A Grip on Sports: Before we can prepare for what’s ahead, we should take a look back at the historic weekend
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Most Monday begin with looking forward. Making a list, maybe, of what has to be finished before the end of the work week. Looking back? Sure, that happens for sports fans. Who hasn’t talked about the Cougars or Eagles at work on a Monday? We find that comforting this morning.
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• The good news from the weekend first. Surprisingly, when considering it concerns a Pac-12 tournament (in any sport), it comes courtesy of Washington State. For the first time, a Cougar team has taken home one of the conference’s postseason championship trophies.
Kamie Ethridge’s basketball team did it Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, winning for the fourth time in five days – three of them seed upsets – and taking the women’s title back to Pullman, 65-61 over UCLA.
If you missed it, make sure you listen to your co-workers who didn’t, share their knowledge today. Than do some Internet sleuthing while the boss is busy. Catch the highlights. Junior guard Charlisse Leger-Walker and senior center Bella Murekatete, the former from New Zealand, the latter from Rwanda via Post Falls, supplied enough of them to fill your dinner break.
Leger-Walker was the tournament MVP after her 23-point performance that included just about every needed rebound down the stretch as well. And Murekatete turned in an MVP performance herself. That it happened to come in the post-game interview only supplements her 21 points (on 8-of-11 shooting) in cementing her legend status in Pullman.
The Cougars’ finish – shout-out to Murekatete, the Genesis Prep grad – their time in Vegas not only with a trophy but the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Sure, they’ll have to wait a week to find out their seed but it doesn’t matter. They’ll always be the first WSU team to win a post-season conference tournament. That’s make them the No. 1 seed in Pullman for now.
• Eastern Washington’s men have known they were the No. 1 seed in the Big Sky tournament for a couple weeks now. Which turns out wasn’t a good thing. They clinch and then see their 18-game winning streak snapped in Pocatello. They lose again to Montana State. And then they head to Boise, take on a Northern Arizona team playing its second game in as many days and let the Lumberjacks hang around.
Too long, as it turns out. Or just long enough for NAU fans, who were able to celebrate after Oakland Fort drained a 28-foot game winner at the buzzer, sending the Eagles into the NIT.
That’s part of the agony of mid-major life. Even winning its first 15 conference games didn’t guarantee Eastern a spot in the NCAA Tournament. No matter what the Eagles regular season record finished, all that mattered was how they did in the conference tournament. And they were one-and-done.
• Enough of what’s behind us. Rip the rear-view mirror off the window and throw it away. The next day or two is about what happens in Las Vegas for Gonzaga.
The women are the top seed. Their first-round opponent is, fittingly, BYU, who has bludgeoned its way into the semifinals.
This is it, WCC version, for the Cougars. Next year they will be in the Big 12. But how they would love to knock off the Zags one last time, putting a damper on what has been a glorious season for GU.
The Gonzaga men don’t carry the top seed into their game tonight at, well, it is supposed to start at 8:30 on ESPN2. We’ll see. Anyhow, the Zags carry some baggage. And momentum.
The baggage comes from an early conference season which not only included a home loss to no-longer-in-Vegas Loyola Marymount but also close calls against three conference foes. Two of them are still in town, including tonight’s foe USF.
Yes, the Bulldogs will be playing in the NCAA Tournament. But their seed is still TBD. And everyone with a Gonzaga sweatshirt knows how crucial that can be.
Crucial enough to be talked about at work all week.
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WSU: We didn’t get to the Mandalay Bay for the basketball yesterday. We had other duties already locked in. But we found a place to watch the game, and marvel at how resilient this group of Cougars is. That’s what impressed us the most, more than the basketball. Every time it looked as if UCLA would make a break, Washington State reeled in the Bruins. And then, when the game was on the line, the Cougars broke away themselves and held on. Colton Clark has the game coverage. … The Cougar men begin their Pac-12 tournament run Wednesday against California, which is a good thing. Colton has a preview of that game as well. … The baseball team swept Southern Indiana to improve to 10-1. That’s part of this college baseball roundup. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, we start with the women. We linked some stories above but we have some UCLA coverage here. And coverage from Las Vegas … Jeff Metcalfe looks back at the tournament results in the Mercury News. … Oregon State didn’t have the season it wanted. … On the men’s side, Jon Wilner shares his picks for conference awards in the Mercury News. … The Huskies will face Colorado in their first-round tournament game. … Utah hopes to turn its poor play around and make a run. … UCLA will be playing for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney. … Arizona State is playing for its NCAA life. It opens with Oregon State. … No matter what, Arizona has had another special season. … In sad football news, former Washington football player Joe Jarzynka was found dead this weekend. … We can pass along another Oregon State spring position preview. … UCLA had some players at the combine. So did Oregon.
Gonzaga: Let’s start with the men. Of course, Khalil Shabazz is Jim Meehan’s key matchup today. After all, the USF guard scored 38 points in the Dons upset over Santa Clara on Saturday. And he’s had some success in his 10 previous games against GU. But WSU transfer Tyrell Roberts is also a crucial part of USF’s success, as Jim points out in his preview. … For BYU’s women, winning the WCC title is the only path into the postseason. Jim Allen shares what he knows about the Cougars in this preview of the noon game. … Jim also takes a look at the Zags’ NET ranking and how it will impact their NCAA seeding. … Elsewhere in the WCC, the conference will introduce Stu Jackson, a former WSU basketball assistant, at a news conference this morning. That news comes from multiple reports and is passed along in this Theo Lawson story. … The Portland women are the No. 2 seed as they try to replicate their 2020 run. Without the pandemic, of course. … Among the men, BYU and top-seed Saint Mary’s have played two tight games with the Gaels winning both.
EWU: We linked John Blanchette’s story on the Eagles’ unexpected 81-80 defeat above and do it again here. … The Eastern women begin their tournament today with an 11 a.m. game against Montana. Dan Thompson has a preview. … Elsewhere at the Big Sky tournament, one of the top women’s seeds, Montana State, also fell in its first game, with the Bobcats losing 77-65 to hot-shooting Portland State. … Northern Arizona got past Northern Colorado 64-48. … On the men’s side, Montana has topped Idaho State, its opponent today, twice already this season. … Montana State defeated Northern Colorado 84-73 to open its tournament yesterday.
Idaho: The Vandal women will face third-seeded Sacramento State this afternoon in both schools’ tournament opener. Peter Harriman has a preview.
Preps: Dave Nichols figures there were things missed from the State basketball tournaments over the weekend, so he tries to fill in the blanks. … Dave Cook fills us all in on how a few players from Spokane high schools are doing for Boise State this season.
Mariners: It’s time for the M’s players who will participate in this year’s World Baseball Classic to leave camp. They include Julio Rodriguez. … Numbers always hold an important place in baseball lore.
Seahawks: What are the chances the Hawks take one of the intriguing quarterbacks in this year’s draft?
Kraken: The road trip ended with a win over the defending Stanley Cup champions, Colorado.
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• We will be working today. Writing a column for the S-R. Well, that makes all the money we spend this week tax deductible, right? No. Really. Any tax pros out there? Free advice is always appreciated. Until later …