Early May is basketball season, right?

• Early yesterday morning the news broke Przemek Karnowski, a 7-footer from Poland, had committed to Gonzaga. We passed that along in yesterday’s blog post. The left-handed big, who will enroll in the fall, should help the Zags right away, so this was big news all the way round. And not just because of his skills, but also because of what he represents. See, Karnowski, who would probably be a top-25 or 30 recruit if he were an American high school player, has been pretty well known in European circles the past year and recently had caught the eye of pretty high-powered schools in the U.S. Is Marquette high-powered enough for you? No, then how about Duke? Both schools pushed hard for visits from Karnowski and did their best to get into the recruiting sweepstakes. But it didn’t happen. He visited just two schools, GU and California, which may have been recruiting him longer than anyone. In the end, Karnowski chose Gonzaga. So let’s summarize. One of the top basketball schools in the nation, another school in the top conference and a Pac-12 school with a high academic reputation that had been recruiting him for years weren’t as enticing to Karnowski as a small Jesuit university in out-of-the-way Spokane. This is a pretty big get for the Zags.

• We have more college basketball news in both the GU and Washington State sections below but just one thought about the Mariners. Manager Eric Wedge seems to have hit the tipping point with guys like Chone Figgins and Brendan Ryan. It seems their offensive production has crashed to a level that even Wedge, who seems to be a patient man, can’t handle it anymore. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a change made in left field (Mike Carp probably) and shortstop (Munenori Kawasaki or a youngster from the minors), possibly even for today’s getaway game. If those changes happen, I hope Ichiro, who his hitting .312, remains in the lineup’s third spot. After all, he seems to be flourishing there, so why mess with one of the team’s few bright spots?

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• Washington State: Christian Caple is back with this morning’s blog post , which includes the news of a redshirt walk-on headed out the door. … The WSU basketball schedule for next year probably won’t be announced until August or September, but we can always piece together parts of it from other sources. Such is the case today, when we find Kansas lists the Cougars as part of the CBE Classic in Kansas City, Nov. 19-10 along with Texas A&M and St. Louis. And the Jayhawks expect to play WSU in the first round. The last time WSU faced Kansas, the NCAA runner-up last season? Dec. 14, 1973 in the Jayhawks Classic. KU won 66-51. … FootballScoop.com did a video interview with offensive line coach Clay McGuire, which you can watch here . … A former USC running back is headed to his third school.

• Gonzaga: We have a bunch of links on Karnowski, starting with Jim Meehan’s blog post and story in the S-R. There is coverage from all over, including all the outlets that are big on recruiting. Jim also mentions scheduling in his story, with Kansas State a part of that. … This story on Courtney Vandersloot isn’t the best-written piece, but it does contain quite a bit of information. … The GU men couldn’t hold off Oregon in baseball again Wednesday.

• Whitworth: The Pirates are headed to the NCAA Division III playoffs for the first time, led by a head coach who gets carded in his own dugout. John Blanchette has the particulars in his column .

• Preps: It is Thursday, which is prep page day at the S-R, so we have a lot, including a Greg Lee column about the often-touchy coach/parent relationship. … Greg also has all the track coverage you would ever need, including a notebook . … U-Hi baseball moved on in the 3A playoffs while there is this feature on a Gonzaga Prep player with a famous last name. … Former Reardan basketball player Sherman Alexie has made a name for himself outside hoop, but he’s still a basketball fan .

• Bloomsday: The defending women’s champ (Misiker Mekonnin, No. 9 in photo at right) is back, but she has run more in the past four months than most of us have in our lifetimes. Jim Allen has the story .

• Mariners: We are not going to dwell on the negatives, I promise. Even if they outweigh the positives – Kyle Seager’s two-home-run, four-RBI day – by about 10 to 1. Instead we’ll just pass along the links to the Rays’ 5-4 win , add a couple more about possible position switches and move along. It’s all we can do. … There was a no-hitter last night, from the Angels’ Jered Weaver.

• Sounders: Seattle posted a big win last night, 2-0 over the defending MLS champion (and the league’s most hated team) LA Galaxy. Sure, the Galaxy left stars David Beckham and Robbie Keane in Los Angeles, but a win is a win, right? That seems to be the thrust this morning. … You want pictures ? The Tacoma News-Tribune has them for you.

• Seahawks: Nothing from the Seahawks in particular, but there were two huge NFL stories yesterday we can’t ignore. … Former USC and San Diego Charger (among other teams) linebacker Junior Seau seemingly took his life yesterday. Christian linked a Sports Illustrated feature and we offer the news story from San Diego. … And the league came down hard on four Saints ( including an ex-Seahawk) for their part in the bounty scandal. We headed to New Orleans for the coverage .

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• That’s what we have for you this morning. A bit different May 3, that’s for sure. Until later …