Grip on Sports: Catch your breath, get the chores done, take a hike today because tomorrow is spoken for
A GRIP ON SPORTS • You could call today the storm before the hurricane. And the hurricane’s name? The NCAA. Read on.
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• Yes, the 100-miles-per-hour winds of the NCAA Tournament come ashore again tomorrow, washing everything else out to sea.
But today has a few stormy news items itself and we’re not talking about a woman or the president. We’re more interested in Richard Sherman saying the Seahawks never asked him to take a pay cut. Or the Mariners inching ever closer to the regular season. Or even the news from Logan, Utah, that Utah State wants to chat with Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd about its open basketball coaching position.
What do all those items have in common? They are the hallmarks of offseason minutiae, which is what the first few days of spring brings us – other than the NBA and college basketball’s postseason tournaments, of course.
Football is really in the offseason, though spring football is popping up all over and Washington State’s starting quarterback for next year might have just been identified. Baseball is still a week or so away from starting its regular season. Golf is in a lull until the Masters. Tennis is, well, tennis, so there is no offseason – but there are slow times and we are in one. The same can be said for soccer, though the sport’s slow times means teams are only playing twice a week.
So catch your breath today. Catch up with the other news. Get ready for tomorrow. That will be crazy … no, sorry, that will be madness.
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Gonzaga: Don’t ask Mark Few if this season is his best coaching job. He won’t dignify the question with an answer. But Jim Meehan tries to in this story. … The first weekend of the NCAA is madness, sure. But the second weekend? John Blanchette tells us what to expect. … Whitney Ogden delves into family today, with a look at the players’ parents who travel to watch and another at the one married player on the GU team, Jesse Wade. … Theo Lawson examines Gonzaga’s Sweet 16 history and the rest of the regional crowd. … And yes, we have a story on the Lloyd-to-Logan rumors mentioned above. … Larry Weir has another Press Box pod today and it’s about Gonzaga. … Around the WCC, San Diego will host the Big Sky’s Northern Colorado tonight in the CIT. … Saint Mary’s will host Utah, which it scrimmaged earlier this season.
WSU: Gardner Minshew. Wasn’t that the name of a Harry Potter character? If it wasn’t, it should have been. Minshew, who announced yesterday he’ll spend his senior year at Washington State, was East Carolina’s quarterback last year. He was slated to go to Alabama for his final season. But, like magic, he’s decided to detour to Pullman. Theo has all the particulars in this story. … There is more in the Seattle Times as well. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, spring football is really rolling, with Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, California, Arizona State, USC and Washington either done, in the middle of workouts or about to get started. … USC’s basketball season was disappointing. … Arizona’s was also disappointing and now Sean Miller has been linked to the opening at his alma mater. … The Huskies aren’t disappointed. … California is losing its best scorer. So could Stanford. … Utah is playing really well right now. … Jon Wilner tells us not to blame the Pac-12’s poor basketball showing on commissioner Larry Scott. I respectfully disagree, though you have to connect some dots. The Pac-12 is falling behind financially. That’s Scott’s cross to bear. Other conferences, like the SEC and Big Ten, are spending that money improving their basketball programs. The Pac-12 can’t because it doesn’t have it. Hence, Scott carries some responsibility for the basketball slide. … Speaking of recruiting, money and college hoops, the Oregonian delves into the summer scene again today.
Idaho: The Vandals are hosting the women’s regional in Spokane this weekend, so we will link the stories here. Jim Allen has one this morning.
Preps: Tuesday in the spring are unlike any other in the prep sports world. Except maybe Fridays in spring. There are so many sports that are played in this season, from softball to golf, from baseball to tennis to soccer. Not only do we have roundups, but Jim Allen also gives us a GSL soccer preview and capsule previews from that league as well as the GNL.
Mariners: There is always one breakout star in spring training. The M’s this year? That would be Daniel Vogelbach.
Seahawks: It’s not a fluke. (OK, I’m sorry about that pun already.) The Hawks have signed a guard, hoping to bolster its their offensive line. … Luke Willson said goodbye to Seattle fans last night. He’s headed to Detroit. … Pete Carroll isn’t a young man. But he’s ready for another rebuild. … Sherman did say the Hawks just let him go.
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• Have fun today. You need to. Tomorrow is already accounted for, and I’m not sure watching some of the games will qualify as fun. Nerve-wracking, maybe. Tense, sure. But fun? Depends on your definition. Until later …