A Grip on Sports: The awards fade, as do the memories, but the ‘how’ in earning them is what should never be forgotten

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There is a way-too-messy corner of our outdoor shed. No, it doesn’t hold gardening equipment or lawn gnomes. There are shelves for those. The corner I’m referring to has a few boxes filled with ancient trophies and awards. It is their last stand. Heck, they aren’t even allowed space in the basement anymore.

•••••••

• If there is one thing years and years and years ingrains into athletes, it’s that all awards and honors are great when you earn them, but only a few have meaning throughout a lifetime. And even the luster of those fade as surely as one’s athletic prowess.

Which is part of the reason the importance of Awards Season (patent pending) varies greatly depending on the recipient – and their feelings about what is important.

This is not meant in any way as a criticism of the mountains of awards handed out during basketball season – at all levels. Sure, award inflation is more consistent than price hikes at McDonald’s, but that doesn’t mean the person who wins isn’t star-struck. At least for a while.

What is also true, however, is some awards mean more that others. You think Mark Few’s 14th West Coast Conference Coach of the Year award meant as much to him as his first? Probably not. But that ring Grant Hill recently delivered to him in Spokane, the one that symbolized Few’s role in helping the U.S. Olympic basketball team win a gold medal? That will always have a special place among his plaques, trophies and medals.

What’s really interesting is how different athletes have different takes about such things. And those takes can change over time.

Some display them proudly. There might even be an entire room devoted those past recognitions of greatness. Others might just look at them once, express their gratitude for the honor – and put them away, never to be seen again. And both attitudes have a tendency to change over time.

My wife Kim calls them dust collectors. She’s right, of course. She always is. But when the dust begins to collect in one’s mind, and it surely does as the years go by, a trophy or a plaque can be pulled from its hiding place, cleared of cobwebs and trigger a needed trip down Memory Blvd.

Faces of teammates. Moments of madness. Tears. Laughter. It all floods back, leaving either piles of smiles or the detritus of lost youth in its wake. Most times both. Heck, just knowing those relics of time gone by still exist is enough to trigger a smile – or a tick, depending on your point of view.

Now excuse me. I want to get done. I have this odd desire to check to make sure that one MVP award from decades ago is still around. And to see if I can remember how it ended up in my possession.

• Every once in a while modern technology flummoxes me. In a good way. It happened last night. And led to watching an exciting college basketball game I never would have watched otherwise.

I was watching one of the ESPN channels last night when I had the urge to switch to a movie on Prime. Which one? Not saying. I’m not proud of it, though it did make me laugh. But before I switched from the cable box to streaming, I hit pause on the DVR. Don’t know why, but I did.

When the movie ended, I left Prime and went back to the box, the last couple minutes of BYU vs. Iowa State popped up. Except, it really wasn’t that point in the game. Unbeknownst to me, the DVR had recorded the channel the entire time and what I was seeing was more than a half-hour behind.

Ignorance, in this case, was bliss. I sat spellbound as the two Big 12 teams traded buckets, fouls and finger wags, all the while believing I was watching a live game. But then I realized something, when the crawl at the bottom of the screen showed No. 1 Auburn was behind with 3 minutes left. I had received a notification of Texas A&M’s upset win on my phone a while ago. What the heck?

A couple of button pushes on the remote and I had figured it out. A quick check of the ESPN app and I knew the game’s real status. Should I remain locked in and watch both overtimes? Or jump forward and just catch the last minute?

I chose the latter. The closing seconds of BYU’s 88-85 win kept me enthralled for a few more minutes.

•••

WSU: The Cougars experienced their first WCC awards week, with Greg Woods covering the three awards for the men and Greg Lee mentioning the three women who also earned WCC recognition in this story. … Of more long-term importance, Washington State announced contract extensions for men’s basketball coach David Riley and women’s coach Kami Ethridge. Greg Woods has that story as well. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, yesterday I linked Jon Wilner’s exercise comparing the NET ratings of old and new conferences. That column is on the S-R website today. … In the realm of new information, Wilner delves into the news about the ACC and its capitulation to Clemson and Florida State, ensuring the conference’s demise down the road. … The ACC’s move is also national news. … This is fun. Who is the best NCAA champion of the past 40 years? … Oregon State also is experiencing the WCC’s award season for the first time. The women and men had players honored. … Oregon’s men ended the game on a 10-0 run and handed a blow to Indiana’s NCAA at-large hopes. The Ducks’ are alive and well. … Has Utah, which lost a heartbreaker to West Virginia, decided on its new coach? Only Mark Harlan knows for sure. … Arizona scored at will last night in its rivalry game with undermanned Arizona State. But the Wildcats also gave up points in droves and held on for a 113-100 victory that may not play well down the road. … Colorado State picked up its 15th conference win, a school record, when it topped San Jose State last night. … Boise State started slowly but finally got going and handled Air Force. … UNLV has the secret sauce for topping San Diego State. The Rebels swept the season series last night. … The Big Ten women’s tournament starts today with Washington facing Minnesota. Oregon plays Indiana on Thursday. … The Big 12 tourney is getting underway too. Former WSU standout Johanna Teder is a big part of Colorado’s hopes. … This March will be different in the Bay Area. … In football news, Oregon State’s latest quarterback transfer is expecting to stay in Corvallis the rest of his college career. … An Arizona lineman has given up meat. … Cam Skattebo is in line to make some money in the NFL. A former Arizona State teammate would like some of it. 

Gonzaga: The WCC’s major awards are pretty much all headed to Spokane. For the women. Greg Lee’s has a story on Yvonne Ejim’s back-to-back wins in two major categories and Allie Turner’s top-freshman recognition. … Jim Meehan has this piece on the men’s three first-team performers. … Jim also returns with his Zags Basketball Insiders Podcast, his weekly conversation with Richard Fox. You can listen here. … Anton Watson wasn’t out of work long. He signed with the Knicks yesterday. Theo Lawson has more. … Julian Strawther is going to miss some time with an injury. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s was the big award winner among the men, as its domination of the regular season demanded. … Portland’s women shared the top spot in the standings with GU and had first-team choices, including Liberty’s Maisie Burnham.  

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, every team needs a guy like Montana State’s Sam Lecholat. … Winning a title was new for some of the Northern Colorado’s men. … Weber State is showing grit. Will that be enough in Boise? … In football news, recruiting never stops. Ask Sacramento State. … Cal Poly has to rebuild its offensive line. The process is already underway.

Preps: State basketball tournaments begin today in Spokane, Yakima and Tacoma. Dave Nichols preps us for them with two capsule summaries of the local boys and girls teams playing at all levels. … As for the Bs in Spokane, Dan Thompson has a preview of the 2B boys and the 2B girls as well as the same for the 1B girls and boys.

Seahawks: Improving the line has to be the Hawks’ No. 1 draft priority, right? It will be. It just might not be the line you are thinking about. … This year’s running back group is as deep as the NFL draft has seen in a while. … The Hawks released four veterans yesterday, most of whom you will recognize. They are cap-space moves.

Mariners: After a tough season, what will the M’s roster look like this opening day? … The Mitch Garver story linked yesterday? It is on the S-R site today. … No new hitters, sure. The offseason did not bring that. But it did bring along a new hitting coach. And new approaches. Will that be enough? … Speaking of baseball, could the Mariners soon have competition in the Northwest? John Canzano’s column updates the Portland’s MLB dreams.

Sounders: The Champions Cup round of 16 kicks off for Seattle tonight. And the test will be a tough club from Mexico, Cruz Azul.

Kraken: Seattle fell behind and never caught up with the Wild, falling 4-3. … Yanni Gourde is back and may be on the block.

•••       

• The Tacoma Dome. Yakima’s SunDome. The Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. Three venues pretty evenly spaced throughout Washington. A triangle of basketball tradition. The State tournaments begin in earnest today. To everyone who is in the buildings, remember it’s not the destination, but the journey. Until later …