A Grip on Sports: Will the pandemic run postseason conference basketball tournaments off the road as well?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Just when it seems there is sunshine ahead, it begins to snow. Or, in college basketball parlance these days, it snows positive coronavirus tests. And the resulting slick roads means more and more programs have slid off the road and are stranded in a ditch somewhere.

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• It seems as if the pandemic should be loosening up, doesn’t it? After all, the nation’s numbers are falling after the Christmas surge, more and more folks are having needles stuck in their arms and fewer and fewer are fighting the common-sense practice of wearing a mask.

And yet, yesterday’s news wasn’t good. At least on the West Coast – and in the West Coast Conference.

Jim Meehan’s story this morning about the conference trying to figure out if it should gather all its teams in Las Vegas for a postseason tournament couldn’t have been more timely.

After all, Tuesday two schools, San Francisco and Santa Clara, had to put their men’s programs on pause due to COVID-19 issues in both. That throws wrenches into the conference’s schedule just when things seemed to be easing up in California, home to six of the WCC’s schools.

Of course, USF and the Broncos were not alone. The Oregon men and the Arizona women also hit pause yesterday, once again causing havoc in the Pac-12. At this rate, whether or not having a conference tournament may become moot. That week’s schedule might be filled with regular-season makeup games.

After all, the schools that are a lock to make the tournament, as in Gonzaga, probably shouldn’t be risking more issues by playing then anyway.

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander tweeted out Tuesday the NCAA’s latest travel and practice protocol for the tournament. The rules are incredibly strict and detailed as are the requirements for testing. Schools must pass seven consecutive rounds of testing even before crossing the Indiana border for the tourney.

The NCAA isn’t fooling around people. Not with multi-million dollars – and, quite possibly, the future of the organization – on the line.

When the season began in November, everyone knew there would be bumps, potholes, heck, even a few road closures on the journey to March. But here we are, a little more than a month ahead of the tournament’s start and no one has any idea if the trend line is actually headed toward positive.

We choose to believe it will get better. But our faith was tested yesterday. It makes one wonder if the higher power (and we don’t mean Mark Emmert) is trying to tell us it’s not a good idea to be playing in the midst of a pandemic.

• After much deliberation and discussion with my advisory committee, I’ve decided to ask baseball’s Hall of Fame voters to no longer consider my candidacy. After all, if my body of work as a bullpen catcher in college hasn’t been enough to earn me a spot over the past 40 years, then enough is enough.

After all, a lack of ability shouldn’t deny me entry into Cooperstown. There are a lot of guys already enshrined without enough ability, or a Hall-worthy body of work. One flaw shouldn’t be a deal-breaker. Heck, just ask Curt Schilling. He’ll tell you.

Maybe he and Barry Bonds and Omar Visquel and Roger Clemens and a bunch of others should just start their own Hall of Fame. Put it in Las Vegas. Or in the old Balco building in San Francisco.

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Gonzaga: We linked Jim’s story about the WCC tourney above, but that doesn’t stop us from linking it again here. … He also has a story on the Feb. 6 postponement. And we have stories from the Bay Area on Santa Clara and San Francisco putting their programs on pause. … Joel Ayayi is still in the running for the Jerry West Award for the best shooting guard in the nation. Jim has that story too. … Elsewhere in the WCC, BYU seems headed back to the NCAA tourney.

WSU: Blake Mazza wanted to be closer to home. He got his wish. Theo Lawson has this story on the former Washington State kicker’s transfer to SMU. … Around the Pac-12 and college basketball, how much should the conference pay its next commissioner? Less than Larry Scott, that’s for sure. … The Colorado guards do a good job on the defensive end. … Arizona’s depth has been tested. It passed. … Oregon’s issues cause big problems for USC and, most notably, UCLA. … In football news, Washington has a history of strong secondary play. Will that continue? … Oregon received some good news yesterday concerning returning players, though the Ducks did lose a backup quarterback. … Colorado has been losing a lot of players. … Utah’s Kyle Whittingham spoke with the Salt Lake Tribune. His Utes look like a Rose Bowl contender. … USC picked up a transfer running back. … Arizona State thought it had hired a new offensive line coach. The Sun Devils were wrong. … Arizona’s offense will feature tight ends again.

EWU and Idaho: The Big Sky Conference has been disrupted as well, so Larry Weir tapped one of his many sources for a discussion about it. His conversation with Colter Nuanez is part of the latest Press Box podcast.

Preps: Dave Nichols is pretty handy with Zoom or whatever online software he uses. He spent some time with the Hull twins this week prior to their trip back to the Inland Northwest with their Stanford basketball team. The conversation resulted in this story.

Seahawks: It’s been a long search, but Pete Carroll seems to have found his offensive coordinator. His choice, former Ram passing-game coordinator Shane Waldron, fits a couple criteria. His an advocate of the quick passing game and he worked for one of the Hawks’ biggest rivals, Los Angeles. A move that could serve to strengthen Seattle and weaken L.A. at the same time? Yes, please. … The old way wasn’t working, according to noted observer DK Metcalf. … The Hawks’ special teams certainly worked well. … Chad Wheeler has been released from jail.

Mariners: The M’s are planning on an on-time start to spring training, but they may not have much control over that.

Kraken: If you want to watch Seattle’s NHL franchise come to life, you better have cable. The team’s games will be on ROOT, which means streaming is not an option.

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• I just realized Monday will be the first day of February. I have a true love/hate relationship with February, with an emphasis on the latter word. Yes, I know, snow is a crucial part of the Inland Northwest’s ecosystem. It is a necessary aspect of what makes living here so nice. But it gets so darn cold in February. And hard to get around. However, it is also the shortest month of the year and is the gateway to spring. By they time it ends four weeks down the road, the sun stays in the sky a lot longer, the days grow warmer and there is usually a hint of spring. That’s the love part. Maybe I’ll just hibernate until March Madness. Until later …