We’re headed to the home stretch

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Believe it or not, the college basketball regular season is beginning the stretch run. Before you know it, it will be 50 degrees around here and the conference tournaments will be starting. Only one of those things will happen today, but we’ll look toward the other. Read on.

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• Why are we starting to think about the conference tournaments already? Well, there was a piece in a Salt Lake paper wondering about the West Coast Conference and whether or not it is preparing Gonzaga for the NCAA tournament. To get to the NCAAs, however, the teams in this area not named Gonzaga will have to win their conference tournament. And thus an idea for a morning column was born (in case you were wondering how I do this every freakin’ day).

• Pac-12: The Cougars (10-13, 4-7 in conference) would just like to win a Pac-12 Conference tournament game. That’s not something that happened during Ken Bone’s tenure. Yep, of all the weird things to happen the past four years, not winning a single Pac-12 (or Pac-10) tournament game might be the weirdest. Heck, one year Klay Thompson scored 43 points in 37 minutes and the Cougars still lost to the Huskies, 89-87. So just winning a game this year might be an accomplishment. And the goal. But winning the whole thing? There is little chance of that.

• WCC: Like the Pac-12, the West Coast Conference’s tournament will be in Las Vegas. At the Orleans Casino, or as it is known in Sin City, the Kennel away from the Kennel. Gonzaga (24-1, 12-0) is the presumptive favorite to win the tournament title again, something its done pretty much every year since the turn of the century. But an upset any time between then and now would probably cost the Bulldogs a No. 1 NCAA seed, something they earned a couple years ago. It didn’t help then – they lost in the second round to Wichita State – but it may help this year, if only to keep the Zags out of the same region as Kentucky. The undefeated Wildcats would be a major roadblock for GU if it wants to make its first-ever Final Four.

• Big Sky: There are competing goals for the two teams in the area in this conference. Idaho (9-12, 4-6) is just trying to be finish as one of the top eight teams in the Big Sky, which would ensure a berth in the tournament. Eastern Washington (18-5, 9-1) is trying to win the darn thing and play host. Winning the tournament and the ensuing NCAA bid would be a lot easier in Cheney than it would be in Sacramento (or Reno). The Eagles can take a big step toward their goal tomorrow night when they host Sacramento State (16-6, 10-1), the only team to defeat EWU in Big Sky play. And, for the area’s basketball fans, it’s probably a good idea to root for Eastern to play host. If the Hornets happen to win the conference and host the tournament in Reno , that could hurt down the road. Both Spokane and Reno have bid to become the permanent host of the tournament and it wouldn’t seem fair to give the biggest little city in the world a chance to audition.

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• WSU: It was kind of a quiet day in Pullman yesterday, though Jacob Thorpe was able to pull together enough items for a morning post with links. … The Cougars will host the Arizona schools this weekend and the Tucson paper has this piece on DaVonté Lacy. … Ben Howland remains unemployed, though UCLA is still paying him. … This guy and his Oregon State teammates made one of my Saturdays as an 11-year-old miserable.

• Gonzaga: The Bulldogs compete every day in practice but Mondays are the day of days, according to Jim Meehan’s weekly notebook . … The Gonzaga women learned a lot in their four-overtime win over USF last Saturday. (I learned the GU seats are hard if you sit there for three hours.) Tom Clouse has more in his weekly women’s basketball notebook .

• EWU: Even though star Vernon Adams will be moving on, that doesn’t mean the Eagles’ goals for next season have changed. Jim Allen has more in this story . … Adams’ decision is still resonating from Seattle to Portland . … Jim also has a blog post on Thursday night’s big game.

• Idaho: The Vandals can’t afford to stumble too often in their final eight conference regular season games. Sean Kramer has more in this blog post .

• Preps: The GSL girls and boys played their loser-out district 8 games last night. … We also have roundups of girls and boys action around the area.

• Chiefs: It’s Wednesday, so Chris Derrick has his WHL notebook . … The Tri-City/Everett rivalry has been a home team’s delight this season.

• Shock: A defender who helped the Shock to an Af2 title a few years back is returning to the team .

• Seahawks: General manager John Schneider was on the radio yesterday and hinted at a couple of interesting developments . Could Marshawn Lynch just hang up his cleats and not play for the Hawks next season? And could Russell Wilson take less money to help Seattle stay competitive ? Stay tuned. … Rocky Seto, passed over as defensive coordinator , was given a new title by the team.

• Sounders: Brad Evans is learning a new position for the Sounders this preseason, all the while having to deal with a potential strike as the player representative. Talk about having to divide your thoughts. … A possible strike is also on the mind of management . … Seattle signed a new left back from Colombia yesterday , though he may be more of a down-the-road guy . … Former Sounder Steve Zakuani has a book out on his journey to recovering from a terrible leg injury.

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• And that’s our report for the day that camels helped make famous. Or is it the other way around? Until later …