All the hoop you could ever want just by flicking a switch

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The weekend is upon us. It’s supposed to be a cool and dreary one around here, which is just fine, right? That gives us all the perfect excuse to stay inside and watch hour and hours of sports. And maybe dust the TV. Maybe. Read on.

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• A good friend read a Red Skelton joke at lunch yesterday, one in which the old-time comedian said his wife asked him what was on TV tonight. “Dust,” was Red’s reply. Very funny – for the 1960s. My first thought, in these modern times, was why didn’t Red get off his rear end and clean it off? Probably the same reason most of us wouldn’t. We are too enamored with watching the darn thing. Think about this. When UCLA was winning its national basketball titles when Red was a TV star, their regular season games were seen by those in attendance. And anyone like me who was silly enough to stay up late and watch them tape-delayed on one of the local Southern California over-the-air channels. That was it. Oh, there was an occasional national broadcast of a big matchup and the NCAA tournament games were mainly on CBS, but that was all. You wanted to watch John coach Lew or Bill or Sidney, you had to be ready to stay up to around midnight to see them in action. Times have changed, haven’t they? Every Gonzaga game is on somewhere. So are most of the Cougars’ games. There are enough college basketball games – and every other sport you could imagine – on the tube to ruin a marriage. Or at least lead to an argument about who will clean off the TV.

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• WSU: It’s still one more day before the Cougar men take the basketball court again against Washington but the women met last night in Seattle. And for the third consecutive time in the series, the WSU women won . … Jacob Thorpe had a funny blog post yesterday. He also has his morning links today. … ESPN.com’s Pac-12 blog has its weekly mailbag as well as the biggest shoes WSU has to fill in the football offseason. The ESPN folks think they belonged to Xavier Cooper , who had a good day yesterday at the NFL combine.

• Gonzaga: The Bulldogs know they are in for it tonight. It’s Senior Night in Moraga and the Gaels need a statement win in the worst way. This may just be their last chance to get an NCAA look, baring winning the WCC postseason tournament, of course. Jim Meehan will be in the bandbox St. Mary’s calls home tonight and has this advance of the contest. He also had a look back at the Pacific win yesterday on the blog. … Jim headed up to Sacramento last night as well, as former Gonzaga player David Stockton was signed to a 10-day contract by the Sacramento Kings. Jim has a story though Stockton did not get into the game. … The Gonzaga baseball team lost to UC Davis. … BYU is on a four-game winning streak and sees opportunity in the stretch run.

• Idaho : There was a bit of a problem on the Idaho bench Thursday night in the 72-65 loss to Northern Arizona. Head coach Don Verlin got into assistant coach Chris Helbling, finally throwing behind the bench a book Helbling was holding and sending Helbling to the locker room. You can watch the entire incident here as it was caught on camera by the Fox broadcast and shared via Mitch Stroham’s Twitter. Not the best look for Verlin or the Idaho program.

• Chiefs: Calgary scored three times in the third period and edged the host Chiefs, 4-3. Chris Derrick was at the Arena and has this game story and a blog post . … Portland also scored three times in the third and defeated Vancouver 5-2. … Tri-City rallied in Everett and came away with a 2-1 shootout victory.

• Preps: Friday night was a busy one for the preps, though this Friday always is. … Over in Tacoma, there state wrestling tournament is in progress, and Greg Lee was there. He has stories on the 4A results , the 3A matches and the smaller schools’ tournament . Greg also posted results of the matches on the blog. …. The state gymnastics tournament also was held in Tacoma with Mead’s Jenna Schlosser won the all-around title . … On the basketball front, Rogers won the 3A subregional title over Kennewick and will head to state again. Jim Allen has the story and Colin Mulvany supplies the photo report . … In the 4A boys, Richland rallied in the fourth quarter to get past Mead while Central Valley stayed alive with a 55-53 win over rival University. … The 4A girls saw Gonzaga Prep qualify for the state tournament with a 52-46 win at Walla Walla. And Central Valley stayed alive with a win over Lewis and Clark. Tom Clouse has the latter story . … In Idaho, the Century eliminated the Sandpoint girls from state title contention . … We also have a roundup of the other basketball action in the region.

• Seahawks: As we mentioned above, the NFL combine is still going on in Indianapolis. Yesterday, Pete Carroll took to the podium and talked about the Hawks’ Super Bowl loss , the offseason and what next season has in store . Of course he was positive. Even when he talked about the last-play defeat , he stayed positive. Or when he spoke of Marshawn Lynch and whether the running back wants to come back . Or the Hawks’ attitudes . … Russell Wilson’s contract may give the Hawks a chance to do something different.

• Mariners: Once again the big story in M’s camp yesterday was the little story of Jesus Montero and his weight loss . Montero also seems to have shed his bad attitude , which resulted in a confrontation during a minor league game last season. … The M’s added left-handed pitcher Joe Saunders to the roster . They gave the veteran a minor-league deal with a chance to make the bullpen.

• Sounders: The Sounders return to preseason play tonight against Sporting Kansas City. … Another in the series of questions and answers from the general manager.

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• We’ve got a busy Saturday planned. It’s full of basketball. Hard to imagine a better way to spend the day. Until later …