John Blanchette

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Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: On a topsy-turvy Selection Sunday, Gonzaga avoids another upset, holding on to No. 1 seed

UPDATED: Sun., March 17, 2019

So in case the Gonzaga Bulldogs still didn’t have that top-line feeling back after Terrible Tuesday, they were given an imprimatur on Selection Sunday. And they had nothing to do with it.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: For Gonzaga, move away from RPI in college hoops has been nothing but NET

UPDATED: Fri., March 15, 2019

Before Zion’s shoe went kablooey and “strong-ass offer” became the meme of the moment, college basketball’s ranking outrage of this season was some post-Thanksgiving indigestion.

Sports >  WSU basketball

John Blanchette: After split with Ernie Kent, red flags still surround men’s hoops job at Washington State

UPDATED: Thu., March 14, 2019

Hiring Ernie Kent was tired thinking on the part of Chun’s predecessor, Bill Moos; he couldn’t have done any worse taking a flyer on a younger, cheaper comer. Constantly rolling over the coach’s contract, meanwhile, was pure cronyism.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga’s faceplant in WCC Tournament may be most painful come Selection Sunday

UPDATED: Tue., March 12, 2019

Have you heard about the new March Madness Savings Time? If you’re the Gonzaga Bulldogs, you set your clocks back to a No. 2 seed.

Sports >  Gonzaga women

John Blanchette: Basketball aside, a heartbreaking day for the GU family

UPDATED: Tue., March 12, 2019

For the Gonzaga Bulldogs’s women’s basketball team, there is family and there is FAMILY, and now they know both the distinction and how it gets blurred together when life issues impose their way into the world of games.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Killian Tillie’s reemergence gives Gonzaga the house edge at WCC Tournament

UPDATED: Mon., March 11, 2019

Anyone have the guts to get this wager down before tipoff Monday night? Killian Tillie, tournament MVP.

Sports >  Gonzaga women

John Blanchette: Gonzaga down, but never out in gutsy victory over Saint Mary’s

UPDATED: Mon., March 11, 2019

Their gruesome falls to the court and the injuries that forced them to hobble out of Orleans Arena on crutches after the Monday afternoon women’s semifinals of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament defined both the day and the soul of the Zags in their 79-78 victory. And define the day after, too.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: 1993-94 team paved way for Gonzaga’s high postseason expectations

Fri., March 8, 2019

Before Gonzaga took up more or less permanent residence in the high rise that is the NCAA Tournament bracket, the Bulldogs had to get past the doorman. And before that, they had to find the neighborhood.

Sports >  High school sports

John Blanchette: Balancing act driving changes for state hoops tournaments

UPDATED: Fri., March 1, 2019

This was the small-ball world when Mike Colbrese took on the job as executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association 25 years ago. Lots of things were simpler then, for schools big and little.

Sports >  High school sports

John Blanchette: Carl Crider harvests new memories in Oakesdale

UPDATED: Fri., March 1, 2019

One of the B-est things still remaining about the B tournament is taking a look across the court and being unable to tell if the guy with the probing gaze standing tall in front of the bench is the coach or a wheat farmer.

Sports >  High school sports

John Blanchette: Odessa’s Ryan Moffet serves up State B’s first must-see moment with 48-point outburst

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 28, 2019

But just as college basketball has managed to go on without Zion, the B tournament doesn’t stop just because Brock Ravet of Kittitas hasn’t laced up his shoes yet – though that’s certainly must-see stuff.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Goodbyes no longer reserved for only the seniors in college basketball home finales

UPDATED: Sat., Feb. 23, 2019

Just think of the Zags who missed out on the big farewell – Adam Morrison, Austin Daye, Kelly Olynyk, Domantas Sabonis, Nigel Williams-Goss, Zach Collins.

Sports

John Blanchette: Aye, there’s the snub: Give these epic films a sporting chance

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 22, 2019

Columnist John Blanchette imagines this year’s Oscar-snubbed films with a sports twist.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Josh Perkins reaches the pinnacle of success at ‘Point Guard U’ with career assist record

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 21, 2019

Records both take you out of the moment and amplify it at the same time, and with the volume knob in Spokane cranked up to 11 on anything Zags, it’s not like this was going to slide by unnoticed by anyone.

Sports >  NCAA basketball

John Blanchette: As Pepperdine coach, Lorenzo Romar relishes any chance he can get at Gonzaga

Wed., Feb. 20, 2019

That’s right, Lorenzo Romar wants to be in a position to play Gonzaga more often.

Sports >  Gonzaga women

John Blanchette: Gonzaga women’s backs up against the bubble after another last-second loss to BYU

UPDATED: Sat., Feb. 16, 2019

Even a full month out from Selection Monday, there was an angsty little subtext mixed into Saturday’s doings at McCarthey Athletic Center that went beyond how much space exists between Gonzaga and Brigham Young in the West Coast Conference standings.

Sports >  Area sports

John Blanchette: Gonzaga’s Sophie Whittle works even harder now that she’s at the top of the collegiate tennis world

UPDATED: Tue., Feb. 12, 2019

The news, as is increasingly the case these days, was delivered via text – two of them, in fact, from her coaches. Though not so much news as congratulations, so it was all rather cryptic.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Killian Tillie’s latest injury setback adds fuel to Gonzaga’s already red-hot fire

UPDATED: Sat., Feb. 9, 2019

There are rulebooks, and coin flips to decide who kicks off, and the once-a-game center jump to, well, keep things fair. But in the bigger sense, there’s no fairness doctrine in sports.

Sports >  WSU football

John Blanchette: Football’s success gives Washington State Athletic Director Pat Chun extra momentum for Year 2

UPDATED: Sat., Feb. 9, 2019

In his first 12 months as athletic director at Washington State, Pat Chun has turned over 25 percent of the staff, overseen a record year in fundraising and been the grateful witness to a charmed football season that set standards for everything from victories to GameDay gaga.

Sports >  WSU football

Q&A: Washington State’s Patrick Chun talks about his first year as athletic director in Pullman

Sat., Feb. 9, 2019

Spokesman-Review columnist John Blanchette talks with Washington State athletic director Patrick Chun, one year into him taking over the job.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga fans won’t soon forget Brandon Clarke’s record-breaking season

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 8, 2019

The domination enters a third decade and the blowouts, amazingly enough, get ever bigger. The worshippers at McCarthey Athletic Center are left to seek other, more exotic, Gonzaga basketball thrills.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga’s West Coast Conference domination a statement to the college basketball world

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 7, 2019

Fifteen seasons back, the Gonzaga Bulldogs clinched the West Coast Conference regular season title on Feb. 14, something akin to sinking the 8-ball with five of the other guy’s targets still on the table.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga’s Killian Tillie continues working back to being the player he once was

UPDATED: Sat., Feb. 2, 2019

What we remember – and so does he – is that impossible run of shots 11 months ago, 3-pointer after 3-pointer shimmying through the net and setting off a sequence of roars that surely was heard all the way over on the Las Vegas Strip.

Sports >  Seattle Mariners

John Blanchette: Overlooked no more – Edgar Martinez gets the national recognition he deserves with Hall of Fame induction

UPDATED: Tue., Jan. 22, 2019

Once the Seattle Mariners’ Hall of Fame designated hitter puts that decisive swing on Jack McDowell’s split-fingered fastball and the camera tracks the ball into left field, you never see Edgar Martinez again.

Sports >  WSU basketball

John Blanchette: Progress isn’t in WSU’s basketball vocabulary

Sat., Jan. 19, 2019

In fact, the Cougars’ 78-66 loss to Stanford at high noon on Saturday was a mad dash into an open manhole. If somebody slides the cover back on, we may never see them again.