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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

A Grip on Sports: Priorities are needed to get through weekends like the one just ahead

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Fridays are known for one thing around this location. Helping you plan your TV-watching weekend. We can’t disappoint you, can we? But that’s not all we have to cover.

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• It’s just too busy this weekend. We don’t mean in the number of different sports, as the late part of winter isn’t nearly as crowded as, say, October. But there are so many basketball games occurring, we have to prioritize. And decide which level we want to focus upon.

We could focus on the high schools, what with the State tournaments going on in Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane. There is even coverage of the State 1B and 2B title games on tap Saturday (starting at 3 p.m. on SWX). We used to be able to watch the big school titles games over here back in the day, but when the WIAA went to one weekend of tournaments (from two), those games disappeared.

Then again, if you are adept at streaming – we understand it but wouldn’t call ourselves “adept” – you can watch just about every game, including those in Idaho, by paying a fee.

It’s the college games that draw us to a greater degree anyway. Washington State’s men may be done for the weekend but the women are still playing in the Pac-12’s tournament – and have ensured themselves at least an at-large spot in the NCAA Tournament. You can watch their semifinal against Colorado tonight (8:30) on the Pac-12 Network.

The men are winding down, with just about everything decided. Despite Thursday night’s 93-84 win at Washington, the Cougars’ sixth-consecutive triumph, they will probably not earn a top-4 bye in next week’s conference tournament. There is still a possibility for a four-way tie for the final bye (Arizona State, Oregon and Utah could all equal WSU’s 11-9 conference mark, with ASU and UO having a chance to better it Saturday) but such hopes are rarely realized in Pullman.

Meanwhile, the conferences top-three spots – No. 4 UCLA, No. 8 Arizona and USC, in that order – are locked in, upsetting the schedule makers’ hopes of Saturday night’s showdown between UA and UCLA (7, ESPN) being for all the enchiladas. Instead, it’s just another appetizer before the real feast, the NCAAs.

Gonzaga’s men and women will be playing in that tourney, though both have to finish up the West Coast Conference’s in Las Vegas. Neither team plays until Monday’s semifinals, so you have that reprieve this weekend.

Which doesn’t mean there aren’t great games to watch. Saturday alone has Alabama at Texas A&M, Iowa State at Baylor and Ohio State at Michigan State. And those are all at 9 a.m. There is also Tennessee at Auburn, Kentucky at Arkansas and Louisville at Virginia. All before noon. The afternoon includes Kansas at Texas and Duke at North Carolina.

Wow. Last Saturdays of the regular season are fun.

• What other sports are they? There is spring training baseball, including the Mariners vs. Colorado (12:10 p.m., Root) on Saturday. There is golf from Florida, with the final round starting on NBA at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. And there is XFL football, with Seattle playing in Las Vegas on Saturday (4 p.m., FX)

• Before we go, we want to touch on the magnitude of Thursday night’s Washington State victory. No, not the one in Seattle. The men have defeated the Huskies before, actually quite often in the Kyle Smith era. Nope. The women in Las Vegas. It’s not often the Cougars have upset the nation’s third-ranked team. Wait. That’s sort of incorrect. The right term is “never before.”

Kamie Ethridge’s 21-10 team is breaking all sorts of boundaries this season, a year which will culminate in the school’s third consecutive trip to the NCAAs.

They rolled over the Utes on the strength of a 27-11 third-quarter blitz and behind the stellar play of Bella Murekatete, who hails from little Genesis Prep in Post Falls.

It’s the type of story – and there is more, believe me – movies are made about. But only if they have a happy ending. To win the Pac-12 tournament, not only will the Cougars have to defeat Colorado in the semifinals, they may have to do something the program has never done: defeat Stanford.

Never done it? That seems to be this group’s calling card.

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WSU: Besides the story on last night’s victory in Vegas, which we also linked above, we have Colton Clark’s coverage of the 93-84 win over the Huskies, keyed by T.J. Bamba’s 36 points. … Speaking of the Huskies, Jon Wilner has a hot seat column in the Mercury News and you can probably guess where Mike Hopkins sits. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, Oregon roared past California. … Stanford did the same to Oregon State, 83-60. … UCLA dominated Arizona State 79-61 behind Jaime Jaquez Jr. and his 26 points. … USC and Boogie Ellis scored a lot but not enough to get past visiting Arizona. … At the women’s tournament, Utah was quite shocked to lose. … Colorado rallied past up-and-down Oregon State 62-54 to set up the semifinal with WSU. … Stanford handled Oregon easily, 76-65. The Ducks have to wait and see if they make the NCAA tourney. … UCLA struggled on Wednesday but roared past Arizona last night. … In football news, Washington’s spring depth chart holds questions. … The Colorado defense should be competitive. … We have another Oregon State position preview to pass along.

Gonzaga: With the men now having some time off, Theo Lawson had a chance to look back at Wednesday’s win. … Theo also shares awards news concerning Drew Timme. … Jim Allen uses the down time to tell us Eliza Hollingsworth’s story. … We have another story about Rui Hachimura to pass along. … Shawn Vestal delves into another part of Frank Burgess’ life. … Elsewhere in the WCC, the conference is deeper than ever. … Wilner predicts the men’s tournament in the Mercury News. He started 0-2. … Portland set a tournament record in its win over San Diego. Next up is a suddenly salty BYU. … The Bay Area women split their tournament games.

EWU: For a team to be successful, everyone has to contribute, even if that contribution comes from off the court. Jordan Veening serves a key role for the Eagle men, as Dan Thompson highlights in this story. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana hopes to stay hot at the tournament. … So does Northern Arizona. … Montana State did well in the women’s awards. Eastern’s Jamie Loera was the unanimous choice for the defensive player of the year.

Whitworth: The Pirates are finally getting to play an NCAA tourney game in Swarthmore, Penn. They were scheduled to do it in 2020, until COVID-19 wiped out the tournament after the first weekend. Dan Thompson checked in with Jerry Twege about Whitworth’s first-round game today.

Preps: The basketball tournaments are still going in Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane. As well as in Boise, for Idaho’s boys. From across the mountains, Dave Nichols covers the 3A/4A boys and girls action. … Dave also has a roundup of the Idaho boys tournaments from around Boise. … We can also pass along a 2A/1A roundup from Yakima, where just about every game came down to the wire. … In Spokane, Dan Thompson has coverage of the B girls while Keenan Gray has the B boys roundup, both accompanied by Colin Mulvany’s and Jesse Tinsley’s photographs.

Mariners: Logan Gilbert, new pitch and all, was knocked around some on a chilly day in Arizona, but the M’s rallied to win 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth. … The pitchers, including Robbie Ray, look sharp for the most part thus far. … The M’s decided to stick with J.P. Crawford at shortstop. Will the decision pay off? … This is a big deal. If the regional money goes away, then the investment Seattle made in Root would be wasted to some degree.

Seahawks: We’re pretty sure the Hawks will draft a pass rusher. But which one? … The NFLPA polled its players about how they are treated by teams. How did the Seahawks do? … Hold on about Bobby Wagner. … Pete Carroll has a different opinion about the combine.

Kraken: Seattle won in Detroit but it took overtime. … The penalty kill has improved during the season.

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• We are in Las Vegas. Already lost a thousand dollars. Shouldn’t you be able to go double-or-nothing with the hotel folks and auto rental place? Though, knowing our luck, we would be down a couple grand. Ah well, we get to tick something off Kim’s bucket list. And that’s important – says the man who bought her a vacuum cleaner for a birthday present. Hey, she asked for it. And we actually believed her. Until later …