Grip on Sports: What’s behind us shouldn’t matter, but it always does even when we are looking ahead

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Can we stop looking in the rear-view mirror? To look ahead at what may be, not what happened in the past? Well, yes. And no. Read on.

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• Of course we have to start looking ahead sometime.

The Mariners have started their season and 160 more (disappointing) games await (or something like that). The Cougars are holding spring practice in anticipation of another great fall football season. Same with the Eagles and Vandals.

Heck, we are in the midst of the greatest golf week of the year.

But when the city’s college basketball team comes oh so close, comes within a few seconds, maybe comes within a wrong uniform choice (see below), from winning the national title, then we need to spend at least one more day with those what-happened stories.

Not completely, though. Both John Blanchette and Jim Meehan took a look at what’s ahead for Gonzaga. And that gets us thinking.

How good can the Bulldogs be?

Pretty darn good, actually. Maybe even better, potentially, than this group was at this time last season. OK, that’s a joke. The potential for next year’s group, right now, is a lot higher than it was for last year’s group on April 5. It’s just last year’s group overachieved spectacularly. 

Look back to last spring. No one knew whether Przemek Karnowski would be able to play at the level he had before. He was coming off a major back injury for goodness sakes. Or how good the freshmen would be. Or if Nigel Williams-Goss and Johnathan Williams would fit in. Or even if the Zags could attract a grad transfer to fill a guard spot.

Everyone one of those questions was answered with an overwhelmingly positive affirmative.

This year there are two main questions. Will Zach Collins return? Will Williams-Goss return?

If both do, the Zags are a top-five team to start the season – even if they aren’t ranked that way.

If Collins leaves, as many expect, and Williams-Goss stays, ditto, then they are a top-10 team.

If both leave, then it’s a new world – just as this year was.

For the sake of argument, let’s say Collins enters the NBA draft and Williams-Goss stays to get his doctorate in quantum physics. (Again, a joke – sort of.)

That would give Mark Few three returning guards, all of whom can handle the ball, shoot it and defend (though Perkins still needs to focus more on that end).

Inside, Killian Tillie and Williams would be joined by redshirt Jacob Larsen, 6-foot-11, 230-pound freshman from Denmark that impressed everyone before a knee injury necessitated surgery. That’s a solid frontcourt. It may not have a mammoth like Karnowski in the middle, but few teams do.

Then we have to factor in 6-8 Rui Hachimura (pictured), 6-6 Jeremy Jones – both of whom saw limited action this season – and 6-5 freshman Zach Norvell Jr., who also redshirted this year.

Could Gonzaga actually play a North Carolina-like small forward next season, a wing with size, length and a shooting touch that causes matchup problems for everyone?

And that doesn’t even factor in the incoming freshmen, including Jesse Wade, a sharpshooter who will be in his 20s following his LDS mission. Those type of guys have worked out pretty well for BYU over the years.

Say that’s your rotation.

That’s 10 guys. Ten talented guys. Remember all the talk about Gonzaga’s depth this season? Be ready for more of the same in the fall.

And if the group gels in the same manner as its predecessor?

That’s something worth looking forward to, right?

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Gonzaga: As we said, John and Jim – weren’t those the two guys in the balcony on the Muppet Show? – look to the future, with John focusing on overarching themes and Jim on next year’s roster. … Editor Rob Curley has a thank you letter to pass along. … The team returned home yesterday and Tyler Tjomsland took photographs of its arrival. … Whitney Ogden confronted the elephant in the arena, the cursed black jerseys. … OK, there are national stories that look back on the title game with a Gonzaga emphasis and there are stories that focus on the officiating. There are also stories that look toward next season and name winners and losers. And then there is this column from Dave Boling I overlooked yesterday but want to pass along.

WSU: There is one position of real interest in Pullman right now and that would be the Cougar wide receivers. The Times’ Stefanie Loh delves into the spring battles there. … Around the Pac-12 in football, UCLA’s Josh Rosen is healthy. … USC has to put together a solid offensive line, which isn’t easy. … Utah doesn’t mind its quarterbacks getting hit occasionally. … Everyone is starting from the same spot at Oregon. … In basketball, Arizona lost a couple of key components while Washington, with a new head coach, now has finished out its coaching staff.

EWU: Spring football began yesterday in Cheney and, like the past few years, Jim Allen was there. There is a new head coach, though, as Aaron Best begins to shape the Eagles in his image.

Idaho: A Vandal golfer had a good week.

Chiefs: Josh Horton continues his on-line series on the Chiefs, looking at the backline today.

Mariners: Throughout the course of the season, we will redirect you to Dave Nichols’ Mariners Log after each game. That’s where our links will be. And we will have something new for year starting Sunday night. But we’ll keep the lid on it for now. But it’s going to be really cool, like that new bike you got on Christmas when you were 12. In my case, a Stingray with a banana seat. Ya, they other kids were jealous.

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• The Par-3 contest today. The older champions hitting the first tee shots tomorrow. The cut after Friday. Moving Day. And then someone falling apart on Sunday. Yes, the Masters is full of traditions. Unlike any other, right Jim? Until later …