A Grip on Sports: This week is wonderful and yet is still just the appetizer for what college hoops has on its menu

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Where were we? Oh, yes, focusing on basketball. College basketball. The last few days of the regular season and the beginning of the postseason. The latter goes from interesting to intense this week, starting tonight in Las Vegas. And we’re here for it.

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• If you are a Gonzaga follower, are you happy or sad the Zag men are playing San Francisco tonight? That West Coast Conference semifinal matchup seems a bit more difficult for the top seed than, say, what second-seeded Saint Mary’s faces on the other side of the bracket.

USF may be the fourth seed, but the Dons, led by their experienced backcourt, is basically an NCAA tourney lock. After all, they are the 21st-best team in the nation according to Kenpom.com and 24th in the NET ratings. That’s lock territory.

And, at 24-8, they have shown the ability to play with just about anyone in the country, including Gonzaga – the 32-point combined difference between the teams in their two WCC matchups is as tight as anyone in the conference not named Saint Mary’s.

Meanwhile, the Gaels face third-seeded Santa Clara (10-5 in WCC play), which is rated considerably lower in just about every metric. The NET? The Broncos are 67th. Ken Pomeroy? He has them at 68th. At 21-10, having played a weaker overall schedule than USF (10-6 in conference), it is easy to see the Zags have the tougher assignment. Oh, did we forget to mention USF defeated Santa Clara twice this season? Yes, yes we did.

The Broncos’ edge? They cancelled a game at sixth-seeded Portland. A COVID-19-makeup game they had to agreed to. By all rights, they should have either played it or forfeited. The WCC, and its commissioner Gloria Nevarez, buckled when the Broncos complained playing three games in another week was too much. And mentioned academics. Ya, right. As if classes can’t be made available online these days.

No forfeit. A no contest. Portland, which finished sixth in the WCC, lost a winnable home game and Santa Clara gained an easier road to the WCC finals – who would you rather play in the semis, No. 1 Gonzaga or Saint Mary’s?

It’s not a travesty. That would be an overstatement. It’s cheezy, sure. And borderline sleezy. But it served its purpose. And has us, for maybe the first time in history, rooting for Saint Mary’s.

• The Cougars’ outstanding weekend hit its nadir Saturday afternoon with a 94-74 blistering of Oregon, who crossed the Washington border earlier last week still harboring NCAA at-large hopes.

Really? This year’s edition of the Ducks seemed as disjointed as any we’ve ever seen, and that includes those real bad late Jim Haney years. But Oregon’s woes aren’t why we are here. Is it possible Kyle Smith’s team is hitting its stride after 31 games?

Maybe. And the Cougars (18-13) still have a shot at an at-large NCAA berth. Why? They are 58th in the NET and 55th in Ken Pomeroy’s system. That is often good enough. But they don’t have a Tier 1 win, a key element of any at-large resume. They may get one more chance. Not Wednesday night, when they open Pac-12 Tournament play with California. The opportunity would come Thursday if they win. UCLA. Still a NET wonder. An NCAA darling. In other words, two wins in two nights and WSU may just dance.

It’s a chance Lloyd Christmas. It’s a chance.

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Gonzaga: As you might guess, there are a lot of Gonzaga-related stories today. A lot of them. We’ll start with the game preview items from Theo Lawson. There is the aforementioned preview and the key matchup before tonight’s 6 p.m. game. … Before we move on from Theo, we need to link his story on the Bulldogs’ radio play-by-play voice Tom Hudson, who is 20 years into the gig. … We linked this above but Theo also has a story on the WCC commissioner. … Jim Meehan takes us down memory lane, basically to a South Hill cul-de-sac. He checks in with Mark Few’s coaching tree, which just happened to win four West Coast conference titles this season: The Pac-12 (Tommy Lloyd and Arizona), the Mountain West (Leon Rice and Boise State) and the Big West (Dan Monson and Long Beach State) along with Few’s typical WCC regular season crown. … Jim also has a story on fans flocking to Las Vegas. … Dave Boling returns to the pages of the S-R with this column on how Few has changed over the years. … The women, likely on the NCAA bubble, need a win today against USF. Jim Allen previews the 2 p.m. contest. … Seth Davis still has Gonzaga ranked No. 1. … Around the WCC, Saint Mary’s Tommy Kuhse epitomizes what hard work can accomplish. … Mark Pope still feels BYU should be in the NCAA Tournament. … The Cougar women start their WCC tourney today.

WSU: We didn’t want to skip giving you a chance to read Colton Clark’s story of Saturday’s Cougars rout of Oregon. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, the lost weekend in Washington probably cost Oregon any shot at an at-large berth. … What are the Huskies chances this week? … Oregon and Oregon State face off in the first round of the conference tournament. … Arizona’s Oumar Ballo might be the most improved player in the country. At least on the West Coast. … No one wants to play Arizona State right now. Stanford has the first shot at the Sun Devils. … Colorado is another team on the wish-we-could-miss list. … UCLA may be looking ahead this week. … As expected, top-seeded Stanford won the women’s tournament title, defeating surprising Utah 73-48. The Cardinal might be the No. 1 team in the nation this week.  … In football news, former Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels is reportedly headed to LSU. … Oregon has its specialists back.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, the tournament gets underway Wednesday. The most interesting first-round game may be the matchup between Montana and Weber State. That is often the final game. … Montana State has the top seed, something it cemented with a Saturday win over Northern Colorado.

Preps: One local school won a state basketball title. Liberty took home the 2B boys’ crown Saturday night with a 64-55 win over Brewster. Madison McCord was in the Arena and has this story. … Cusick also won the 1B boys. Dan Thompson has that story.

Mariners: There might not be a season this year. Or it may not start until May. The talks are turning ugly.

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• We have to apologize for not being here for you Sunday. A whole bunch of issues conspired to keep us on the sideline, from our Saturday illness to the phone being in the other room. Suffice to say, when we finally awoke from a much-needed long night of sleep yesterday morning, it was too late to get the column done before we had to be out of the house. We tried to make up some of the lost ground this morning but, as is the case with all miss-spent time, you never get it back. Until later …