A Grip on Sports: The Zags suffer through as bad an upset loss as they have been dealt in years, one that will have ramifications later in the season
A GRIP ON SPORTS • You like upsets? Then the latest middling Wednesday night in early February was for you. And for the text chain you have with your Gonzaga buddies.
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• It seemed like the perfect night to have a family dinner. Nothing of importance was scheduled for Wednesday. And the rest of the week was a bit too crowded – hello, Sunday is the Super Bowl and the Seahawks are playing.
So Wednesday it was. Though I didn’t make it iPhone-Calendar official until checking the line on Gonzaga’s game. Twenty-plus points again. At Portland? The same team Washington State just hammered by 30?
Make the restaurant reservation. It can be late. We’re not missing anything.
If you ever wondered why I hate to pick games here, or bet on them in any way, last night was the most-vivid example I could throw your way.
Portland 87, Gonzaga 80. Sixth-ranked Gonzaga. Twenty-two-and-one – going in – Gonzaga. Haven’t lost to the Pilots since pre-Covid-days Gonzaga.
How? Why? And what’s next?
In reverse order, if the Zags lose at Oregon State on Saturday, the sky-is-falling klaxon can be activated; video is wonderful teaching tool; and being unfocused on the defensive end will always bite you in the backside.
Wednesday’s loss, in which the beat-up Pilots – even head coach Shantay Legans was in a boot, a victim of filling in at practice when your Achilles tendon is too old to fill in at practice – shot 59% from the field, hurts. Now and come March, when the twin black marks of losing to Michigan by 40 and dropping a Quad IV game (Portland had a NCAA NET ranking of 213) will costs the Zags’ at least a couple of seed spots. That is if they right the ship and win out.
At least Wednesday’s loss, unlike the 40-point blowout in Vegas, came without Braden Huff. The selection committee has been known to give perennial powers such as GU a break if the injured player has returned for the tournament. If Gonzaga’s key big man is able to play, then the Bulldogs are a different team. At least on the offensive end, where his absence has been felt the most.
But does Huff, not the most physical of inside forces, make a difference when Portland shot 66% inside the arc?
That’s not a “he problem.” That’s a “we problem,” as in every Zag needs to look in the mirror this morning, from Mark Few to the last player in the rotation, and examine their leadership, effort and focus on that end.
This Zag team started the season looking as if it could be the best defensive group Few has put on the floor. Yes, ever. But there has been a slow slide since. A slide that’s put more pressure on the offense. Without Huff, that end is less efficient, which kicks in the great circle of hoops, more pressure on the defense.
It cracked Wednesday. The Pilots, a team with just three WCC victories coming in, found ways to pull a huge upset without making an inordinate amount of 3-pointers. Hitting 7-of-16 is certainly efficient but not spectacular.
It’s funny how video works. Watching allows the other guys, who are paid too, to understand advantages. There have been more than 20 games to dissect. And the new-look Gonzaga defense isn’t such anymore. And there has been plenty of time to breakdown the new-look offense since Huff has been hurt.
Legans, who made his bones in Cheney before moving on to the Hilltop, decided to see if GU could beat his team over the top. Throw a zone at the Zags for much of the game and force a lot of 3-pointers. It worked.
Partly because the Zags didn’t. At least not as hard as needed to win on a mundane early-February night in Portland.
• By the way, Gonzaga wasn’t alone last night. Tenth-ranked Michigan State gave away a game in Minneapolis, losing to Minnesota 76-73 in part because star Jeremy Fears picked up a technical. And 16th-ranked BYU’s defense may have been even worse than Gonzaga’s, as the Cougars lost at Oklahoma State 99-92.
• I have to take Kim to see an orthopedic surgeon this morning. She suffered a knee injury on a basketball court. OK, she stepped off the bleachers wrong and may have torn her meniscus, but it was in a gym.
Anyhow, that appointment limits me a bit. And other news hit me hard this morning, hard enough I had to pound on the keyboard longer than I expected. Mickey Lolich died.
OK, quizzical looks are fine. Lolich wasn’t a household name in 1968 nor 2026. But he was a huge part of my childhood. Heck, in some ways my worship of baseball, and my dad, was built by the pudgy Detroit Tiger left-handed starting pitcher. And it happened in 1968, the year of the pitcher.
Lolich was definitely Detroit’s Robin back then. The American League-champion Tigers’ Batman? Denny McLain, the first pitcher since 1934 to win 30 games in a season – he finished 31-6 – and the last to ever do it. And he will always hold that distinction.
But my dad had a prediction for the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. He told me before it started Lolich, who won 14 fewer game than McLain, would be the man. The guy. The hero. And he was right. The lefty won three times in the Series, including Game Seven, which he started on two-days rest. And Detroit, my dad’s favorite team, won the Series.
How did he know?
Simple. McLain was the star. That meant he would match up with the Cards’ Bob Gibson, whose 1.12 earned run average earned him the National League’s Cy Young and MVP awards. McLain won more games but Gibson was more dominate. And just as my dad thought, Gibson dominated the Tigers twice, helping the Cards to a 3-2 lead heading home. St. Louis opted to give him another day of rest after that. McLain and the Tigers won the sixth game. That left Lolich to start against Gibson in the winner-take-all seventh. In St. Louis.
He pitched a complete game. And Detroit won.
Twelve-year-old Vince couldn’t have been happier. Until a few years later, when I read Lolich, in retirement, had opened a doughnut shop in Michigan.
The melding of a childhood hero and the superhero of my diet? Perfection. Back in Detroit in 1976 for a friend’s wedding, I had to try Lolich’s doughnuts. You know how it’s said never to meet your heroes? Well, I didn’t meet Lolich. But I ate his doughnuts.
They were OK. Maybe Lolich-in-the-regular-season good. But not World Series caliber. Another childhood dream shot to heck.
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WSU: Greg Woods is in the Bay Area. Covering the Super Bowl runup. With a Cougar bent. His story this morning touches on Kyle Williams and what the past year has meant for him. … He’s not the only S-R contributor with a Washington State connection. Dave Boling’s column centers on right tackle Abe Lucas. As I’ve said many times in this space, Lucas made a practice play in Lewiston one preseason within a few yards of where I was standing. And it was so impressive I was sold on him being an outstanding pro someday. And, yes, first impressions are usually wrong. This one wasn’t. … OK, non-Super Bowl links. Greg also covered Kirby Moore’s signing day list of players as the Cougs reloaded their roster. … Liam Bradford covered Moore’s press conference. … Wednesday’s basketball game in Corvallis? That is covered here. The second half wasn’t the best for WSU, as the men couldn’t buy a bucket after halftime and fell 74-64. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has a column in the S-R that covers the media deals for the Pac-12 and the Mountain West. … John Canzano echoes some thoughts I have expressed over the past couple years about ESPN and the West Coast. … Washington’s men lost to Iowa. … Oregon’s tough season is weighing on Dana Altman. … Colorado lost again, this time to Baylor. … Same with Utah against Arizona State. … California held off Georgia Tech. … Arizona is No. 1 and deserves to be. … Drills work. … The Oregon women handled Illinois at home. … Colorado could not get past West Virginia. … No. 2 UCLA routed Rutgers. … Arizona State won against Oklahoma State.
• In football news, Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. spoke with the media for the first time yesterday since his transfer debacle. … Frank Reich has left Stanford. For a bigger challenge. … Recruiting never stops for Oregon either. … Or Oregon State. … Or Utah. … Or Arizona. … Boise State has a young person in charge. … Fresno State has a new offensive line coach.
Gonzaga: The loss? Theo Lawson has the game analysis from Portland. I linked it above. … Jim Meehan has three takeaways. … Tyler Tjomsland has the photo gallery. That’s enough, right? On to Corvallis. … Speaking of Oregon State, the women are in Spokane today, set to play the GU women in the Kennel tonight. Greg Lee uses his weekly notebook to preview the key WCC matchup. …Back to the men, there is coverage of the upset in the Oregonian.
EWU: Dan Thompson has this coverage of the Eagles’ football signing class. As we love to say, recruiting never stops. And neither do the recruiting stories. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana’s Bobby Hauck said Wednesday he’s just ready to be done with college football, circa 2026. It’s understandable. The Griz have named his successor. … Montana State is losing its defensive coordinator again. This time to the NFL.
Preps: Rod Tamura has been connected to Rogers High for the better part of five decades. Since he attended the school in the 1970s. Madison McCord has this story as Tamura prepares to retire as the school’s wrestling coach. … There is a basketball roundup for us to pass along. The playoffs are upon us. … Dave Nichols chips in with the S-R’s Super Bowl coverage, sitting down with former KXLY-TV sports reporters Dennis Patchin, Bud Nameck and Rick Lukens for his latest Press Box podcast. You can listen here if you like.
Chiefs: Dave is back with coverage of Spokane’s impressive 7-2 home win over Penticton.
Seahawks: Hey, a Sam Darnold story. Of course. It has to do with his injury. And injury is also the subject of the daily coverage, as Nick Emmanwori rolled an ankle at practice. … Don’t skip the WSU section above. There is more Super Bowl coverage there. And there is more S-R coverage as well, with Garrett Cabeza in the Bay Area covering the fan side of things. … Of course we also have other Seahawks coverage from the Times. A couple columns as well. … And there are a bunch of stories from around the country, though sadly I am dropping my Washington Post subscription, as the paper is dropping its sports page.
Mariners: One more thing about Lolich. He grew up in Portland.
Kraken: The final game before the Olympic break was a win for Seattle against the L.A. Kings. A good way to go out before the break.
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• Have I ever mentioned I saw McLain’s 29th win in 1968? From Anaheim Stadium’s upper deck. The same place I watched the All-Star Game that year. Spending money for good tickets was never a Grippi family thing. Until later …