Grip on Sports: You can take your Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday nights; we like Thursdays

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If Sunday is, as marketed by one of the major networks, “Football Night in America,” than maybe we should start calling Thursday, “College Basketball Night in the U.S.” Or something. Anyone else with me on this one? Read on.

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• Yes, there is college basketball on every night of the week. Heck, Eastern and Idaho each played a game on Monday night this week.

But Thursday is special. Still. And it is especially special – that’s a weird phrase, “especially special” – around these parts.

Take tonight for instance.

Fourth-ranked Gonzaga is home and hosting the University of San Francisco, once thought of as a contender for this season’s WCC title. But, after two consecutive losses, the Dons find themselves three games behind GU in the loss column and needing an upset to stay within binocular distance of the Zags.

Speaking of binoculars, you need a pair to see the top of the Pac-12 standings from where the Cougars sit these days. They are down in Arizona for the weekend – doesn’t that sound nice? – hoping to get a road win and build a bit of an edge on California in the battle to stay out of the conference cellar.

Maybe Washington State will catch ASU looking ahead to conference-leading Washington coming to town and give the Cougars the opening they need.

Or not.

At least it’s warm where WSU is. The same can’t be said for Eastern and Idaho, who are making the Montana trip. The Vandals, who have won just once in Big Sky play, are in Missoula tonight to face the conference-leading Griz while the Eagles face off with Montana State in Bozeman.

Just another typical Thursday night in the upper left corner of the U.S.

• By the way, there is also a couple dozen high school games tonight in the area, as the first round of Washington’s state playoffs are underway. It is the winnowing process that will bring us to the state tournaments in three weeks.

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Gonzaga: The first time GU and USF met, in San Francisco, the game was close until the final moments. As Jim Meehan’s preview explains, the Zags expect more of the same this time around. One main reason: The players Meehan highlights in his key matchup. … It’s always awards season in college basketball. Rui Hachimura was named on two watch lists yesterday while Josh Perkins was on another. Jim also covers all that. … Life can throw so curves at you, as Gonzaga’s Katie Campbell found out. Not only is she an excellent 3-point shooter, she is also a mom. Jim Allen has more in this story. … Around the WCC, a defensive liability at Weber State has turned into BYU’s best defender. That’s odd. … San Diego coach Sam Scholl hasn’t changed despite moving up the ladder.

WSU: Wednesday was the first day of the second football letter-of-intent signing period and the Cougars used it to sign two more players. Theo Lawson looks at the overall class, highlighting its positives and negatives. … As we said, the Cougars are at Arizona State tonight. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, we are doing double duty today, with football and basketball each wanting the spotlight. There are football stories from every school, including more than one at most. Washington signed a great class. So did Oregon, with the Ducks’ class named among the nation’s best. … Oregon State signed a great class, at least to its coach. … Utah signed a great class. … Colorado signed a great class. … USC lost some players but signed a great class. … UCLA hardly went after anyone but signed a great class. … Arizona signed a great class. … And yes, there is some sarcasm involved in those links, though none when it comes to this Arizona State football story. … In basketball, there were games last night, but the biggest news came from Tucson, where Arizona began the process to fire an assistant coach. Will Sean Miller survive? … USC didn’t last night against Utah, losing at home as the Utes bounced back from a bad weekend. … UCLA didn’t put up much resistance at Pauley against Colorado. … Oregon handed California another loss as Payton Pritchard snapped out of a slump. … Washington and Arizona meet tonight, with even Miller admiring the Huskies’ zone. … Oregon State is winning late.

EWU: The Eagles put together a signing class of 25 over the two periods. Ryan Collingwood talked with Aaron Best about it. … Ryan also has his women’s basketball notebook, which begins with an Eastern guard who is about to join the school’s top-10 all-time scoring list. … Around the Big Sky, Portland State went for speed in football recruiting. … Montana signed a lot of players. … Montana State focused on bigger ones. … Weber State added some speed. … Idaho State waited until yesterday to sign most of its class. … Northern Colorado stayed in-state for most of its recruits. … Northern Arizona head coach Chris Ball’s contract was revealed. … In basketball, the Griz have been helped by the emergence of another player. … Weber State is looking for revenge. … Idaho State has the tough southern road trip ahead. It opens at Northern Arizona.

Idaho: The Vandals finished up their recruiting class with 10 more players. Peter Harriman takes a look at the entire group.

CCS: The Sasquatch women picked up a win in Walla Walla.

Chiefs: Spokane traveled to Kelowna and earned a 5-4 victory.

Preps: We mentioned the district playoffs up above. Dave Nichols talked about them with Larry Weir yesterday in our most recent Press Box pod. … Dave then went up the South Hill to Ferris and covered the Saxons’ easy win over Hanford. That leads the District 8 boys roundup. There is also a District 8 girls roundup as well as girls and boys roundups with games from around the area. … With it being football letter-of-intent day, Dave also has a story on Rogers player who is headed to Idaho.

Seahawks: The offseason still has a bunch of questions that need answers.

Mariners: Major League Baseball’s investigation into Lorena Martin’s accusations turned up no “credible evidence,” though Martin says they didn’t talk to anyone who could corroborate her story.

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• We will be back tonight with our TV Take from the Gonzaga game. It should be fun. Until then …