A Grip on Sports: What’s better on a Sunday morning than looking back at Saturday’s action, no matter the results?
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Another Sunday awaits. Which means, of course, a Saturday had just passed. Which means, of course, we need to relay all that happened on that day. Which means, of course, you’ve already skipped down to the rest of this piece.
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• Let’s start in Fargo, where the Bison trampled Eastern Washington once again. The second half domination just underscored the simple key to the Eagles’ success each year.
When Eastern’s defense is top notch, as it was in the national title season and as its been at times since, the team has a legitimate shot in the FCS playoffs. When it’s a bit wobbly, then the Eagles struggle.
Put simply, the offense is good enough every year for Eastern Washington to compete with anyone, especially in the Big Sky Conference. But the defense is the difference maker, good or bad, when the playoffs roll around. This season, that side of the ball was too depleted to reach the needed level.
And the season is over.
• Is Eric Barriere’s Eastern career over as well? The fifth-year senior quarterback could return in the fall, thanks to a do-over granted every college football player by the NCAA. Call it a reward for having swabs stuck up your nose on a continual basis.
Barriere and coach Aaron Best were asked that question after the 42-20 loss to North Dakota State yesterday and both were non-committal. They did confess to having spoken about it, but the gist of those conversations, and the outcome, if any, were not disclosed. That will allow Eagle fans a few more months of speculation and either hope or dread.
• South of Spokane, Washington State held its final spring practice of the season. It’s called the Crimson and Gray game, but, honestly, it is rarely a true game. By this time of spring practice most every season, the Cougars are so low in numbers it becomes more of another scrimmage.
Though this one did feature a long-snapper duel to start, so there was that.
Anyhow a bunch of WSU stars either did not play – Liam Ryan, Willie Taylor III, Max Borghi among others – or only appeared on a limited basis – most notably transfer quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, who was injured on his one pass attempt – in this one. Which makes it hard to build a portfolio of expectation for the fall.
Except one has already been built, among the Cougar faithful at least. Now the players will spend the next few months building their personal portfolios in advance of the September start.
• This time of year we always expect John Blanchette to turn the Academy Awards into his own firing range of sports shots. Then we realized the pandemic put a kibosh on movie making for the most part, thus limiting his ammo.
No worries. John just turned on Turner Classic Movies one week and he was ready to go. Either that or he rifled through my DVD collection – yes I still have one – while I was away.
Whatever the source material, he was able to put together his usual column. And we get to read it.
• We knew Tommy Lloyd’s departure from Gonzaga would change the makeup of the program in some way. We just didn’t realize how quickly it would. And to what extent.
The first real fallout was the departure of backup center Oumar Ballo, who ended up following Lloyd to Arizona. The next? That would be incoming big man Fanbo Zeng, a 6-foot-9 project from China that hoped to followed the Rui Hachimura path to the NBA.
Now Zeng, and his advisors, have decided the best idea is to forge his own path through the G League.
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WSU: As we mentioned above, the Cougars finished off their spring practices Saturday. Theo Lawson was there and though the weather wasn’t perfect, it didn’t snow. But the defense did snow under the short-handed offense, something Theo covers in his main story. … He also has a story on Guarantano’s injury as well as a notebook that begins with walk-on Kannon Katzer’s big day. … The baseball team won at California. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college sports, it rained at Washington’s 11th practice, which was also the Huskies’ second scrimmage. … The Oregon defense stepped up in the Ducks’ second scrimmage. … Whether Oregon State actually plays a spring game will be determined by the number of healthy players able to participate. … There is some young experienced players on the front lines for Colorado. … Arizona’s spring ended with a fun scrimmage. There seems to be a new attitude in Tucson. … In basketball news, Lloyd has accomplished a lot in his first few days at Arizona, but there is a lot more to be done. … Finally, the new transfer rules are long overdue.
Gonzaga: Will Drew Timme follow Jalen Suggs and Joel Ayayi into the NBA draft? And should he? Jim Meehan asked a couple of scouts that latter question and shares the answer here. … Jim also has a story on the report Zeng is headed to the G League, which we linked above as well.
EWU: Ryan Collingwood has the coverage of the Eagles’ first-round playoff exit. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Weber State, the conference regular-season champion, allowed a last-minute touchdown to Southern Illinois and was eliminated at home.
Preps: There were some outstanding performances at the high school level Saturday and Dave Nichols passes along all of them in this roundup. … Shawn Vestal weighs in on the stadium-site decision.
Mariners: Kyle Seager came into the Boston series with a long string of hitless at-bats. He’s broken out of that slump in a big way, including driving in three runs yesterday in an easy 8-2 victory. … Chris Flexen has thrown well thus far.
Seahawks: It’s about time the Hawks drafted another long cornerback.
Sounders: A draw in Los Angeles after trailing early? Yes please. The 1-1 decision gives Seattle four points after two matches.
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• What are you looking forward to on this Sunday? Me, I’m looking forward to Thursday, when the high in Spokane is expected to hit 76. Yep, 76. That sounds just about perfect. Until later …