A Grip on Sports: No matter how it happens, losing in the NCAA tournament leads to a finality unlike any other

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Postseason college sports doesn’t differentiate. It doesn’t care if you are a callow freshman with your entire career ahead of you or if you are a sixth-year senior hoping to play one more game with your school’s name stitched across your uniform. When you lose, it is over.

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• It may be on your home court. Or in some faraway college town you couldn’t point out on a map just a week earlier. It might happen on national TV in front of thousands in an arena that towers above the court. Or it could occur in an ancient gym with only family and friends gathered around.

When you lose, it is over.

It’s the finality of the NCAA tournament, the NIT, heck any college tourney, that makes for scenes of abject despair. There is nothing that can be done.

When you lose, it is over.

Not just the game. But the season. The hours and hours, the days and days, the weeks and weeks, the months and months of hard work, bruises, laughter, joy. All gone in a moment. It’s not the shining part of the tournament, that’s for sure.

At the NCAA Division I level, only two of the 136 men’s and women’s basketball teams get to end their NCAA tournament experience with a victory. Some 1.4 percent of the players and coaches finish on the ultimate high note. The other 98.6? They pack up their bags for one last time, look at that uniform on the floor in front of them and wonder what could have been.

Then walk into the rest of their lives.

• That ending happened in Louisville for the Gonzaga women Sunday afternoon. The top-seeded Cardinals knocked hard in the first 5 minutes, racing to a 14-zip lead before Lisa Fortier’s team adjusted to the pace of the game.

From that point on the Zags outscored the nation’s third-ranked team by five points. It was good. Just not good enough.

• The Washington State men didn’t experience such a result in their NIT game at SMU. The Mustangs, playing on their home court in Dallas, pulled out all the stops. That included the intimidation factor of having an ex-President (George W. Bush) sitting in the front row.

But then again, what does Efe Abogidi care? He’s from Nigeria, just a little south of where he rose up and dunked on the Mustangs’ hopes of getting to New York.

The Cougars, on the other hand, still harbor such hopes after Sunday’s 75-63 victory. But they won’t be able to call on a home crowd to support them. Their quarterfinal contest this week will be in Provo, against BYU.

Then again, that could work in Washington State’s favor. After all, when some 10,000 fans begin a Cougar chant, the ones from Pullman can just imagine it is for them.

And ride the roar to another victory.

• Win or lose, the weekend’s NCAA action reached unprecedented heights. Again. That seeming oxymoron is actually true. Every year, the first weekend of the tournament brings upsets that surprise everyone, plays that delight everyone and calls that everyone questions. Every year. And every year we hear that something was either the best ever or the worst ever.

And it’s true. Until next year.

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Gonzaga: At some point the women’s tournament needs to move toward what the men have: all games at neutral sites. But for now, to get past a top four seed, you have to beat them on their floor. Jim Allen was in Louisville yesterday and he has this game story and another that caught the essence of being on the road in the NCAA tourney. … The men’s hard-fought win over Memphis may have done them one favor. Whatever fourth-seeded Arkansas throws at them Thursday shouldn’t be a surprise. They’ve already been through a similar experience. Jim Meehan looks back at their Saturday win while Theo Lawson looks toward Thursday’s game, which will tip at 4 p.m. … Theo also looks at the three other teams that are in San Francisco, which includes second-seed Duke and third-seed Texas Tech, both of whom GU has played this season. … Back to the women, former standout Elle Tinkle watched the men from the Moda Center stands. Justin Reed talked with her. … There is also coverage of the Zag win and their upcoming game in San Francisco. … The baseball team swept its conference-opening series at Pacific. … Around the WCC, as we mentioned above, the BYU men will host Washington State.

WSU: It was funny to see a picture of President Bush and his wife Laura in Washington State’s halftime-score tweet. But when you sit in the Bob Eucker-seats, that’s a possibility. So is the Cougars heading to New York for the NIT semifinals. Colton Clark looks back at the win at SMU and mentions what’s ahead, a battle with Brigham Young on the road. … The baseball team dropped another game to Washington on Sunday and was swept in the series…. Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, Jon Wilner has the first weekend’s winners and losers in a Mercury News column. … Arizona came this close to not surviving its second-round matchup with fired-up TCU. But the Wildcats prevailed in overtime. Afterward, though, they weren’t as successful. … UCLA has to hope it’s healthy for its matchup with North Carolina. But the Bruins have options. … USC had a good season when it was hoping for great. … The same can not be said for Oregon. … Stanford will be in Spokane next weekend for the women’s regional and Central Valley High grad Lexie Hull is a big reason why. She had 36 points as the Cardinal defeated Kansas 91-55. … Utah fell at Texas. … Oregon State stayed alive in the WNIT with a win over visiting Portland. … Oregon has to rebuild its leadership for next season. … In football news, Utah is about ready to start its spring workouts. … Arizona State finished its first week of spring practice.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Northern Colorado is still playing basketball. It is the only conference men’s team with that distinction.

Chiefs: Spokane’s postseason hopes took another hit with a 6-3 loss at Everett.

Mariners: It wasn’t a good day in Arizona, despite a grand salami. The M’s lost a key part of last year’s bullpen to an arm injury. … Chris Flexen threw well but the M’s lost.

Seahawks: Rashaad Penny is back for next year. The running back, who was a good as any in the NFL down the stretch, signed a one-year deal. … Gerald Everett played tight end in Seattle for one season. He’s headed to the Chargers.

Sounders: The beat-up Sounders led for a long period but a second-half goal led to a 1-1 draw in Austin.

Kraken: It’s time to say goodbye to quite a few lifelong Kraken players. It’s almost as bad as the Hawks trading Russell Wilson or the M’s getting rid of Ken Griffey Jr. OK, that’s not true. But the expansion team is building for the future by collecting draft choices like bubble gum cards.

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• What the flying heck? It is spring, right? The calendar says so. Then why is it snowing at my house? This is supposed to be the lamb part of March. Then again, lambs are white. So is snow. Until later …