A Grip on Sports: Better start getting your excuses in order because this may be the final Saturday you can use ‘it’s too cold’ as the reason to sit and watch college hoops

A GRIP ON SPORTS • This may be it. The last Saturday of the winter. That’s if you define winter as “when the high temperature is less than 50 degrees.” See, the long-range forecast from The Weather Channel is calling for a high of 50 next Saturday. You know what that means. No more excuse of “it’s too cold” when someone tells you to get the heck outside.

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• Other than shoveling snow, winter is perfect for avoiding outdoor chores. Instead of trimming bushes or cutting grass, weekend days can be filled with just sitting on your posterior. With the TV remote in your hand.

Let the white stuff cover the imperfections on the lawn. You’ll get to them eventually. But today, sit down and enjoy what the explosion of cable television has wrought.

You want basketball? Well, sorry, the NBA is on its seven-week long All-Star break. Just kidding. It’s just seven days. Heck, if you got away this week to Mexico, you might just run into the Magic’s backup point guard. Or their starter. Neither is playing in Chicago this weekend.

But there is still basketball to watch. College basketball. Where no one has a union, so games can happen at anytime on any day. Heck, five are available this morning starting at 9, including third-ranked Kansas hosting Oklahoma (ESPN) and eighth-ranked Florida State doing the same with Syracuse (ESPN2).

Those two games are part of a dozen men’s games that feature ranked teams, though none have both teams ranked in the top 25. You would think by the midpoint of February we would be seeing such things more often, but that’s the way this season has gone.

The schedule makers must have thought Maryland at Michigan State (3 p.m. on ESPN) would have featured two ranked teams, but the Spartans, preseason No. 1, haven’t done their part. Neither has Virginia or North Carolina, both of whom are unranked heading into tonight’s Chapel Hill matchup (5 on ESPN).

The best game of the day? That may just be the final one. UC Irvine is at Hawaii, a game that starts at 9 p.m. on ESPN2. Why is that the best? It features my alma mater, that’s why.

Yes, I’m making a point. The best part of college hoops isn’t the games between the best teams – though those are really fun. It’s the games with connections. Gonzaga fans love to watch their Zags (7 p.m. at Pepperdine on ESPN). Washington State fans love to watch their Cougars (5 p.m. at USC on the Pac-12 Network). Washington fans … well they probably will miss tonight’s 7 p.m. game at UCLA (ESPN2) because who wants to watch a team that’s lost seven consecutive games?

• Basketball isn’t all that’s available today. There is football. The XFL, baby. Heck, the home team is playing. The Seattle Dragons. Their home opener versus Tampa Bay is on Fox 28 starting at 2 p.m. There is supposed to be 30,000 people in CenturyLink.

Sorry, we’re going to miss it. We’ll actually be attending a sporting event in person. We’ll be in McCarthey watching the Gonzaga women play Santa Clara. Sure, the seats aren’t as comfortable as my Laz-e-Boy, but there’s something to be said sitting down with 5,999 of your closest friends to unite in a cause – pointing out the missed traveling violation to the folks with the whistles.

• There are other sports to watch as well. Golf’s West Coast swing is winding down. Hockey is still in the middle of its season. And there is Premier League soccer available for the younger crowd.

Better catch it why you can. Next weekend you might be dragged out to Dishman Hills for a hike. Or forced to do hard labor in the front yard. No excuses. Unless, you know, your back goes out today trying to carry that half-rack from the garage fridge to the kitchen.

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Gonzaga: The toughest home game GU has faced this season? That would be against Pepperdine last month. Only Killian Tillie’s long right arm ensured the Zags wouldn’t have to play overtime. The rematch is tonight in Malibu, at the weirdest home court in the West Coast Conference. (To get to their lockeroom at halftime, visiting teams have to traverse the line for the concession stand. There is no truth to the rumor Robert Sacre once stopped and ordered three hot dogs en route.) Jim Meehan will be there. He has this preview and a look at the key matchup. … We’ll be watching from the living room and will post a TV Take right after it’s over. Roxy Bernstein and Corey Williams are on the call. … The women will honor their seniors this afternoon (their final three WCC games are on the road). Jim Allen has a preview of the game as well as a story on senior point guard Jessie Loera, who traveled just 90 minutes up Interstate 90 for her college experience. … The baseball team began play yesterday with a loss to BYU. … Elsewhere in the WCC, when BYU is healthy, the Cougars are as good as anyone not named Gonzaga.

WSU: The women’s basketball team was in Tempe last night and fell to Arizona State 62-59. … The baseball team kicked off its season with a win over host Cal State Bakersfield. … Around the Pac-12, the Huskies will try to snap that seven-game losing streak against UCLA in Pauley Pavilion. A former Bruin is transferring to his dad’s former school. … Oregon’s win over Colorado included a performance from an unlikely source. … Oregon State may have played its best game Thursday in the win over Utah. … Arizona State is surging. … Arizona hopes to keep its hot streak alive at Stanford. … In football news, Oregon State is going to have a fun day for its freshmen. … Colorado’s interim coach hopes the interim title will disappear. … Utah has some huge holes to fill on the defense. … Finally, talk about denial. No, the Pac-12 is not positioned perfectly for the future. … USC has picked up a quarterback transfer.

EWU: The Eagles have been in a recent slump. They’ll try to turn that around today when they travel to Portland State. Ryan Collingwood has a preview.

Whitworth: The Pirates opened their final regular season home weekend by handling Pacific, 91-78. Dan Thompson was in the Fieldhouse and has this story. … The women fell in the earlier game.

Preps: Mt. Spokane’s top-seeded 3A boys and girls basketball teams hosted District 8 semifinals last night and both won. Dave Nichols was there and has the coverage of the girls’ 43-35 win over Hermiston and the boys’ 80-54 victory over Kennewick. … Dave also has this story on Odessa’s Ryan Moffett as the senior closes in on the state scoring record. It wasn’t all that long ago Moffett, who teamed with Gonzaga Prep’s Liam Lloyd, Ferris’ Zach Fleming and Koy Spink among others, won a Spokane AAU title at the expense of a group I coached. And then I had the pleasure of coaching him some that summer.

Chiefs: Spokane’s six-game winning streak came to an end in Portland, courtesy of a 4-1 loss to the U.S. Division-leading Winterhawks.

Mariners: It’s sad, really. Mitch Haniger was playing as well as any Mariner when he was injured last season. Now, after a second surgery, who knows when he will be back.

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• How was your Valentine’s Day? Mine was near perfect. A nice dinner at home with the best spouse in the world, an evening watching Disney+ (we discovered a bunch of Pixar short films that were really fun) and then an hour or so reading in the living room together. We even had a visitor who dropped off flowers and thank you notes that made Kim cry. All in all, I couldn’t think of a more romantic evening. Until later …