College basketball is hard to beat

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If you want to make an argument college basketball season is the best of all sports seasons, you won’t get an argument here. Especially if you present last night as Exhibit A. Read on.

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• OK, I know the NFL dominates the national sports scene. Rightfully so, considering the money wagered each week through legal, illegal and fantasy means. But it’s nights like last night that have me put my money on college hoop. Figuratively, not literally. Who would want to see me shirtless? That’s what would happen if I tried to make a living figuring out who was going to win college basketball games, and by how much. Again, last night is a good example. Eastern Washington got it started, defeating Portland State 92-85 in a win that is better than the score indicates. The Vikings have given Eastern problems recently and the game was in Portland. Plus, Venky Jois, the best big on the court for either team, wasn’t on the court long, playing just nine minutes before rolling an ankle and having to leave. Despite losing one of the Big Sky’s top five players, the Eagles gutted out the win. Their reward? A showdown for first place Saturday at Sacramento State. California can be a tough place to visit this time of year, as Gonzaga found out. First off is the traffic. A downed light pole caused a massive backup on PCH, making a tough commute from the South Bay even tougher for the Zags. (If this were 1976, my guess would be James Garner had crashed Jim Rockford’s Firebird into the pole trying to avoid some soon-to-be-a-star actor playing a nondescript bad-guy role.) But driving didn’t seem to be a problem for the Waves, who penetrated the gaps in GU’s defense much of the night and almost upset the nation’s third-ranked team (a fact we were reminded of 1,783 times – or so – during the TV broadcast). The Zags helped in other ways, too, mainly by deciding Thursday was a good night to quit hitting free throws. Their uncharacteristic 14-for-33 performance at the line – GU was shooting 73 percent coming in – allowed the Waves to stay close in Gonzaga’s 78-76, hang-on victory. However, there was a silver lining to all the free throw misses. The stoppages in play allowed time to flip over to the Pac-12 Network where the Cougars and Oregon Ducks were washing the last vestiges of Dick and Tony Bennett out of Beasley Coliseum. Defense? Who needs defense? The score at halftime was 57-52 and believe it or not it was the Cougars with the 57. That was their final total in 12 games last season, before Ernie Kent walked in and – seemingly – magically infused every Cougar with confidence in their offensive abilities. Getting stops? Building confidence in that may take a bit longer. It took until overtime last night, but the Cougar defense finally showed up in the extra five minutes and that was the difference in the 108-99 victory. The Ducks were 37 of 66 from the field in regulation, a make-Dick-Bennett-flip-out 56 percent. In overtime, they were 1 of 11. The Cougars only made one shot from the field in OT as well, but that was enough to give them the lead. And then 12-of-14 from the free throw line was enough to seal it. If you are wondering, WSU is 3-1 in Pac-12 play, tied for third with, ahem, Arizona, the 10th-ranked team in the nation. See, college basketball is wacky, weird and, most importantly, always, always , wonderful.

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• WSU: Jacob Thorpe battled deadline last night – overtime on an 8 p.m. start usually means deadline wins – and came away with a draw. Or at least this game story as well as video of Cougar players and Ernie Kent . He also put up the box score on the blog. … Jacob, as usual, has a morning post with links. … Here’s the Register-Guard’s story of the game. … Football may be over but football coverage isn’t. ESPN.com’s Pac-12 blog has a mailbag .

• Gonzaga: I wonder if Jim Meehan missed most of the traffic jam ? See, as a veteran of covering games in Malibu, Jim has a restaurant he hits before the contest, beating most of the commuters in their late-afternoon flight from Santa Monica. Whether he did or not, Jim got his game story done as well as a blog post . And he’ll be back today with another report here on SportsLink. … Portland has been struggling, in large part due to injuries. The Pilots lost again last night at Loyola-Marymount. … St. Mary’s is still undefeated in conference, getting past USD at home last night. Up Saturday for the Gaels is BYU , who handled Pacific in Stockton. … The Cougars have found the WCC to be as tough as they could want . … On the women’s side, Pepperdine invaded McCarthey and gave GU all it could ask for. The Bulldogs prevailed, 73-64 and are alone atop the WCC standings. Tom Clouse has the game story .

• EWU: As we mentioned, Eastern found a way to win in Portland last night, keeping it atop the Big Sky Conference standings. … The Eastern women have won seven consecutive games . … Back to the men, we have a roundup to pass along as well as a story on Southern Utah’s win.

• Idaho: The Vandals led at halftime but couldn’t hang on , losing to Sacramento State 79-76.

• Preps: There were GSL basketball games last night, most notably Gonzaga Prep’s girls hold off a challenge from Central Valley (pictured). Greg Lee was at G-Prep and has this game story . We also have a GSL boys roundup . … Thursday night is a wrestling night and Mike Vlahovich has this coverage . … We also can pass along another roundup of other action.

• Seahawks: Let’s get the important stuff out of the way. Everyone was a full participant in practice yesterday, so every player who isn’t out for the season is available on Sunday. … The Seattle Times continues to put out special sections as the playoff ride rolls on, with Larry Stone talking about relationships and Russell Wilson’s place in Seattle’s sports hierarchy. … Speaking of friendship, how Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas bonded is the stuff of Hollywood . … Chancellor and Kenny Easley also have a bond. … Speaking of bonding , Wilson and Luke Willson seem to be doing just that. … Pete Carroll spoke yesterday and so did Dan Quinn , a head coaching candidate around the league, and a handful of players. … Thomas expects Aaron Rogers to be at full strength Sunday. … The Packers have their own worries, like Marshawn Lynch . … Remember, Carroll used to coach Clay Matthews, even if he didn’t play Matthews all that much.

• Sounders: The MLS held what it calls its Super Draft yesterday (there are so many drafts the league has to label them) and the Sounders made some moves. A trade or two moved them up the list and they took a UW player in the first round, one of three selections the team made.

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• It’s Friday. It’s a special Friday. I’m on the radio today. You can listen here between 3 and 6 p.m. as I try not to get in the way of Dennis Patchin and Rick Lukens on 700 ESPN. Until then …