A Grip on Sports: Sure, we have to navigate summer first and all that entails, but the next Gonzaga basketball season holds potential, doesn’t it?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Here it is the end of May. The sun is over the horizon by 5:30 in the morning. At some point – next week seems to be the consensus – it will start getting warm in Spokane. And yet, here we are, fingers poised above the keyboard to pound out some thoughts on college basketball? What the hay?

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• OK, we’re going to cover the streaking M’s too. And maybe a little golf. A local kid headed to Caitlin Clark’s former conference, the Big Ten. Without leaving the state. But our No. 1 priority this morning is college hoops.

Well, No. 2, actually. Or three. Or whatever. Gonzaga is going to begin the 2024-25 basketball season ranked somewhere in that neighborhood. How the heck did that happen? Blame the transfer portal. Or credit it, whichever you prefer.

Sure, Mark Few was bringing back a hefty number of players off last year’s Sweet Sixteen squad. But there were holes. There probably isn’t anymore, especially if former EWU standout Steele Venters shoots like he did in Cheney.

As the Bulldog faithful like to tout on social media, the Zags got dudes.

The key one, Pepperdine transfer Michael Ajayi, announced Wednesday he was not headed to the NBA draft. Spokane was where he wanted to be. Even though there was a pretty good shot he would hear his name called.

The rest of the squad? There are bigs. Shooters. Added long, athletic defenders. Ball handlers. Energizer bunnies. And maybe a young post who will develop down the road. Heck, we already know who will be the next Zag point guard, a hallowed tradition that started with some guy named Stockton.

It’s why no matter where you look as media types rate the rosters, you see Gonzaga near the top. Great. Now Few can enjoy his Paris Olympic coaching more. No pressure there, huh? It’s a good dress rehearsal for next spring.

• Is the way the M’s have been winning lately sustainable? No. Chaos ball, as they have dubbed it, may be good enough to put together wins in, say, 54% of your games, but win a division? Make the postseason? It will take more. Only four or five wins more, sure, and that shouldn’t be all that hard. Another bat, someone on the final year of a deal maybe, could account for such. Or maybe the guys who Jerry Dipoto added in the offseason can produce more.

Either way, we’re not convinced this team has enough to hold off the surging Cory Seagers, er, the Rangers. Or even continue the good vibes against the Astros, which last at-bat wins have inflated this week.

• It is no secret we enjoy golf. Watching it more than playing these days, but you do what makes you happy. And we are happy the situation in Louisville with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has been resolved.

Scheffler’s arrest on the Friday morning of the PGA Championships cost the city some goodwill. It also may have cost Scheffler a chance at another major. With that in mind, everyone decided “no harm, no foul” was the way to go. He won’t be prosecuted and he promised not to sue.

The settlement allows us to turn our gaze this week to the world’s hottest golfer. No, not Scheffler. Nelly Korda.

Sporting a newly revamped swing, Korda has won six of her last seven LPGA starts. She won the season’s first major. She enters this week’s U.S. Women’s Open in Pennsylvania as the prohibitive favorite. She’s worth watching, as is the tournament. We’ll tune in.

And what did we see before 8 a.m. our time? A 10 on the 12th hole, leading to a 45 on Korda’s first nine, the back one. Winning may not be an option. Making the cut is also iffy.

• A few years back we watched Brynn McGaughy play for the Spokane Legacy group in a summer tournament at the Warehouse. The Colfax eighth-grader was already the best player on the court, playing in a bracket that included high school stars.

She seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of other local standouts from Regan Fruen (Stanford) and Heather Owen (Stanford) through Emily Westerberg and Briann January (Arizona State) to Angie Bjorkland (Tennessee) to the multitudes who shined at Gonzaga and beyond. Women who came out of the Inland Northwest to excel at the highest level.

Wednesday she told everyone where she would do that. Washington. Yes, the same UW that was barely over .500 last season. That finished ninth in the Pac-12. That is headed to the Big Ten, which means travel, travel and more travel.

Luckily for those of us in this area, she has one more year to play for Colfax. And we have more chances to watch. Don’t miss out.

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WSU: The Cougars received expected, yet disappointing, news yesterday. Jaylen Wells will stay in the NBA draft. Greg Woods has more in this story. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, as the conference members scatter to the wins this summer, Jon Wilner decided it was time to pick the 10 best athletes the conference produced. He posted his list on the Mercury News. We would quibble with placement, believing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was either one or two, but we would only change out one or two folks. If another baseball player is needed – and with the number of NCAA titles the conference has, one is – we would take Arizona State’s Reggie Jackson – 1966 college player of the year, Hall of Famer, 563 MLB home runs, five World Series rings – instead of a guy who pumped up his body with illegal drugs. We also believe Henry Rono was the most dominate distance runner the conference ever produced, but we understand Steve Prefontaine being on the list. … John Canzano answers questions in his mailbag from Wednesday. … Of all the under-covered stories in the Pac-12 footprint recently, this one concerning Shilo Sanders might be atop our list. … The Buffs added another football staffer. … Oregon State is using the junior college route to build roster depth. … Arizona dipped back into the portal. … Caleb Love won’t head to the NBA. He will be back playing for Arizona’s men next season. … Bronny James won’t be returning to USC. … Arizona State has an outstanding, and overlooked, recruiting class coming in. … Utah picked up a highly regarded transfer. … No one seems willing to explain the exodus hitting the UW softball program. … The college World Series begins today in Oklahoma City, with Stanford and UCLA representing the conference for the last time. … The Bruins have a two-sport star on the roster. … Oregon lost a key pitcher to the portal. … In baseball, the regionals begin Friday, with Oregon State ready to host. … Arizona has had a lot go right this season and the Wildcats host as well, facing Grand Canyon on Friday.

Gonzaga: Jim Meehan has the Michael Ajayi news in the S-R this morning. We linked his story above as well. Yesterday was the deadline for underclassmen to either stay in the draft or head back to college. … The women are still working the high school classes, as a North Dakota player, Jaiden Haile, announced she would head to Spokane.

EWU: Former athletic director Lynn Hickey will be inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics hall of fame this summer. That news leads of the S-R’s most recent local briefs column. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, let’s hope Montana State reaped a windfall after Stephen F. Austin pulled out of its fall football game in May. That’s not acceptable. The Bobcats found a replacement.

Preps: Lots of prep news this morning, despite competition being over for the school year. Dave Nichols headed out to Rogers High last night to witness the school honor distance great Gerry Lindgren. Dave has this story. … He also covers the McGaughy news. We linked his story above and do it again here. … Finally, Dave has this piece on the Northeast A scholar-athlete awards. The GSL awards are contained within the local brief column in the EWU section.

Indians: Spokane topped Everett once again, winning 8-5 Wednesday night at Avista. Dave has this story on the victory that gave the Indians a 3½-game edge in the standings over fading Eugene. … Elsewhere in the Northwest League, host Hillsboro edged Eugene 3-2 and it cleared up enough in Vancouver to allow Tri-City to rally past the Canadians 6-5.

Mariners: A 2-1 win should be celebrated, especially against the Astros. And it was, after J.P. Crawford’s sacrifice fly scored the game winner in the 10th. But it could have been so much easier. … How will the records change now that Negro League marks have been elevated to major league status? Here’s how. … A viral video at a major league park? Well, we never.

Storm: The core four of stars is starting to play better together and that’s translated into victories.

Sounders: It seemed weird to us last night that Brian Schmetzer decided to sub some of his stars late in a 1-0 game, most notably Jordan Morris, whose defensive support is among the best for MLS forwards. We understand doing such things in midweek matches when there is a game scheduled for the weekend, but there isn’t. Anyhow, Real Salt Lake scored late and earned a draw.

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• It’s about time for the sun to begin warming up our corner of the world, isn’t it? Not too much, but we would love to be able to sit out in our backyard and enjoy summer. As long as an ice pack is nearby. Until later …