Don’t be that Rob Lowe

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Saw this on Twitter last night: “Hi, I’m Rob Lowe. … And I’m BYU-in-the-second-half Rob Lowe.” Ya, that’s just about perfect. Read on.

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• I didn’t get to see BYU’s second-half collapse last night. I was kicking off my run for mayor by speaking at a local church’s men’s group (half that statement is true). So all I was able to watch was the first half, and only part of that. And boy were the Cougars exceptional. Oh, there were warning signs, like Kyle Collinsworth’s foul trouble, but when a team builds a 17-point halftime lead, you’re not really expect a second-half collapse. But that’s what happened . Mississippi turned up the pressure and BYU folded. Too bad for the Cougars, too bad for the West Coast Conference. It seems as if every NCAA tournament game is a referendum on a) the selection committee’s work; and b) the conference each school belongs to. In last night’s case, it was a chance for the WCC to build its reputation at the expense of one of the power six conferences, the SEC. Instead a huge lead was thrown away, a game lost and the chance was wasted. The only other team out there that can polish the WCC’s reputation? That would be Gonzaga. And no matter what the Zags do, failing an NCAA title of course, is ever enough for the national media these days. Most of us level-headed Spokanites would just love to see the Bulldogs play on the tournament’s second weekend. That would be a win these days. But when you win 30-plus games, rank only behind Kentucky in the polls at times this season and are a two seed, that won’t be enough to deflect the to-be-expected overrated talk on ESPN or Yahoo. Only a Final Four berth, or maybe an Elite Eight loss to Duke, will do that. It doesn’t matter that first-half BYU from last night was the team that showed up in the Kennel a couple weeks ago. And second-half BYU was nowhere to be found in any of the three meetings between the schools this season. Nope, drawing a line from the team that built a 17-point lead – and looked unbeatable – to the Zags being pretty good is just a bit too hard for most. So we’ll do it for them. BYU played 40 minutes of that type of basketball here. Actually, BYU played 40 minutes of better basketball here. And still barely got past Gonzaga. On senior night. So don’t worry about GU’s bona fides. It has them. Now all it has to do is show the rest of the country, starting Friday. Why? Well, we don’t want anyone tweeting out “Hi, I’m Rob Lowe. … And I’m Gonzaga-in-the-NCAAs Rob Lowe” do we?

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• WSU: The Cougars will host Eastern Washington tonight in a WNIT game. Tom Clouse has an advance . … The baseball team is on a tough road trip and dropped a tight one at USD last night. … It’s pretty obvious Jon Wilner thinks Johnny Dawkins is underachieving at Stanford. … How will the Pac-12 North defensive backs fare next season?

• Gonzaga: There is always a lot of Zag news this time of year but the best of it today is this story from our Jim Meehan. … Tom has an interesting piece on George Washington’s coach being a bit unprepared for questions about GU’s women. Just who is “Julie” anyway? … The Zag women are in Corvallis, along with three other schools . … Jacob Thorpe’s college baseball notebook focuses upon a Gonzaga pitcher who is finally fully healthy, and throwing like it. … The cool kids all believe college basketball is in trouble , so everyone is onboard . I’ve never been cool, though I sure wish the games were refereed tighter, as it was at the start of the last couple seasons. … Saint Mary’s begins its NIT experience tonight.

• EWU: The last time Eastern was in the NCAA tournament, Gregg Smith was young. Now he’s a high school teacher handing out advice to everyone. Jim Allen has the story . He also has a notebook and a morning post with links. … The Australians on Eastern’s roster like Venky Jois (pictured) all are having a good time in the States. John Blanchette’s column makes that abundantly clear.

• Chiefs: Despite being a playoff team this season, the Chiefs will still have one of the top two picks in May’s bantam draft. Chris Derrick explains why in his WHL notebook . … Tri-City may not make the playoffs after last night’s loss to Seattle. … Everett is trying to hold off Portland in the U.S. Division.

• Preps: The precedent has been set. Washington teams can now compete in national high school events. Gonzaga Prep’s girls are the latest to get an invite and they will play in New York in early April. Greg Lee has the story . … The desire for schools to do this sort of thing is part of the impetus behind a handbook amendment slated to be voted upon by the WIAA’s Rep assembly next month. The amendment would allow all coaches 20 days of out-of-season work with students in their sport.

• Seahawks: The rumor mill was in full swing yesterday with the story being Michael Bennett (pictured) had asked for a trade to Atlanta and Greg Hardy was going to visit Seattle. Neither is probably true , but what is true is agents love to try to drive the price up for their clients. And both Bennett and Hardy have the same agent. Hmmm. … What also is for sure is the Hawks are still looking for free agent offensive linemen . And Cary Williams can’t wait for the season to start.

• Mariners: Did the M’s draw yesterday? Yes they did , 5-5 with the White Sox . No, we’re not talking soccer, that’s just below. But spring training games don’t always have to have a winner. … There will be a winner in the bullpen lefty battle and David Rollins wants it to be him. … Despite a couple setbacks, James Paxton vows to be ready for the start of the season.

• Sounders: Seattle is in the midst of a bye week , though that doesn’t mean nothing is going on. There were a couple players signed yesterday, a minor league match is up this week and Sigi Schmid is back .

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• Two more play-in (or, in BYU’s case, play-out) games are on tap tonight. Tomorrow the real fun begins. My butt will be glued to my aptly named Laz-E-Boy, that’s for sure. Until later …