A Grip on Sports: A day after the two NFL playoff games are decided by clutch last-second field goals, we also come through late

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Some days there is a lot on our mind – and we share it with you. Other days there is a lot on our mind – and we are unable to share it with you. Today is one of those latter days.

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• It’s not that we don’t want to write a lot of words on a bunch of subjects today. It’s just that the Computer Gods conspired against us. They looked down from their perch high atop Mount Bellevue and laughed at our futile attempts to play home office IT guy.

If you don’t know, we have a deadline with this column every morning. It must be done before 9 a.m., when the lesser computer god who lives in The Spokesman-Review building churns out his or her daily sports newsletter. There was no way we were going to make that deadline today if we pontificated about John Stockton’s mask-mandate opinion – there was one heck of an ironic Bill Walton/John Wooden anecdote in Theo Lawson’s interview – or Jayden de Laura’s WSU legacy or the NFL playoff games from yesterday.

So we wrote this little intro and we move on to the links. I hope that’s enough. If it isn’t, take it up Bill, the God of Words, or Steve, the Mouse god. We think they had a bet today on who could make my life worse. If your are wondering who won, it was neither. It was Betty, Goddess of Puppies.

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Gonzaga: Before we delve into why we haven’t seen Stockton at Bulldog games lately, we want to pass along Jim Meehan’s day-after thoughts on the Zags’ 78-62 win over the University of San Francisco. … The women played Saturday at Saint Mary’s and used a big fourth quarter to pull away from the Gaels. Jason Shoot filled in for Jim Allen and put together this story. … OK, on to Stockton. His Gonzaga season tickets have been suspended because he’s refused to wear a mask at games. Theo Lawson sat down with the NBA Hall of Famer on Saturday and talked about it. The conversation led to Theo’s story and a transcribed Q&A, which we also linked above. There is a photo gallery of Stockton through the years as well. … Around the WCC, BYU has won three consecutive games after the loss to Gonzaga. The Cougars topped Portland on Saturday. … Saint Mary’s handled Loyola Marymount.

WSU: Jayden de Laura is now in Tucson, in the mix to become the starting quarterback at a competing Pac-12 school. Colton Clark took some time this week to examine de Laura’s legacy with the Cougars. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, Washington’s victory the other night without its head coach said a lot about the program. … Why is Oregon playing better? … UCLA held off Colorado in Boulder. The Bruins swept the mountain weekend. … So did USC, which defeated Utah 79-67 in Salt Lake City. … Arizona State rallied from down 15 but Stanford regrouped and won at home. … Arizona and California meet today. The Wildcats are running past people. Literally. … In football news, we linked before this examination of next season Jon Wilner undertook with Yogi Roth, but it ran in the S-R today so it is available for subscribers. … Wilner also has his Saturday Night Five column in the Mercury News. … The new staff at Washington cost a lot. … UCLA is rebuilding its staff.

EWU: The Eagles’ defense let them down, especially in the second half, and Northern Colorado handed them an 87-83 defeat on Reese Court. Dan Thompson was in attendance and has this game story. … Around the Big Sky, Montana State defeated Portland State. … Montana won at Northern Arizona.

Idaho: Up until Saturday, the Vandals had yet to win a Big Sky game. That changed, though it took overtime for UI to get past visiting Sacramento State 73-72. Peter Harriman has the story.

Preps: Drew Rasmussen pitches these days for the Tampa Bay Rays. But a decade ago, he was a star pitcher at Mt. Spokane High. That school honored him and two others Friday night by inducting them into its athletic Hall of Fame. Dave Nichols was there and has this story. … Dave also has a roundup of Saturday’s prep action.

Mariners: Are the M’s thinking of trading some of their younger, less-heralded players?

Seahawks: We didn’t cover the playoff games above – as is our usual M.O. – so we stick them here in the Hawks’ section. I don’t remember a day in NFL playoff history when the only two games played were both upsets decided on last-second field goals. But that’s what happened with the 49ers and the Bengals.

Storm: Losing Breanna Stewart would be a huge blow to Seattle.

Kraken: Other teams are struggling too. How do they compare to Seattle?

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• We weren’t too happy this morning. An Apple mouse may or may not have been tossed in anger. (It wasn’t – but only because 30-year-old me has been gone for 35 years.) My backup mouse wouldn’t even connect. Finally, after exhausting all other options (crying, begging, yelling) we tried cleaning the darn thing inside and out. What do you know? Puppy hair was probably the culprit. That’s our story – for now. We may have to do some Internet research to see if anyone has died from using an Apple mouse recently, but for now we’re OK with it in our hand. For now. Until later …