A Grip on Sports: After the Pac-12’s resurgence, NCAA madness and an up-and-down week at EWU, we needed a pause

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If you cruised around social media platforms yesterday, you probably saw the lamentations of the NCAA men’s tournament fans. You know what I mean. The grief, the sorrow, the downright anger there are no games until Saturday. From this vantage point, we welcome the down time. It is, to quote an old-time Coke slogan, the pause that refreshes.

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• And we need refreshing. At least our batteries do. No, not the ones in our phones or tablets. Our batteries. They’ve been drained, as they usually are this time of the year, by the ups and downs of the NCAA Tournament. Hey, let’s look at who is up and who is down. That sounds fun.

Up: Shooters. We see you Alabama. And almost everyone else in the Sweet Sixteen. The Crimson Tide, under the direction of future savant Nate Oats, are out there casting up 3s as if they were layups. Of course, layups are also shots Oats, the former Buffalo head coach, wants his team to shoot. In-between? Pass those up. It’s the wave of the future folks, so you might as well get used to it (like shifts in baseball and Tom Brady winning Super Bowl trophies in the NFL).

Down: Inequities. And well they should be. Sure, the women’s tournament doesn’t bring in as much money to the NCAA coffers. But how in the heck did the organization drop the ball on the setup for the two tournaments, I will never know. Isn’t there someone in the Indianapolis office who just checks for such things? If not, I volunteer. Well, not volunteer exactly. I’ll take 1/10 of Mark Emmert’s salary. That should be enough. And why I’m at it …

Down: Officiating in the women’s game. Look, we’re all perplexed with how the charge call has morphed. Contact means “fall down like a Serie A star” these days. And usually results in an offensive foul. OK. At least it seems called relatively consistently in the men’s game. But when someone runs in from three feet away, hits an offensive player hard enough to make them both fall down, as happened in Texas A&M’s undeserved win over Troy in the women’s first round, and is rewarded with a charge call, then something needs to be fixed. How about ensuring the officials in the women’s game are treated the same, vis-à-vis pay and perks, as the men? Or maybe, down the road, make the rules the same so there can be one pool for both, everyone treated the same and allowing great officials to work all the games, not segregated by gender? It’s a change whose time has come.

Up: The Pac-12. I’m guessing you might have heard about it? The conference of (less-heralded) champions has four teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Of course you have. No way anyone with a pulse, or normal hearing, could have avoided the drumbeat yesterday. And no, it wasn’t just Bill Walton going all Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart about it. Heck, even John Blanchette heard it. And wrote about it this morning. The first weekend of the men’s tournament was all the conference’s. (Sort of like how the Pac-12 women often dominate their first weekend.) It was so unexpected, nationally, it’s all the talk today. See, we need a pause just to be able to discover such things.

Down: Eastern Washington University basketball. Just a couple days after the Eagles showed the world their chops, coach Shantay Legans moves on. To the University of Portland of all places. From the top of the Big Sky to the bottom of the West Coast Conference. OK then. But that’s not the end of it. Kansas, which Eastern extended mightily in the first round, collapses in the second, taking some of the luster off the Eagles’ near-upset. And Jacob Davison, the two-time All-Big Sky guard, enters the transfer portal. Other players will follow. Heck, some might even end up in the Rose City. Whomever Lynn Hickey tabs to be the next head coach better be able to rebuild the roster quickly.

Up: Spokane. OK, the weather so far this spring has been so-so. And, due to the virus, the town hasn’t been able to do what it does really well this time of year, host the NCAAs. But from Eastern’s moment to Gonzaga’s excellence, this unsoiled gem (rose-colored glasses are all the rage at the moment) is enjoying a moment in the sun, even if Mr. Sol hasn’t made a lot of appearances downtown this week. Heck, even Sean Farnham’s signature Davenport dish is worth eating. As we mentioned in this space before, during March Madness, eating it also brings along a donation for Coaches vs. Cancer, something Ed Condran wrote about this morning.

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Gonzaga: In most years, players’ parents are right there nearby as the Zags make their annual NCAA tourney run. Not this year. Not with the bubble and the virus. Jim Meehan spoke with Jalen Suggs’ father, Larry, about how he and his family have handled the odd conditions. It’s a fun interview. … The baseball team picked up another win, as did Washington State’s. Both are covered in this roundup. … I spent some time Tuesday talking with Larry Weir. He made sense of it and posted our conversation as part of the latest Press Box podcast. … Elsewhere in the West Coast Conference, BYU’s women have a much tougher test with Arizona today.

WSU: We mentioned John’s column above. We link it here as well. … Around the Pac-12 and college basketball, Oregon State’s NCAA run means the Beavers will have to give Wayne Tinkle a raise and an extension. He’s been making a lot of good decisions lately. Maybe they could give him part of former president F. Alexander King’s money. He made some mistakes at his last job and they cost him this one. … USC and Oregon have had a few disagreements this basketball season. Now they meet in the Sweet Sixteen. It’s going to be a battle.  … UCLA has even a more challenging assignment as the two L.A. schools try to reach the Elite Eight together. That’s a rare achievement. … Washington has another player in the transfer portal. So does Utah, which is still looking for a coach. … Colorado’s season was a success. … In the women’s tournament, Oregon State couldn’t handle South Carolina. It wasn’t close. … Stanford also rolled into the Sweet Sixteen. … Oregon tries today. So does Arizona. And UCLA, which is at a little size deficit. … In football news, Washington hangs its hat on defense. … Utah’s new receiver coach has had a rocky start. … Arizona started spring practice.

EWU: Ryan Collingwood broke the Shantay Legans news. Now he looks ahead to the next Eastern coach. David Riley, who played at Whitworth, coached there and now has been at Eastern for years, seems to be the frontrunner. There is no shortage of interest either. If I were making the choice, I would hire former WSU assistant Ben Johnson, who should have succeeded Tony Bennett in Pullman. Whoever gives him his first head-coaching chance will not regret it. … Ryan also has the Davison news today.

Idaho: Vandal athletic director Terry Gawlik is just confounded how the issues with the women’s tournament could happen. But, as an insider, she has an idea why it happened. Peter Harriman has the story.

Preps: Dave Nichols put together a roundup of a huge Tuesday night in prep action.

Mariners: The hot player this spring? That would be Taylor Trammell. … Chris Flexen had a good outing as the M’s won again. … Put Scott Servais in the Trevor Bauer-is-odd camp.

Seahawks: The Hawks made two moves yesterday which should ensure their pass rush doesn’t take a huge step back. They brought back Idaho alum Benson Mayowa and added the 49ers’ best pass rusher, Kerry Hyder, as a free agent.

Sounders: Kelvin Leerdam has left for Miami. That news is part of this notebook.

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• The weather around these parts is going to, well, be awful today. It might be Mother Nature’s way of telling me to enjoy the down time inside. Personally, I would rather be out digging around the yard. That’s the true March Madness. Until later …