A Grip on Sports: The Zags’ newest basketball addition proves once again no matter how many mistakes the folks in charge make, the games themselves still draw us in

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The bright sunshine flowing through the office window this morning makes one thing abundantly clear. It is the middle of spring. The province of baseball, track, golf and the like. And yet, with that in mind, the subject matter today is college basketball. The good, the bad, the indifferent.

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• Spokane isn’t Las Vegas. Not even close. But what happens in Spokane in April, it turns out, stays in Spokane. For proof, let’s all turn to social medi … uh, let’s not. Better to save our time there for cute dog videos. Instead, just know about 5 p.m. Tuesday, The news Massamba Diop is transferring to Gonzaga became public.

The 7-foot-1 center played his freshman year in Tempe for Bobby Hurley and the Sun Devils. But Hurley has been gone a while – replaced in the irony of ironies by Saint Mary’s longtime coach Randy Bennett – and now so is Diop.

Diop brings with him a couple of attributes. One is rim presence. On both ends.

As Theo Lawson writes in today’s S-R story, Diop “should give the Zags a level of rim protection they haven’t had since Chet Holmgren’s lone season at GU in 2021-22. The 7-footer turned away 69 shots last season – 31 more than GU’s leader, Tyon Grant-Foster – and blocked a season-high seven shots in a Big 12 game against Colorado.”

Why is that important? As good as Braden Huff is offensively, there is no one who would label the Zags’ returning post as a defensive force. Or an enforcer. Diop is both and, like Huff, rebounds well, grabbing 5.8 a game.

But don’t think Diop is a stiff on the offensive end. He averaged 13.6 points in Hurley’s guard-oriented offense. That number figures to improve in Mark Few’s more inside-focused attack.

With Huff, who averaged 17.8 points and 5.6 rebounds a game before his season-ending knee injury, and Diop on the court together, there should be a renewed emphasis on the two-post continuity offense that allowed the Zags to be among the nation’s leaders in efficiency for years.

The Zags had already done enough this offseason to convince most national observers the near-future is bright. But by convincing Diop to stay in the West – his other finalist was St. John’s, the school he visited last weekend – they have secured the most-important player, for them, in the portal.

• But that’s not all the college hoop news that needs to be addressed this morning.

The NCAA Tournament expansion train is leaving the station. Headed … well, the first stop is 76 teams. As soon as 2027. After that? Maybe Chaos. Maybe Disappointment. Or maybe Who Really Cares.

I’ve already arrived at that last destination. Mainly because I’ve come to believe if the past few years have taught us anything, they’ve instructed us college sports are more resilient than we ever thought.

No matter how many awful mistakes those in the Ivory Towers make, and, oh boy, there have been more than Bartleby, the Scrivener could ever count, the sports themselves can overcome them.

As much as I would prefer not to have the rules change every couple days, my wishes are not part of the equations. Neither are yours, unless you happen to run a major broadcast network or law firm or, maybe, a multibillion-dollar portfolio. And I don’t believe any of those folks have clicked this link.

The rules change. The players change. The coaches change. The games? They survive. Thrive even. The golden goose just seems to get fatter.

And those of us who follow either learn to live with it. Or cut ties. The former must be winning because the changes keep coming and viewership keeps rising.

The keepers of the old flames will rant and rave over a tourney expansion to 76 teams. It will still happen.

They will rant and rave about a CFP expansion to 24 teams. It will still happen.

They will rant and rave about, well, everything. But it won’t make an iota of difference.

• You know what might? An upcoming arbitration hearing that will put the College Sports Commission’s ability to restrict NIL funding to the test.

It has to do with 18 Nebraska football players. Over-the-cap payments ($20.5 million this year for every NCAA school that opted-into the House Settlement), something the CSC was created to oversee. And PlayFly Sports.

PlayFly, a multimedia company, is associated with hundreds of schools. That, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the House case, makes them immune to CSC’s sort of oversight. The CSC, of course, disagrees. An arbitrator will hear the arguments. Then will rule. And the idea of any sort of hard cap on athletes’ compensation may just leave on the next train to Fansville.

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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has his thoughts about tournament expansion on the Mercury New site this morning. And some thoughts on a possible CFP expansion. … We linked this story on Demond Williams Jr.’s place in the Washington food chain when it appeared in the Times. It is on the S-R site today. … Speaking of the Huskies, after spring practice Tuesday the linebackers seemed to be in the spotlight. … JaMarcus Shephard just ran his first spring practice at Oregon State. What did we learn about the first-time coach? And how is recruiting going? … We mentioned yesterday Oregon’s scheduled offseason trip to Japan. John Canzano has more on the visit. The Ducks will be one of the top-ranked teams when they arrive. … Cole Martin’s father is a football coach. He’s no longer at UCLA. His son stayed. … Arizona State has a reputation for developing players. … Arizona may have improved its overall reputation in spring. … A San Diego State assistant grew up in the city. … In basketball news, Colorado needs bigs from the portal but the biggest additions thus far have been guards from Australia. … Maybe all Arizona really needed was to keep a couple key players.

Gonzaga: The Diop news overpowers all other today. That’s why we wrote about it above (and linked Theo’s in-depth story) and why we are mentioning it again here. And linking stories from around the nation. … And why we have Theo’s Pac-12 transfer tracker here as well. … The Zags’ 14-game win streak ended in Eugene yesterday, a victim of No. 13 Oregon’s 4-3 nonconference win.  

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, once again Montana illustrates that recruiting never stops. Not in football. Not in men’s basketball. … Montana State’s men worked hard and kept all its scholarship players in Bozeman. … Idaho State kept a couple football players around and they will be key in the fall.

Indians: Dave Nichols has this notebook focused on Spokane’s start to the season. The Indians begin their series in Eugene today.

Preps: Dave put together this roundup of Tuesday’s action which includes softball, baseball, soccer and golf.

Sounders: We linked this Times’ story yesterday about Danny Musovski learning to calm himself. It is on the S-R site today. We link it once more. … The idea Vancouver’s team could be moved doesn’t sit right with a lot of folks in that part of Canada.

Mariners: The M’s trailed 1-0 when we had to leave the house last night and Logan Gilbert seemed to be laboring. We feared the worst. Imagine our surprise when we saw the final score. The M’s won 7-1. … A rookie made his pitching debut Monday.

Seahawks: Which undrafted free agents have the best chance to make the roster?

Storm: Rookie Flau’jae Johnson may have an immediate impact on Seattle’s fortunes.

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• Just because I am ambivalent about all the changes happening in college athletics – probably a defense mechanism – doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions about how coaches need to adapt to survive. I do. At some point I’m going to share. When the news slows down. Say 2029. Maybe. Until later …