A Grip on Sports: The action, good and bad, hits a little closer to home today

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Sorry to interrupt if you are focused on ESPN’s GameDay extravaganza from Spokane. We’ll be quick. But we have some things to share.

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• Of course, the largest share of today’s column will be links. That’s a given. But we won’t be sharing anymore of our friend Christian Caple’s coverage of the Washington Huskies in The Athletic. The on-line sports magazine, now owned by the New York Times, has decided not to cover the school (and other places) anymore. So, it did what so many other companies are doing recently, it downsized. And Caple was let go.

It’s weird. We were chatting with a major college basketball coach this week and he mentioned he missed reading newspapers. Missed the crinkle noise when he turned the pages. Missed sitting at breakfast with the sports section. Missed folding the darn thing into a form easily accessible.

If he read a newspaper these days, he read it online. But he got most of his news through social media, which, he admitted, usually sent him to newspaper websites.

His comments washed over us like the water of a morning shower, unnoticed as we focused on what else was ahead. But, after hearing The Athletic news, they resurfaced in our consciousness. It’s hard to admit, but there is still way too much natural selection going on in the news business. All forms of it. From legacy industries like newspapers to much-newer forms, such as The Athletic represents.

Even subscription-based, low-overhead, online services with dedicated bases are not meeting expectations. Weird. Maybe the expectations set by bean-counters are too high? Or maybe the only hope for salvation lies in charity or non-profit status? We don’t know the answer. All we know is many people we consider our proteges or our peers our, even worse, our friends are struggling to stay in a business we believe is crucial to our society. And that saddens us.

Christian, who followed us on the Washington State beat more than a decade ago, is now looking for employment. He has a family. He also has talent. He works hard. Is great at his job. But maybe the job isn’t great for him, and many others, anymore.

That should scare everyone who loves sports – and truthful information. Who wants to know what’s what with their favorite team and/or athletes. The real what’s what, not what the team or athlete wants you to believe.

If you are reading this, we know you’ve made a commitment to subscribe to this platform. Good for you. You’re smart. Hopefully, you’ve examined your budget and made the same commitment to other sites or publications with like-minded dedication to inform, entertain and all-around make your life fuller.

Keep it up. We, and that means all of us, need such places to thrive.

• We, as the individual typing away at their keyboard, and the woman related to us by marriage, are headed out to Cheney this afternoon. We will be in the stands as Idaho State takes on Eastern Washington in a typical late-February women’s basketball game. And by that we mean neither school is in the thick of the conference’s championship race.

Why would we brave the snow – there really isn’t much left – or the cold – it’s going to be much warmer than it’s been – to be a spectator? Because the Bengals feature a player in their starting lineup we have some connection with. And we want to support our former player, freshman Kacey Spink.

In that, we’re like thousands of other high school basketball coaches in America. We try our best to help every player who walks through your program have an experience that is memorable in a good way. And, if it leads to something more, than that’s great.

It did for Spink, whose father (and uncle) played basketball and mother volleyball at Gonzaga. In other words, the potential was always there. That she discovered her path in athletics while we were around, is something we take pride in but understand were just a small part of revealing.

Doesn’t matter. Reaching a goal is reaching a goal. It should be celebrated. Today we will.

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WSU: The Cougar baseball team lost its first game of the season and, much to our expectation, it was to the best program in the nation, UC Irvine. OK, that qualifier is not shared much outside our kitchen, but it’s true. In our eyes. The Cougars went on to win their nightcap against San Diego State. We can pass along a roundup of the day’s college baseball action. … This might be hard to hear for many WSU alums, but Klay Thompson is getting older. And more reflective. However, he can still knock down 12 3-pointers in a game. … Of course, Jon Wilner’s mailbag in the Mercury News features questions about the media-rights deal. … Others have thoughts about the deal as well. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, Oregon and Oregon State meet in Corvallis. … Colorado is limping home. … Utah battled but lost to fourth-ranked UCLA. Now USC is next. … UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. is part of two-man race for player of the year. … Devan Cambridge is important to Arizona State’s success. … It is Senior Day in Tucson as ASU visits. … In women’s hoop, Utah and Stanford meet in a battle of top-10-ranked programs. … Colorado has to bounce back against California.  … Coming off a win, Oregon looks to build momentum. … In football news, Wilner has a look in the Mercury News at the top 2024 recruiting target for every school. … Washington encourages competition in its winter workouts. … We have Oregon State’s running back preview and a mailbag today. … Remember the transfer receiver who was arrested and kicked off the Oregon football team? No charges were filed and the Ducks have reinstated him to the roster. … Colorado’s new offensive coordinator embraces the opportunity.

Gonzaga: Before we get into today’s coverage, we want to say we are all in with Jay Bilas. Even more so after Theo Lawson quoted him saying this about doing another interview with Drew Timme that will run during ESPN’s coverage today. “It’s been something that’s been quite uncomfortable, really,” Bilas said, tongue in cheek, of not having Timme as a subject of Bilas’ court-walking interviews. “I’ve never really had anybody whine and cry like that, but we decided to go ahead and do it to sort of placate his hurt feelings over not being featured enough, because it’s clear that Drew Timme just doesn’t get enough coverage.” Bilas gets it. … Other than Theo’s thoughts on GameDay, we also have Jim Meehan’s preview of tonight’s matchup between No. 12 Gonzaga and No. 15 Saint Mary’s as well as the key matchup. … That key matchup is Logan Johnson, who, as Theo tells us, grew up in Spokane rooting for the Bulldogs. … Theo also looks back at Thursday’s win over San Diego. … The women look to clinch an outright WCC title today in Provo, when they face BYU. Jim Allen has a preview. … Elsewhere in the WCC, it’s the final regular season game for BYU in the conference.

EWU: College basketball players are always advised to “hunt their shot.” For Eastern’s Ellis Magnuson, hunting (and fishing) has another meaning. Dan Thompson has this story on his hobby as the Eagles put their winning streak on the line in Pocatello today. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the Montana State women lost to Sacramento State, opening the door a little for others in the title chase.

Whitworth: The third-seeded Pirate men will play for an NCAA Division III postseason berth tonight in Walla Walla. They defeated Northwest Conference second-seed Puget Sound 70-51 Friday night to earn a date with top-seed Whitman in tonight’s title game. Whitworth and Whitman have split this season, with the 17-9 Pirates winning in Walla Walla 72-58 early in January, though the linked story has that score reversed.

Preps: Regional playoff action continued last night and Dave Nichols has you covered with this roundup. … Individual event medals were handed out in Bellevue at the State 4A/3A gymnastic meet, with Mead’s Dezlyn Lundquist winning the first-place medal in floor exercise.

Chiefs: Portland has been one of the best teams in the WHL all season. Spokane has not. But the past couple times the teams have met, the Chiefs have won. Including last night. Kevin Dudley has the coverage of Spokane’s 4-1 win at the Arena.

Mariners: The M’s won their spring training opener 3-2 over San Diego. But the main note? The game took less than 2-and-a-half hours. The M’s host – we had this wrong yesterday – the Angels today.

Seahawks: Russell Wilson says it never happened. Says he never asked for Pete Carroll and John Schneider to be fired. Still, the report will tarnish even more his already blurred Seattle legacy.

Storm: There was another signing for the team Friday, this one in the frontcourt.

Sounders: Is the injury return of Joao Paulo the missing piece in the middle of Seattle’s success?

Kraken: As a player finds his scoring touch, Seattle says its TV deals are not going to be impacted by a change in ownership status at ROOT.

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• Let’s just say today is going to be busy and move on. We are thinking we need a day off too. But it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Though we are taking a trip next week. To Las Vegas. Maybe that would be a good time to sleep in one morning. You don’t believe us, do you? As we said before, you’re smart. Until later …