A Grip on Sports: College basketball will dominate the weekend as the March Madness roadmap is redrawn on Sunday

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If we had to use just two words to describe the upcoming weekend, we might just go with “warm days.” No, that’s not close to being right. It is mid-March after all. “Time change.” That’s better – and it’s true – but not perfect either. “College basketball.” Yep, that’s the right two-word phrase. It’s college basketball’s weekend.

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• This one always is. The main reason, of course, happens at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon on CBS. That’s when the NCAA bracket will start to be revealed, leading up to April’s Final Four in New Orleans. Where will No. 1 Gonzaga be? That’s simple. The Zags will be in Portland and will be the top seed in the West Region. If the top-ranked Bulldogs get through the first weekend as they should, they’ll play in San Francisco. In other words, they and their fans don’t have to travel very far for the first four games.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we? There are other local teams in the hunt for an NCAA berth. Like … well, there isn’t any this year. None in the Northwest, actually, except Seattle University, which is still playing in the Western Athletic Conference tournament. If the Redhawks fail to make it, then Gonzaga will fly the region’s banner alone.

Which isn’t all that unusual.

Either are taut, down-to-the-wire games in conference tournaments this weekend. As teams roll the dice in their final chance at an NCAA berth in many conferences, the intensity is almost palatable. It’s senior driven in many cases and we’re not talking about an ancient Buick heading up Division to Golden Corral either. We’re talking about players in their fourth or fifth season or, this year, sixth season at a school, hoping just once to earn a shot at making history. Or to return to the promised land. Either way, last chances lead to last-second heroics so often as to become normalized.

And yet, always welcome.

But basketball isn’t the only player on the stage this weekend. The other semi-major event is happening in Florida. The Players Championship has been called golf’s fifth major so often it is a joke to average folks in the golfing community. It isn’t a major event – those four are, in chronological order each year: the Masters, the PGA, the U.S. Open and the British Open (as we call it here) – but it’s about as close as golf gets beyond the Big Four. The field is spectacular and, after years of maturing, so is the TPC Sawgrass course.

The times on NBC and the Golf Channel this weekend vary a bit, partly because the weather southeast of Jacksonville is unsettled in March, but don’t worry. Turn on one of those networks in the daylight hours and you’ll find it.

• The news broke yesterday. Baseball and its players had finally reached an agreement. There will be baseball this year. And a full 162-game schedule, despite management’s oddly unsettled “deadlines” that came and went throughout the contentious negotiations.

Owners must not realize the game isn’t governed by a clock. Not even a needed pitch clock, which fell by the wayside sometime yesterday. So did the idea of banning defensive shifts, which, we’re sure, will return this time next year.

What was agreed upon was simple: The two groups need each other. The fans needed an agreement in place. Something had to be worked out. It was.

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Gonzaga: Rasir Bolton is in his first year – and only – year at GU. And yet he’s become a key part of the Zags’ success. Jim Meehan has this story on their glue guy, the one who holds it together when things are breaking down.

WSU: The Cougars’ season may not be over – they have a shot at the NIT or some other postseason event – but their Pac-12 tournament run is. It ended last night against UCLA, which dominated them for the second time this season. This one finished 75-65 as the Cougars put together a late run, but it was every bit as out of their hands as their 20-point loss earlier at Pauley Pavilion. Colton Clark was in Las Vegas and he has this game story. … Guard Noah Williams pleaded guilty yesterday to a misdemeanor charge resulting from a September incident in Pullman. … We have links to stories from Los Angeles as well. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff spoke Thursday and he said a lot about gambling and other things, though he kept his mouth shut about expanding the football playoffs. The one thing he did say that interests us is the conference may look at playing basketball games on nights early in the week, as most major conferences do. … It may have been sloppy, but USC played well enough to eliminate Washington 65-51 in Thursday night’s final quarterfinal game. … Colorado, which happens to be peaking at the right time, knocked out Oregon, sending the Ducks to the NIT (at best). … The conference’s No. 1 seed, Arizona, held off Stanford, but lost its point guard to an ankle injury in the final seconds. The Wildcats have bigger goals. … Stanford will keep its coach despite six seasons of futility. Will Arizona State? … In football news, Washington may have a new pass rusher to feature this fall. … Oregon has some roster changes as spring practice begins.

EWU: The Eagles fell behind by 17 points, rallied and had three chances to win late in the game. But none of the possible game-winners fell and Eastern lost 68-67 to Northern Colorado in the Big Sky quarterfinals. Dan Thompson was in Boise and has this story. … Dan also has the news the conference is changing the tournament format next season. … Around the Big Sky, Montana State defeated Sacramento State. … Weber State knocked out Montana. … Portland State ended Southern Utah’s run and the Thunderbirds’ time in the conference.

Preps: It’s not often we recommend a story on a young person who won a State wrestling tournament as highly as we recommend this one. Dave Nichols relates Kimball Rippy’s path to his only State title, a path that has touchstones similar to Thoreau, Rocky and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Yep, it’s that interesting. … The S-R also publishes today the All-GSL photos from the winter sports as well as lists of all-league teams from around the area.

UFC: Terrance McKinney is back in Las Vegas and will fight this weekend. Charlotte McKinley has a preview of his bout.

Mariners: Now that there is an agreement in place, Jerry Dipoto has to get cracking. This is the M’s year, isn’t it?

Seahawks: We passed this along from the Times yesterday but the S-R ran it this morning. It’s Bob Condotta’s look at how the relationship between the Hawks and Russell Wilson broke beyond repair. … There are a few quarterback to look at in the draft but the Hawks probably will not sign Colin Kaepernick.

Kraken: In a rematch of a long ago Stanley Cup final (sort of), Ottawa got the best of Seattle, 4-3 in overtime.

Sounders: A 16-year-old is actually playing for Seattle these days.

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• We have a bit of a schedule problem this weekend. So we won’t be able to watch Sunday’s NCAA selection show live. Ah, well. That’s what the DVR is for. If it is really important to watch. But is it? Gonzaga is in, WSU and UC Irvine is out, so there is really no suspense. Until later …