A Grip on Sports: Without football, we will have to rely on basketball to get us to this weekend’s end of the Winter Olympics

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The weekend beckons. And with scary low temperatures being predicted for the middle of next week, it’s too early to begin conditioning the yard for spring. Which means time to waste. Yahoo.  

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• No, not the Internet company. That word once meant you were happy. Still does. Who wouldn’t be happy with having an excuse to just sit around and watch football all weekend? Oh, wait. Crud. Football is over.

Well, that’s a bummer. But there is college basketball. Lots and lots of college basketball. The highlight? Probably Gonzaga holding its Senior Night against Santa Clara on Saturday. That emotional evening is being broadcast by Fox 28 this season, maybe because the Olympics are on NBC.

Which brings us to the weekend’s premier event. Yep, the Olympics are still dominating the ratings, though not to the extent of, say, 40 years ago. Today and tonight are packed with event finals on a variety of channels, including Peacock, which isn’t even available unless you are willing to pay extra for it – or have Comcast, which just happens to own NBC and Peacock, as your cable provider.

Don’t forget, the closing ceremonies will be on NBC on Sunday night, so set your alarm.

Between now and then it is All-Star Weekend for the NBA, which has a lot of fun events before the game Sunday evening on TNT – and the halftime ceremony honoring the 75th anniversary team.

By the way, if you love defense, don’t watch the game. Turn on golf. There will be more played at Rivera this weekend than in Cleveland.

• It was Throwback Thursday in the Big Sky last night. Not officially. All that would have resulted in was weird uniforms and odd sock choices. No. The throwback aspect of Thursday revolved around the results. As Dick Vitale would say, if he could, “upset city, baby.”

The biggest one might have been in Moscow, where the Vandals handed Montana an 82-76 loss. Idaho has won seven games all season, including a huge upset of 24-4 South Dakota State. But this one, against the Griz, has to feel special.

Up the road in Cheney, Eastern Washington took conference-leading Montana State to overtime. Which would have been pretty impressive in a moral-victory sense. But the Eagles didn’t want only that. They wanted a win. And they got it, 88-86 behind Boogie Acliese’s 38 points.

Those were the local upsets. But Idaho State also handed Northern Colorado one, giving the conference a taste of the old days, when each night was a war between some of the best mid-major teams in the nation.

• You know what starts today? College baseball season. Yep, it may be icy cold out there, but baseball, at least the non-professional variety, is in bloom. And that takes us back.

Back to 1975, when an overwhelmed college freshman with little talent but an unsurpassed love of the game made his first road trip. To Tempe. And sat in the dugout as guys like Kenny Landreaux and Floyd Bannister showed him what college baseball would be like.

After Landreaux, who would play 11 seasons in the major leagues, roamed far to his left to make a all-out diving catch in right-centerfield, the freshman turned to another classmate on the bench and uttered the truest thing he had every said: “I don’t belong here.”

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Gonzaga: Rasir Bolton has been rock-solid for the Zags in his senior season. The transfer’s story is a convoluted one, a story Jim Meehan tells in today’s S-R. … Theo Lawson takes a look back at Chet Holmgren’s night in Malibu. … The women were at home last night, facing a Saint Mary’s team that has a tendency to give them trouble. Not this time. Jim Allen has the story from the 85-49 rout while Colin Mulvany has the photo report. … Justin Reed has a preview of the Zags’ baseball season. … Around the WCC, Saint Mary’s cemented its hold on second place with another win over USF. … Next up for the Gaels is a showdown with BYU. The Cougars need the win. … Portland handed USD its worst loss of the season.

WSU: The Cougars’ shooting has abandoned them at the worst time. Washington State hit just 28.3 percent from the floor last night at Pauley Pavilion, resulting in a 76-56 loss to No. 13 UCLA. Colton Clark has the details in this story. … There are also stories from the L.A. area to pass along. … Colton also has a season preview of Brian Green’s baseball team. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, don’t expect the conference to get four teams in the NCAA unless someone outside the big three wins in Las Vegas. … Third-ranked Arizona turned it up in the second half and blew out reeling Oregon State 83-69 in Tucson. … Coaching your son is an experience unlike any other as Bobby Hurley is learning at Arizona State. The Sun Devils handed Oregon a devastating loss in Tempe, one that will haunt the Ducks next month. … Washington struggled to keep up with USC in Los Angeles. … How the heck did Utah blow out Stanford in California? Who knows? … Colorado dominated California in the second half with defense. … In football news, the Pac-12’s alliance with the Big Ten and ACC isn’t doing well. … Either is the Arizona State locker room after Jayden Daniels entered the transfer portal. Some players showed their resentment in a video. … There has been a switch in Washington that seems to embody the changes at the top.  

EWU: As we mentioned above, Eastern upset Montana State in overtime. Dan Thompson has the story. … Around the Big Sky, Weber State avoided the upset bug, defeating last-place Sacramento State at home.

Idaho: Again, we mentioned Idaho’s upset of Montana in the open. Peter Harriman has the coverage.

Preps: Dave Nichols was at Rogers High last night for a couple of 3A district elimination games. He has this story on wins by Mt. Spokane’s boys and Ferris’ girls. … Dave also put together this preview of this weekend’s State wrestling tournaments.

Chiefs: Chase Bertholet was playing well for a Winnipeg Ice team that was in the running for an Eastern Conference championship. But the 18-year-old experienced the business aspect of junior hockey when he was traded to Spokane, a team not in the running in the WHL championship chase. Still, Dan Thompson tells us, he’s fit in well.

Seahawks: Keeping DK Metcalf in Seattle will take a lot of money.

Mariners: There doesn’t seem to be any urgency within the negotiations.

Sounders: A scoreless draw marked Seattle’s return to CONCACAF play in Honduras. That’s not the worst result.

Kraken: Seattle lost once more, this time 5-3 to the Winnipeg Jets.

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• Another veteran sports writer who moved his wares to the online world, is calling it quits. Art Thiel is closing his SportspressNW.com website. We will miss it. I’m not sure if I ever missed linking one of Art’s stories, as they all had something unique to share. It’s always been that way for the bearded tower of Seattle sports writing. He and his work will be missed. Until later …