A Grip on Sports: It’s been a while but Washington State has some good financial news to share

A GRIP ON SPORTS • A beautiful Saturday morning as this one makes our thoughts turn to what we love. Sports-wise, of course. At least in this space.

•••••••

• For once there is some financial news out of Bohler that Washington State fans, and regents, can love. No deficit talk today. Today is all about money coming in. New money. Sponsorship money from Gesa (pronounced Geesa, as in VISA, which John Blanchette shared in his column) Credit Union.

The company is giving WSU at least $11 million over the next 10 years. In return, the field at Martin Stadium will bear its name. For comparison, think Friel Court at Beasley Coliseum, except Gesa in the place of one of Washington State’s most successful basketball coaches.

Blanchette has this spot on this morning. This isn’t going to stop the bleeding. Not when the athletic department is losing more than $20 million a year (or, in pandemic times, $37 million). But every bit helps. And if Gesa’s money turns out to seed more, than good for the Cougars.

A win off the field about the field is worth celebrating. Especially this time of the year.

• Eastern Washington’s basketball program has been here before. Quite a bit recently. And now that the Eagles have dispatched the school that always seemed to stand in its way – Montana – maybe winning an NCAA Tournament berth is a foregone conclusion. All they have to do is get by (checks notes) Montana State.

The Bobcats? In a tournament final? That doesn’t happen. It’s been 25 years since they’ve won a conference title. Which means they are shooting for a once-in-this-century result. It also means the Eagles should be wary. March is a time when Cinderella likes to make an appearance.

• Where were you, Mr. and Ms. SportsFanPerson, when COVID-19 stopped everything a year ago?

As always, we were at home, looking forward to a March Madness run by Gonzaga, and the ensuing paycheck. The S-R’s sports department was spread out all over the West, ready for whatever lay ahead.

Turns out what lay ahead was a huge void. They share their thoughts today in this piece.

• COVID-19 is still wreaking some havoc on schedules. We passed along the news about Virginia dropping out of the ACC tournament (joining Duke, which dropped out earlier). Later in the day, Kansas had to do the same in the Big 12 tourney. Now those schools have to wait and see if they can get healthy enough and clear enough hurdles to participate in the NCAA’s tournament. The guidelines are stringent and include seven days of clean tests for a player to participate. That’s cutting it close.

The conference tournaments are still going on, however. The Big 12’s won’t have two of the schools that led the way all season in its finals, Kansas due to the virus, Baylor due to Cade Cunningham and Oklahoma State. The ACC features Georgia Tech and Florida State, which just seems odd. The Pac-12 is the same way, with Colorado and Oregon State fighting for the automatic berth.

Thank goodness chalk prevailed in the Big West tourney. The top seed UC Santa Barbara, our son’s alma mater, will fall tonight to second-seeded UC Irvine, alma mater of yours truly and my better half, Kim, who actually wore the school’s basketball uniform. You can book it. The Anteaters are winning. If they don’t, the kid will have to find someone else to help with his loans.

• Sure, college basketball dominates the TV viewing this weekend, what with all the games then tomorrow’s NCAA selection show (2 p.m. on CBS). But there are other things to watch.

Mainly we are talking about golf’s fifth major, The Players. Being the fifth major, of course, is something akin to being Cinderella’s stepsister, however. You may have been invited to the ball, but no one is really aware of you.

Especially this weekend. The players who missed the cut, including Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Victor Hovland, Max Homa, Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay and the Inland Northwest’s own, Joel Dahmen, are better known than much of the leaderboard. And with Brooks Koepka, one of the stars, and Tiger Woods, the star of stars, out with injuries, the field had a couple strikes to begin with. It will need a rally over the weekend to keep eyes off hoops.

•••

Gonzaga: The baseball team upset ninth-ranked TCU 13-8 in Fort Worth, Texas. … Elsewhere in the West Coast Conference, BYU is prepping for the NCAA Tournament. Who the Cougars will play will be determined tomorrow.

WSU: Theo Lawson took in all the conversations and presentations about the sponsorship Friday. He has this coverage of the news. … The volleyball team defeated Oregon State in Corvallis. … Around the Pac-12 and college basketball, yes Oregon State, which was picked to finish last in the conference, will play for an NCAA berth tonight. The Beavers locked down Oregon, sending the regular season champions home to watch the selection show. … Colorado’s Tad Boyle doesn’t like Andy Enfeld. And he’s made that abundantly clear over the years. The USC coach’s best revenge would be to defeat the Buffs, but that hasn’t happened often, including last night in the semifinals. … It was a historically bad season for Washington. What went wrong? … The Bay Area will be without a men’s team in the NCAAs once again. … Utah will be staying home as well, though the circumstances are different this year. … Arizona State started the season with high hopes. Now it is working on next year’s hopes. … Arizona finished about where everyone expected. … In football news, if you have questions, Jon Wilner has answers. … With the recent defections, Washington will be relying on young receivers. … Colorado hopes to have fans at its spring game.

EWU: As we mentioned above, the Eagles blew out Montana in the Big Sky semifinals, riding the Groves brothers, Tanner and Jake, to a 78-50 win. Ryan Collingwood has the game story. … The Missoulian has a photo gallery we can share. It includes the photo here. … Larry Weir broadcast the game but before he did that he put together a Big Sky-centric Press Box podcast. … Montana State made the finals by holding off top-seed Southern Utah in overtime.

Idaho: The Vandal women never really got going and were blown out by regular-season champion Idaho State. Ryan also covered that game from Boise.

Preps: Dave Nichols made the trek out to Union Stadium last night and covered Mt. Spokane’s win over visiting Ferris. Colin Mulvany was there as well and has this photo gallery. … Dave stuck around, watched G-Prep dismantle Mead and led of his Greater Spokane League roundup with that game. … There were football games outside of Spokane and Dave has them in this area roundup. … Spokane Schools is asking for input on where to site the new football stadium, something we won’t participate in online, but will cover in greater detail soon in this space. Jim Allen has a story on the district’s non-scientific request, with a link to where interested parties can enter their input.

Mariners: Kyle Lewis knows the M’s have quite a bit of young talent (including Justin Dunn). He’s just not ready to give up the role as top star just yet. … If you don’t have a subscription to The Athletic, this story about Zack Greinke, as told through his interactions with his catchers, is worth getting one. Let me tell you, in the 30 years I caught pitchers, I knew quite a few Zack Grienkes.

Seahawks: This is information I didn’t know. The Hawks can restructure Russell Wilson’s contract to free up cap space without his approval. Why they would do that and risk ticking him off more, I don’t know.

•••       

• Don’t forget to turn your clocks forward before you go to bed. I won’t. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for this guy, which means our column will be up early and filled mainly with links to S-R stories. Until later …