A Grip on Sports: College basketball’s last teams standing have a lot of blue blood to share

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The Final Four is all Blue Bloods. Or is it the Final Four is made up of mainly Blue Bloods? Depends on your perspective.

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• Perspective is defined, in one dictionary we found online at least, as “the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed.” Which allows us two different interpretations of the upcoming Final Four. One is based on what we see in New Orleans, where the men are playing. The other happens when we turn our eyes north, to Minneapolis and the women’s Final Four.

They are different. Far away. But pretty darn close.

The men couldn’t be much bluer. Duke (five titles). Kansas (three). Villanova (three). North Carolina (six). All with those multiple NCAA titles. All with multiple legends in their past. And all schools that wear some shade of blue, though that’s probably the least important part of being a Blue Blood – capitals added for pompous presentation.

The women have two Blue Bloods for sure, one program doing its best to enter that rarified air and, well, Louisville.

South Carolina is the relative newcomer, having ascended to the Final Four four times – it won one title – since its first appearance in 2015. Credited coach Dawn Staley for the ascension into the highest echelon of the sport, even though the Gamecocks don’t have blue as one of their colors.

Neither does Stanford, and the Cardinal are still considered among the women’s game royalty, thanks to their success under Tara VanDerveer. Three national titles, spread over three decades, will do that for you. But Stanford isn’t the bluest in this year’s Final Four. That title belongs to Connecticut. Actually, that title belongs to Connecticut every year. Mainly because the Huskies, under Geno Auriemma, have won 11 titles, an NCAA record. They have also been to 21 Final Fours, including the last 14.

From our perspective, Connecticut has become not just a Blue Blood, but the gold standard for college hoops. Doesn’t matter the gender. You want to talk basketball excellence, you have to focus on the Huskies. Even more than UCLA, which carries the mantle for the men.

Both have won 11 titles. Both revolutionized the NCAA tournament. Both featured a series of the game’s best players, from the then-named Lew Alcindor to now-Seattle Storm star Breanna Stewart. Both won more titles in consecutive years (eight for UCLA, four for UConn) than anyone else in the sport. And, except when Larry Brown was on the bench, neither ever lost a championship game (yes, we’re still bitter the legendary Brown coached UCLA to the 1980 title game and then came up six points short).

That’s about as blue as basketball blood gets.

• Washington State has a chance tonight to do something only one other Cougar squad has ever done: get to a final of a national postseason basketball tournament.

In 1941 – that’s 81 years ago for those of you keeping score at home – WSU traveled to Kansas City, where the NCAA finals were held. They lost 39-34 to Wisconsin.

Tonight the Cougars face Texas A&M with a chance to move to the NIT finals against the winner of St. Bonaventure and Xavier. If you are going to watch, WSU tips at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

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WSU: The NIT semifinals, held in Madison Square Garden every year – though that might change in the future – is a happening. Colton Clark is in New York and has this preview as well as the key matchup. … With Colton in the East, Peter Harriman handled the reporting duties from Washington State’s pro day for its football players. … Around the Pac-12 and college basketball, Jon Wilner has his winners and losers from the past NCAA weekend. It’s in the Mercury News. … Utah is looking for a new assistant coach. … Stanford’s women have to win two more games before it can claim Bay Area royalty. … What is going on in Eugene? The Oregon women lost three players to the portal and one to the pro ranks yesterday alone. … Arizona State’s new coach met the media Monday. … In football news, if there is one story to read today, it’s Christian Caple’s on the week surrounding Jimmy Lake’s firing. The reporting is first rate. Christian also has a story on Washington’s spring practice, which begins tomorrow. … Utah has a new building coming and a star defender going to the NFL. … UCLA has some questions to answer. … Arizona held practice yesterday and also lost a player to the portal. … Arizona State needs to bolster its running game.

Gonzaga: One of the Zags’ last remaining targets for this recruiting season announced yesterday he wasn’t headed to Spokane. Nope, five-star guard Anthony Black is going to Arkansas instead. Theo Lawson has the story. We have some thoughts. We may share them in this space someday. … Jim Meehan, John Blanchette and Richard Fox had some thoughts they shared yesterday as part of the final Zags Basketball Insiders podcast for the season. … Elsewhere in the WCC, after a couple decades, Jeff Judkins is still going strong as coach of the BYU women.

EWU: David Riley is up for a national award he probably has no chance to win. It’s given to the best first-year coach in the nation. Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, the former GU assistant, is also a finalist. That news leads off the S-R’s most-recent local briefs column. … Around the Big Sky, Idaho State is about to start spring football practice.

Idaho: The Vandals also held their pro day, with Peter also covering all the happenings in this story.

Preps: Dave Nichols has a roundup of Monday’s action.

Mariners: Is money the answer to ending the playoff drought? … Robbie Ray was great in a win. … Adam Frazier may not be great at second base but he will be consistent. … The path to the major leagues is rarely a straight line.

Kraken: For one night, at least, Seattle was able to put the biscuit in the basket. The Kraken defeated Los Angeles 6-1 in L.A.

Seahawks: Can the Hawks have their best running back tandem ever? … Baker Mayfield rumors will continue until his status is figured out. … The Broncos are building their offense around Russell Wilson, if you care.

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• We hate spending money. Wonder why that is? Maybe it has something to do with having parents who lived through the Depression and having lived through the Great Recession ourselves. Or maybe we’re just cheap. Whatever. We share that because we need a new home computer. But we don’t want to spend the money. To get what we want will cost a lot. Can we pull the trigger? Maybe someday. Until later …