There are a lot of sports the Spokane area excels in, but there seems to be one that stands out

A GRIP ON SPORTS • What sport has Spokane excelled in the most the past 20 years? I’m not sure, but there is one sport in which the area has shined in producing great players. And still does. Read on.

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• If you find yourself at the Hub in the Valley or the Warehouse across from Gonzaga on a winter Saturday, chances are you will see a girls’ basketball game. And by girls, I mean girls . Fourth graders, fifth, sixth. The AAU league in town had 55 girls basketball teams playing in five grades this year, which means around 500 young ladies were playing competitive basketball. Some might say too competitive for their ages but that’s an argument for another time. One thing is for certain, the league, which has been around for about 20 years, has produced an inordinate amount of talented women’s basketball players. Why would I think of that today? Mainly because the Pac-12 released two lists yesterday, the 2015-16 all-conference women’s team and the conference’s all-century team . The latter honored the top women’s players in the conference’s first 100 years – though it only dates back to the 1970s, when women’s basketball really began to gain footing in colleges. Included on that team was Briann January, the Lewis and Clark High graduate who went on to star at Arizona State and the WNBA. If you remember, January followed in the footsteps of CV’s Emily Westerberg and Post Falls’ Aubree Johnson, who preceded her in Tempe. Some of us can remember watching all those players along with other like Angie (Tennessee) and Jamie Bjorkland (Gonzaga), as they learned their craft playing in the AAU league in Spokane. Old-timers might say those were the days, sure, but the pipeline continues. The Pac-12 also released its 2015-16 all-conference team yesterday. The player of the year? Oregon State’s Jamie Weisner. Yes, Weisner played her high school basketball in Clarkston (and before that Walla Walla), but she was born in Spokane when her dad, Darcy, was Shadle Park’s head boys coach. And she began playing competitively in the same league that produced January and the others. So how has Spokane produced, and continues to produce, so many outstanding female basketball players? There are a variety of reasons but we want to focus on one: opportunity. There is a tradition here of excellence in the sport. Young girls are given the opportunity to play in a good league from a young age, to be challenged and tested early. Thanks to one of the largest AAU league programs in the nation, there is an opportunity to improve through competition. Again, I understand the oft-stated argument it is too much too soon, but, conceding there is an argument there, others must also concede the system allows the better players to excel as well – and allows an opportunity for them to reach their potential. As the cliché machine that was my father used to say, iron sharpens iron. There is a lot of iron sharpening going on each fall and winter Saturday around here. And it’s helped build a solid local tradition in women’s basketball.

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• WSU: ESPN.com’s Pac-12 blog thinks Washington State will be in great shape at defensive back next season. … The Pac-12 is never in great shape when it comes to talking about basketball game management .

• Gonzaga: Will the Zags earn an NCAA berth if they don’t win the WCC tournament ? Who knows, but it doesn’t look good to most bracketologists.

• Idaho: Who will earn the four first-round byes at the Big Sky tournament? Sean Kramer exams all the tiebreakers concerning Idaho (and Eastern) in this blog post . The conference’s last regular season weekend is on the way.

• Whitworth: The Pirates, 26-1, will host a second-round NCAA tournament game Saturday night. After winning the NWC regular-season and tournament titles, Whitworth received one of two first-round byes and will play the winner of Whitman and Chapman, who meet Thursday night in Walla Walla. Tom Clouse has more in this story . … The school also named a new women’s soccer coach.

• Chiefs: Former Chief Derek Ryan , a Shadle Park High graduate, has been called up to Carolina. … Everett also has ties to an NHL player. … The WHL playoff berths – and seeds – are going down to the final days.

• Skating: Staying on the ice, though in a totally different way, Tom Clouse has a story on April’s Team Challenge Cup in Spokane as well as a feature on former star Scott Hamilton.

• Seahawks: Yesterday was that one time every four years when we all get an extra 24 hours to play with. So how did the Hawks use it? They held a media combine . And yes it was ugly as it sounds. But also very funny . I am so thankful nothing like this was ever in play when I was young. Though there was that one time MLB held an open tryout and I signed up and went through the workouts. I hope that Orange County Register story, and the photos, don’t exist anymore. … What did we learn about the Hawks at the combine?

• Mariners: Don’t expect new manager Scott Servais to bunt much . … Bunting no, but situational hitting ? That’s a big yes. … You interested in outfielders? We have a story for you. Pitchers? We can pass along a Taijuan Walker column and another piece .

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• You know what I have to do every Tuesday? Collect all the trash and, ahem, clean out the cat box. Retirement isn’t all that different from having a real job. The shovel is just smaller. … By the way, a couple folks asked yesterday about Washington State basketball and my thoughts. I have some but I want to wait until the time is right to share them. After the UW game, maybe? Until later …