John Blanchette

His last time on a track, Daniel Blackledge churned down the long jump runway, hurled himself into the air and thudded into the sand – 24 1/2 feet from the takeoff board. Then he turned to see the judge slowly raising his red flag.

After going through Pro Day timing and testing in Pullman last week, the senior football receiver Daniel Blackledge joined the track team and will debut for WSU Saturday at the WAR IV meet at Spokane Falls Community College.

One final no-look pass, to a teammate streaking along the baseline, a sure-thing basket in a long-lost game, a last taste of the kind of thing that begat not just a crowd for women’s basketball in Spokane but a culture. And then … the shot off the glass, off the rim, just off altogether.

One final no-look pass, to a teammate streaking along the baseline, a sure-thing basket in a long-lost game, a last taste of the kind of thing that begat not just a crowd for women’s basketball in Spokane but a culture. And then … the shot off the glass, off the rim, just off altogether. The night in a nutshell for Courtney Vandersloot and the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

I was ready to concede that the very concept of attending women’s basketball games was hatched right here in our city until I peeked into the Spokane Arena during the Stanford-North Carolina game the other night. Wow.

I was ready to concede that the very concept of attending women’s basketball games was hatched right here in our city until I peeked into the Spokane Arena during the Stanford-North Carolina game the other night. Wow. Somebody tilted the upper deck on its end and all the people from the earlier Gonzaga game spilled out. We have to order a cork for that place or something.

Say, that wasn’t entirely the Gonzaga group hug everyone began anticipating. For a few minutes there, throats couldn’t have been tighter if a drill sergeant with a toothbrush and latrines in need of a scrub had asked for volunteers. A 20-point lead had melted like hearts at a puppy sale. But then a drive, a steal, a foul drawn and some free throws made, and order was restored.

Say this about the Bulldogs’ 76-69 victory over Louisville on Saturday night in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament: Routine went on vacation. But with the result putting Gonzaga in the women’s Elite Eight for the first time, it was as good a time as any.

Sometime Friday, the 10,000th ticket was sold to tonight’s regional semifinals of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at the Spokane Arena, so the latest cult of Gonzaga hoops is officially in full dither. And why not? An engaging team, a superlative player and the game’s two-ring circus pitching its tent five minutes from campus – that’s a heady combination.

Virtually every basketball phenomenon is rooted in some sort of early humility and marked by baby steps, stubbed toes or unrequited hopes which serve as a foundation for the sort of thing the Zags are experiencing now.

So how cool is it that the Gonzaga Bulldogs not only won their first two games of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament – both wildly entertaining affairs on their own floor in front of exuberant, sellouts crowds – and now get another here in Spokane? Way cool if you’re the Zags. Nearly as cool if you’re part of the swelling audience for the women’s team. And pretty damned cool for the partners in the tournament’s Spokane Regional – host Washington State, the Spokane Arena and the NCAA – which will enjoy brisk ticket business now that the city has a dog in the hunt.

Hello. Mr. Cranky here to siphon the sunshine out of a giddy civic moment.

The beat goes on for Team Spliff. Washington State’s athletic department drew its line in the sand with the Pullman police Wednesday, and at the same time muddied its own code of conduct.

Washington State’s athletic department drew its line in the sand with the Pullman police Wednesday, and at the same time muddied its own code of conduct.

One thing about basketball this time of year: There’s always room for another somebody special. For all the milestones passed, records set, poster poetry inspired and oohs aahed, Courtney Vandersloot is, in the end, still just one person, albeit 68 inches of giant. The Gonzaga Bulldogs may go just as far in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament as she, uh, Sloots them – or they may go further, now that the Zags have unleashed Kayla Standish.

One thing about basketball this time of year: There’s always room for another somebody special. For all the milestones passed, records set, poster poetry inspired and oohs aahed, Courtney Vandersloot is, in the end, still just one person, albeit 68 inches of giant. The Gonzaga Bulldogs may go just as far in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament as she, uh, Sloots them – or they may go further, now that the Zags have unleashed Kayla Standish.

DENVER – March is a bad time to turn the clock back to December. The happy roll the Gonzaga Bulldogs manufactured in the last month of the 2011 college basketball season rallied old believers and made new converts and even energized a program that perhaps needed some sort of psychic nudge or reinforcement, despite more than a decade’s worth of unparalleled achievement.

Really, the Zags didn’t get Jimmered. They got grimmered. Grim offense, grimmer defense. Grim ball-handling, grimmer resolve.

He’s a mythic figure. The Jimmer. This year’s version of The ’Stache.

DENVER – Maybe these Gonzaga Bulldogs aren’t so much different from their basketball forebears. Or maybe they’re completely different. Whatever.

Maybe these Gonzaga Bulldogs aren’t so much different from their basketball forebears. Or maybe they’re completely different. Whatever.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few fondly describes St. John's coach Steve Lavin as “warm and genuine,” and that has to count for something, especially given that the Zags are the next antagonists in the Steve Lavin Redemption Tour at St. John’s University – tipping it off against the Red Storm Thursday night in the NCAA Tournament.