunter, even if the distinction can be debated. And by “one of their own,” we mean the tiny club of basketball schools that don’t run with those trying to turn college athletics into their own megalopolis – but have established themselves as name perennials in ways that, oh, Iona and Cleveland State haven’t.

It is rare – in the same way that finding a touch of refinement on “Jersey Shore” is rare – that the Gonzaga Bulldogs hook up with one of their own and can legitimately regard themselves as the hunter, even if the distinction can be debated.

SEATTLE – No one was writing anyone off, not with a week of Christmas shopping still remaining, but the Gonzaga Bulldogs had reached a point – as they seem to almost every season now – where they’d been caught in the switches. Losses they needed to be victories, awkward showings against undervalued opponents, still no volunteers for that go-to bucket.

The “E” in Elias Harris has suggested, at various times, both enticing and enigmatic during his stay at Gonzaga. In a 71-60 not-quite-stomping of Arizona in the Battle in Seattle at KeyArena, it stood simply for electric.

Washington State’s Jeshua Anderson was one of two runners-up to Ngoni Makusha of Florida State for The Bowerman award, presented Wednesday night at San Antonio to the nation’s top collegiate track and field athletes. Jessica Beard of Texas A&M earned the women’s honor, awarded by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as their sport’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

PULLMAN – The best way to win the press conference is to make it a coronation, although they stopped short of having an old Albion farmer anoint Mike Leach with Hoelon. Four years ago, Washington State introduced Paul Wulff as head football coach in a cramped meeting room, as old Cougars teammates made exasperated defenses of the hire and the athletic director sheepishly revealed a $600,000 annual salary, or what Oregon spends on shower fixtures in the locker room.

PULLMAN – From the debris here Saturday afternoon emerged two telling details, one mathematical and the other metaphorical. The math: 20 points, 13 rebounds for Washington State’s Charlie Enquist, an agreeable soul and a willing senior who hadn’t managed to score that many points during the course of two of his previous three seasons in a Cougars uniform.

From the debris here Saturday afternoon emerged two telling details, one mathematical and the other metaphorical.

When he played basketball at Gonzaga University 15 years ago, Jon Kinloch noticed the high school coaches coming in the side door at practice, hoping to cadge a drill or a half-court set or even an hour’s entertainment from the emcee, Dan Fitzgerald.

On Tuesday, Washington State – in the view of one of its old guard – lost its innocence. On Wednesday, the Cougars lost their minds.

So if Mike Leach isn’t the next football coach at Washington State, where will the collective emotional crash fall on the Jeff-Tuel’s-shoulder/Connor-Halliday’s-liver scale?

SEATTLE – There’s a lot of NFL football yet to be played in 2011, so maybe the Seattle Seahawks aren’t out of it yet. Maybe they can still get a decent draft spot to pick off a marquee quarterback.

SEATTLE – There’s a lot of NFL football yet to be played in 2011, so maybe the Seattle Seahawks aren’t out of it yet. Maybe they can still get a decent draft spot to pick off a marquee quarterback. But they’re certainly going to have to be consistent. No more of these back-to-back victories like the kind they put together the previous two weekends. More meltdowns like the fourth-quarter calamity they concocted Sunday against Washington, which not only snapped the Redskins’ six-game losing streak but repositioned the Seahawks in the Barkley-Keenum-Weeden Sweepstakes back there behind the hapless Indianapolis Colts picking Andrew Luck.

SEATTLE – As the curtain fell on another Mediocrity Cup, the great disconnect of football at Washington State was again revealed. Today or Monday, Cougars athletic director Bill Moos will huddle with coach Paul Wulff for a palm reading and everyone will have the answer they’ve been demanding – though, of course, not the one they necessarily prefer. That’s not the disconnect.