John Blanchette

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Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Conference switch wouldn’t stop Gonzaga from being dominant at home

UPDATED: Thu., Jan. 17, 2019

Actual human engagement returned to McCarthey Athletic Center on Thursday night, and not a minute too soon.

Sports

Retired GU coach, baseball executive Larry Koentopp dies at 82

Sun., Jan. 13, 2019

Retired Gonzaga coach and baseball executive Larry Koentopp died on Saturday in Las Vegas at the age of 82, as announced by the Las Vegas Aviators baseball club. No cause of death was revealed.

Sports >  Seattle Seahawks

John Blanchette: Seahawks passed on opportunity to continue season of surprises by sticking to the run

UPDATED: Sat., Jan. 5, 2019

That, of course, is the narrow view, the only one that seems appropriate in one-and-done football. The playoffs opened and closed for the Seattle Seahawks in one day, no better a showing in the National Football League than it is on Broadway.

Sports >  EWU football

John Blanchette: Eastern Washington vows to get the next party started

UPDATED: Sat., Jan. 5, 2019

As sure as your teenager brought the family car home with the gauge on “E” again, North Dakota State rules the clubby little realm of the Football Championship Subdivision, thanks to Saturday’s 38-24 victory over Eastern Washington. That’s seven times in eight years for America’s spoilsports.

Sports >  EWU football

John Blanchette: Eastern Washington hoping to make Frisco a home away from The Inferno

UPDATED: Fri., Jan. 4, 2019

Nobody could have envisioned the stupefying way they won their 2010 national championship – unless, of course, they’d reviewed the tapes of all the other games Eastern Washington’s Eagles won that season. It was, in fact, the only way they could win it.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Jay Hillock, Bruce Wilson return to Gonzaga for look at amazing transformation

UPDATED: Fri., Jan. 4, 2019

About 15 months ago, on yet another late night on the road – New Orleans this time – Jay Hillock pushed through the glass door of another 7-Eleven manned by another clerk, lonesome, chatty.

Sports >  EWU football

John Blanchette: Please dig into your pockets to relocate these Bison

Thu., Jan. 3, 2019

Please consider funding a budget bump that will entice North Dakota State into battle with the Alabamas and Washington States of the college universe, and save the rest of the Football Championship Subdivision teams from their yearly wedgie.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: West Coast Conference slate not likely to be a walk in the park for Gonzaga

UPDATED: Mon., Dec. 31, 2018

Oh, the Bulldogs might well win the West Coast Conference four or five games clear of the field, and could even run the table. When an opponent has their full attention, they’re certainly that good – and will be even better once Killian Tillie and Geno Crandall return to the rotation.

Sports >  WSU football

John Blanchette: Gardner Minshew saves his best trick for last – making a bowl game memorable

UPDATED: Sat., Dec. 29, 2018

When Iowa State’s Willie Harvey reached ramming speed and drove the crown of his helmet straight at Minshew’s nose early in the second quarter of Friday’s Alamo Bowl, all the Washington State quarterback did was take the lick and bounce back to his feet.

Sports >  WSU football

John Blanchette: Bowl critics should be realistic, join the party

UPDATED: Thu., Dec. 27, 2018

Any canoe ride up the murky creek of social media tells us that the bowl system must die and that the playoff field must expand, and that seemed perfectly reasonable until it came time to board the plane out of Spokane.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga may have muffed the final against North Carolina, but the rest of the semester deserves high marks

UPDATED: Sat., Dec. 15, 2018

So in the wake of the 103-90 pounding at the Dean Dome and their second straight loss – and possible tumble out of top 10 next week – how much credit should be accorded the Zags as this semester ends?

Sports >  Seattle Seahawks

John Blanchette on Seahawks’ win: Ugly is in the eye of the beholder

Mon., Dec. 10, 2018

Rarely has something that looked so bad for so long felt so good.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: With perfection out of the picture, Gonzaga focused on building best team for March

UPDATED: Sun., Dec. 9, 2018

What, you thought they were going to go 40-0?

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Huskies infused new life into rivalry during Gonzaga’s down-to-the-wire win

Wed., Dec. 5, 2018

Three days less than 20 years ago, Bob Bender did a nice thing for some coaching buddies and unwittingly changed the arc of basketball at the University of Washington. He brought the Huskies to play Gonzaga in Spokane.

Sports >  EWU football

John Blanchette: Eastern Washington players haven’t blocked importance of special teams magic from memories

UPDATED: Sat., Dec. 1, 2018

Not to slide the Eagles’ greatest hits album onto the turntable yet again, but consider what might be the most forgotten defining play in Eastern Washington football history.

Sports >  WSU football

John Blanchette: Let’s boost Washington State’s status by packing it in with Pac-12

Wed., Nov. 28, 2018

It sounds as if Mike Leach and athletic director Pat Chun are going to the mattresses to try to rub out the Barzinis, Tattaglias and Cuneos -- otherwise known as Florida, LSU and Penn State – muscling in on what they believe to be Washington State’s New Year’s bowl turf.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga dealt another tough blow ahead of blowout win over North Dakota State

UPDATED: Mon., Nov. 26, 2018

Quite the party the Gonzaga Bulldogs threw at McCarthey Athletic Center on Monday night. Marmite and earthworm pizza. Vinegar upside down cake. And a piñata filled with 30-weight Castrol and cockroaches. OK, so it wasn’t nearly that grim.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Gonzaga puts up its dukes in true championship form

UPDATED: Wed., Nov. 21, 2018

They didn’t win the national championship. It only felt that way.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Good Zags show up to replace Bad Zags in Maui Invitational semifinal win

UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 20, 2018

In normal circumstances, there might be occasion to bask in the glow of Tuesday’s 91-74 sprint past Arizona a smidgen longer – just to appreciate the fulfillment of taking something ghastly and turning it into something great. This is not normal. This is Maui.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Madness in Maui gives Gonzaga first test of its season against Illinois

UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 20, 2018

Giorgi Bezhanishvili is a University of Illinois freshman from Georgia – the one wedged between Turkey and Russia, not between Florida and Bubba – via Austria and a New Jersey high school. Somewhere in the pronunciation of his name, you can extract the word “bashful,” which he is decidedly not.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Santa Clara answers Mark Few’s call to arms

UPDATED: Thu., Nov. 15, 2018

It’s Santa Clara’s answer to comments Gonzaga’s longtime basketball coach made to Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ed Graney at last month’s West Coast Conference media day at Orleans Arena – a continuation of a Few theme that’s been logged in the Spokesman for, well, years.

Sports >  WSU football

John Blanchette: In era of eye-popping offenses, Washington State defense as good as they need to be

UPDATED: Sat., Nov. 10, 2018

The Wazzu defense came within one communications breakdown of a shutout, which was far more “D” than was required to bulldoze the Buffs.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: On decision night, Gonzaga cruises to decisive victory over Idaho State

UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 6, 2018

If they’re going to sync the first night of college basketball with Election Tuesday, each dribble, pass and basket is going to be a referendum.

Sports >  WSU football

John Blanchette: Washington State keeps closer eye on national scoreboard with each passing week

UPDATED: Sun., Nov. 4, 2018

It’s been established: The Pac-12 can’t get out of its own way. So maybe try this, fellas: Get the hell out of Washington State’s.

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

John Blanchette: Killian Tillie injury will force Gonzaga to test flexibility in a hurry

UPDATED: Thu., Nov. 1, 2018

When we last left the Gonzaga Bulldogs in competitive mode, Killian Tillie was hunched in a sideline chair in the Staples Center, jacket collar pulled up under his lower lip. His mien suggested he’d just been served one of those employee special pizzas now famous at Comerica Park.