A Grip on Sports: Why should we watch sports if all they are going to do is make us unhappy? Because its not always what they do

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It has been said the best measure of a compromise is if both sides are at least a little unhappy. If that’s true, then there was a lot of compromising going on Tuesday night. In the televised sports world at least.

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• We start with the Gonzaga men, mainly because happiness seemed to melt away in the University of San Diego’s Jenny Craig Pavilion late last night.

Name a participant. A coach. A fan. A player. No one on either side expressed joy following Gonzaga’s 99-93 West Coast Conference win over the host Toreros. And rightfully so.

OK, there is that one guy a few rows behind the USD bench. He seemed ecstatic. My guess? He took the home team and the nearly 30-point spread. Or he had snuck in a flask of happy juice. Neither of which was an option for Mark Few. Or USD coach Steve Lavin, for that matter.

Neither saw much on the court to smile about.

Few because his team sleepwalked down the stretch. Or because Graham Ike’s inner child busted out again and all over the floor, as his water bottle toss resulted in a spill and a technical. Or a million other little things, from missed free throws to missed defensive assignments to missed calls. The last one was shared by Lavin, who expressed loudly and constantly his certainty the officiating crew was hindering his team’s ability to win.

Maybe there was one non-fan happy camper. The Zags’ Jalen Warley, who filled in for Ike and Braden Huff, both saddled by foul trouble, and scored a season-high 22 points while also grabbing a career-best 14 rebounds.

“You’ve always got to celebrate a win, especially on the road when there’s a lot of great teams in this conference,” Warley told the S-R’s Theo Lawson. “We definitely know there’s a lot of things we’ve got to improve on but at the end of the day, you’ve got to celebrate a win any chance you get.”

Celebrate, sure. Be happy about it? Not so much.

• You know another unhappy group? Washington State basketball fans. At least the ones who are vocal on X or whatever other social media site they can get their hands on.

The Cougars suffered the same fate last night other Washington schools such as EWU and UW have already endured. They lost to Seattle University.

That the Redhawks, the newest member of the WCC, are 12-3 this season seemed a bit unimportant after they throttled the Cougars 69-55 at Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday night. WSU, the once and future Pac-12 basketball participant, losing to Seattle U? The horror.

Maybe that’s not it. Maybe it was the Redhawks’ defense clung to the Cougs like kudzu, limiting the visitors to 30% shooting, forced 19 turnovers and just 22 points at halftime.

It has to be David Riley’s fault, right? The second-year coach was criticized early in the year for WSU’s defensive struggles. Now that those have been worked out, it’s his offense that’s the issue of the day.

Such things never would have happened if Kyle Smith were still in town.

Uh, anyone watch Smith’s Stanford team play last night? It lost, at home, to Notre Dame 47-40. Ugly isn’t the right word. Grotesque seems better.

Anyhow, his old program seems stuck in mediocrity. Six wins in 15 tries overall. A split of their WCC opening road trip. Up and down play.

It didn’t help last night one of Washington State’s key pieces, guard Tomas Thrastarson, was injured late in the first half and never returned. Now that’s something to be unhappy about. And to hope isn’t serious.

Everything else? It is college basketball in 2025. Everyone has something to be unhappy about.

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WSU: Greg Woods was in Seattle last night and has this coverage of the men’s loss. … The women, coming off a WCC-opening home win, lost 67-58 to visiting Loyola Marymount. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Stewart Mandel takes a different view than I do when it comes to the end of the USC vs. Notre Dame football rivalry. He blames the Trojans and Lincoln Riley. … Speaking of USC, unhappy is not a strong enough word for its fanbase after the way the Alamo Bowl ended last night. A blown double-digit lead with less than eight minutes left in regulation. Weirdly conservative play calls in overtime inside the 10-yard line, resulting in another USC field goal. Then a series of laughable missed tackles on a third-and-20 play that resulted in a game-winning TCU touchdown. … The Lane Kiffin-to-LSU saga is a story wrapped in hypocrisy. … Chip Kelly is back in college football. At Northwestern. Calling plays. … His old team, Oregon, is in Miami for an Orange Bowl showdown with Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are coming off a bye. If they are rusty at all, which happened in every quarterfinal game last season, that might be enough for the Ducks. John Canzano thinks it will be in his picks. … An Oregon State receiver is leaving. … Washington kept a hometown player home. … Utah will be led by new coach Morgan Scalley in the Las Vegas Bowl. He said he has a plan in place to deal with player or coaching losses in the offseason. … Arizona State has to deal with losses right now heading into the Sun Bowl against Duke. … Arizona seems pretty set for Friday’s Holiday Bowl against SMU. …Fresno State is ready for the loss of its best offensive lineman.

• In basketball news, Jon Wilner has his Big 12 men’s power rankings in the Mercury News. … Jeff Metcalfe ranks the best of the West for the women, also in the Mercury News. … Oregon State’s men rebounded from a WCC-opening loss to top USF. … Colorado is not rebounding well enough to be successful. … We mentioned Stanford’s ACC loss above. Cal also lost at home. … Boise State used a stifling defense to top New Mexico. … San Diego State needed to get well. It did, thanks to a win over San Jose State. … Colorado State needs its best player to get well. Without Kyle Jorgensen, the Rams lost to Nevada. … Utah State got past Fresno State on the road. … The Oregon State women are 2-0 in conference play. … Getting healthy has been a priority for one Colorado player. … UCLA faces Penn State. 

Gonzaga: We linked Theo’s game analysis above. And here too. … Jim Meehan added three takeways from the game, while Tyler Tjomsland has a photo gallery. … The women were happy with a few things after their 75-52 win over visiting Pepperdine. The win, which raised their WCC record to 2-0, for sure. And the usual performance from Lauren Whittaker, with 22 points and nine rebounds. Plus, freshman post Jaiden Haile posted her first college double-double, scoring 21 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Greg Lee has the coverage.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Montana State football just doesn’t talk about being brothers, it recruits them. … There is good news for Montana. Its quarterback is returning. … In basketball news, the Montana State men hope they learned from their tough nonconference schedule. … Weber State is ready to find out how it stacks up in conference play. … Northern Arizona finished nonconference play Monday night with a home win. … The Montana women are learning a lot in the school of hard knocks.

Preps: It’s holiday basketball tournament time, with Dave Nichols spending another night at West Valley High watching the Eagle Holiday Classic. His focus? Central Valley’s 67-42 win over the host Eagles in boys’ action. But Dave’s roundup covers everything.

Seahawks: We heartily agree with everything Mike Vorel writes in this column. The NFL’s weekend schedule, as it pertains to the Hawks and 49ers, is ludicrous. … This ranking has the Seahawks first in the NFL but for different reasons than most. … There are major questions at left tackle. That’s not good. … History is important in sports. For Seattle too. Remember 2013? Sure, everyone does. … Many of the “old” Seahawks are at the end of their NFL line.

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• Some mornings I know I project my feelings into words. Today was one of those days. Funny thing, though. I wasn’t unhappy watching the games last night. I was, however, sad. Mainly because, due to the crud working its way among other members of our house, we weren’t able to attend the Gonzaga women’s game. And it wasn’t on TV. I was stuck with one fewer option. And I’m all about options. … By the way, goodbye to the year that was. See all of you again in 2026. Until then …