A Grip on Sports: Saturday night could have been completely filled with celebrations but college basketball just doesn’t work that way most of the time

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Saturday nights are supposed to be fun. Happy. Joyous. But disappointment decided to make a star turn yesterday for many of the Inland Northwest’s college basketball teams.  

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• The Gonzaga women gave up a last-second, game-tying 3-pointer. Lost in overtime at nemesis Portland. And cost themselves a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season title.

The Gonzaga men gave in to the heat, noise and the host Saint Mary’s Gaels in the second half. Lost by double digits. And cost themselves their first solo WCC regular-season title in five years.

The Washington State men gave away another road game, finishing their two-year stint in the WCC with a nine-point loss in Malibu. And fell to the No. 8 seed in next week’s conference tournament. In Las Vegas.

The Idaho men gave visiting Northern Colorado fits on the glass. Led by seven at halftime. And still found a way to lose for the ninth time in Big Sky Conference play. By nine points.

Those are Saturday’s letdowns. There were also some games in which there was no letup. And resulted in satisfaction.

For Whitworth’s men, who topped Willamette 97-87 and earned the Northwest Conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA’s Division III tournament. For Eastern Washington’s men, winners of eight consecutive games after they walloped Northern Arizona by 31 at Reese Court. For the Eagle women, who also ran the Lumberjacks ragged in a 30-point victory. For the Idaho women, the Big Sky regular season champions. They cut the nets following their 55-41 win over the visiting Bears.

The two sides of college basketball’s coin, right?

Then why does it seems as if Saturday ended up more of a tails than a heads?

Mainly because the ninth-ranked GU men failed once again to re-establish their dominance over the one WCC program that can compete with them on a yearly basis. And did so on the national stage, with ESPN in McKeon Pavilion, now known by another name but still a bandbox lacking modern ventilation.

A throwback to a time when most schools were colleges and not universities. When the crowd sat right on top of the court and intimidated the heck out of everyone on it not wearing white. And a beat-up (and beat-down) group of visitors left the building toting a loss game after game.

All of that happened Saturday night in Moraga. The Gaels, given an opening weeks ago when Gonzaga inexplicably lost at Portland, started slowly, missing long-range shot after long-range shot. They trailed by seven at halftime. Their chance at winning at least a share of the regular-season championship for the fourth consecutive year seemed closed.

And then the Bulldogs emerged from the locker room at halftime at least a half-step slow. The Gaels punched early. The Zags backed down. Twenty minutes later, Gonzaga left the court dazed, confused and no longer alone at the top of the standings.

• The national media had no trouble identifying the blow the Zags took just after the New Year. Losing Braden Huff, the yin to Graham Ike’s yang up front, was covered in extensive detail. And how it would impact the Zags’ seed come, well, now, was discussed ad nauseum for a week or so.

But the injury they are dealing with currently, Jalen Warley’s leg issue, termed a quad contusion, has seemed to slip by with little notice.

Oh, sure, the West Coast branch of ESPN, as personified for the most part by Sean Farnham, hasn’t missed it. But the talking heads in Bristol? Not on their bingo card. And yet, Warley’s absence may be even more important.

He’s not a scoring machine as Huff can be. He’s not the inside presence Ike is. But when the Virginia transfer is on the court, the Zags are better on both ends.

It’s no wonder they were +25 in the plus/minus category the first meeting with Saint Mary’s. Warley is one of the NCAA’s top “glue guys,” players who do the little things that add up to big ones.

In Warley’s case he’s a disruptive defender who can guard bigs and littles. He’s an outstanding rebounder, helping to key GU’s often-lethal transition and earning the Bulldogs extra possessions on the offensive end.

There is no one else like him on Few’s bench. And few like him anywhere in the nation. It’s no wonder analytical savant Evan Miyakawa recently had him listed third nationally among his “glue guys.”

When Warley is not available, as has been the case the last two games after he played banged up for a couple weeks, the rotation has to shrink. Tyon Grant-Foster’s minutes expand. So do those of Adam Miller and Ismaila Diagne, though the latter only played 3 minutes last night.

The Zags need Huff for his offense. They need Warley for just about everything else. Without both, they may not get past the NCAA tourney first round.

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WSU: Let’s get to the S-R stories on those events, shall we? Starting with Greg Woods’ coverage of the Cougars’ 88-79 defeat at last-place Pepperdine. David Riley bemoaned his team’s losing the toughness battle, and he wasn’t referring to physicality. “We weren’t able to have the mental toughness to pass up the good (shot) for great,” he said on the postgame radio show. … The Cougar women finished their regular season the opposite way, topping visiting Saint Mary’s 57-50 and winning two consecutive games for the first time this season. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, we linked Jon Wilner’s weekly mailbag yesterday when it appeared on the Mercury News website. It is on the S-R’s today, so we link it once more. … John Canzano is still not done with Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes. And may just not be until the Beavers make a change. … His recently fired men’s basketball coach, Wayne Tinkle, will finish out the season. His last road game resulted in a 93-72 loss at Santa Clara. … Washington retired a legend’s jersey than suffered a tough-to-swallow home loss to Wisconsin. … Oregon’s run of good play continued but the Ducks still couldn’t get past Northwestern on the road. … Colorado didn’t play well at No. 5 Houston. But Tad Boyle wasn’t around to see the final minutes. The Buffaloes’ head coach was ejected. … Utah’s offense was rejected by Arizona State’s zone, as the Sun Devils picked up another Big 12 win. … Stanford won. … California did not. … And UCLA lost at Minnesota. … USC? The Trojans led by five at halftime. And lost to visiting Nebraska by 15 points. … Utah State is alone on top of the Mountain West standings. The Aggies defeated Grand Canyon at home and New Mexico did the same to San Diego State. … Colorado State was undefeated in February. … Boise State has bounced back as the month has wound down. … Arizona made a statement Saturday, routing a healthy Kansas team 84-61. The Wildcats clinched at least a share of the Big 12 title. … The Oregon State women had a chance against Loyola Marymount. But the Beavers lost in overtime and the Lions ended up winning the WCC regular season title. … Oregon and Washington meet today in a key game for both. … So do second-ranked UCLA and USC. … Colorado fell apart in the fourth quarter and lost to host BYU. … Utah handled Arizona from the opening tip. … In football news, Colorado made all the staff changes official Saturday.

Gonzaga: I have my thoughts above. Theo Lawson has his in his game analysis and the game story he posted right after the final buzzer. He also had a story on Warley’s absence before the tip and worked with the folks in the office on the recap with highlights throughout the game. … Jim Meehan has his three takeaways, focusing in that and this story on the Gaels’ 16 made 3-pointers. … Tyler Tjomsland took a final trip to Moraga and has a photo gallery, though once again I am having trouble with the link. … I watched, first on ESPN News, then on the flagship, from home as Farnham and Dave Flemming once again shared their voices with all of us. And then I wrote this TV Take. … I also mentioned the women’s loss above. Greg Lee has this coverage. … Former Gonzaga point guard Ryan Nembhard is no longer a two-way NBA player. He’s a fulltime NBA player. … I can also pass along this game story from the Mercury News.

EWU: Dan Thompson was in Cheney on Saturday and his story from Eastern includes coverage of the victories for the men and women. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana’s men handed fading Portland State another road loss Saturday. The Vikings face Sacramento State on Monday and, if they lose, either Eastern or Montana State can, with wins, grab a share of the conference regular-season title. … The Bobcats hammered Sacramento State on the glass yesterday. And on the scoreboard. … Weber State handled visiting Idaho State. … The Montana State women stayed within a game of Idaho with a win. … Idaho State won at Weber State. … Montana held off Portland State. … Montana State has added two football games to its future schedules. 

Idaho: Peter Harriman was in Moscow on Saturday and his story from the ICCU Arena includes coverage of the women’s title-clinching win over Northern Colorado and the men’s tough loss.

Whitworth: Ethan Myers was at the Pirates’ Northwest Conference men’s title game and he has this story of their 98-87 win over Willamette. Whitworth will learn its NCAA travel plans today.

Preps: Dave Nichols did double duty Saturday – just with the prep basketball playoffs. He has a story on Mt. Spokane boys’ State win and another covering the loss suffered by Ridgeline’s girls. Both serve as roundups for the GSL participants in the State tournaments. … There is also another roundup from Cheryl Nichols that covers the other classifications, most notably the Bs. … Speaking of next week’s B Tournament in Spokane, the director, Dave Tikker, has a guest column on the S-R’s editorial page today.

Chiefs: Dave Nichols’ work wasn’t done after the prep games. He also headed over to the Arena to cover Spokane’s “Chiefs Fight Cancer” night, as the pink-clad home team defeated Tri-City 5-2. In the wake of the loss of Colfax coach Reece Jenkin the day before, Saturday’s hockey theme hit Dave hard.

Kraken: Seattle finally woke up from its post-Olympic slumber, thanks in part to matching up at home with last-place Vancouver. … I linked this column when it ran in the Times and again today in the S-R.

Mariners: Kade Anderson, last summer’s first draft pick, made his spring training debut. The lefthander struck out the side in the first. And then gave up two runs in a 7-1 loss to the Padres. … I linked this column when it ran in the Times and again today in the S-R. … I also did this when I was working in Southern California so long ago my knees have forgiven me. Then again, during winters in college I also caught a Hall of Famer, Bert Blyleven, and other assorted major league pitchers. It helped pay the bills. 

Sounders: Real Salt Lake has speed. Maybe that’s why it also has the Sounders’ number recently. Seattle lost 2-1 in the first of what will be a six-match road trip.

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• Yesterday, the final day of February, was really nice. Spring-like. Nap inducing. Today, the first day of March, looks even better, though a nap doesn’t seem to be in the cards for this lamb. That must be the lion stuff the nursery rhyme references. At least the lawn is already clean and the truck has a new battery. Yep, like a lot of you, the Grippis were busy yesterday. Until later …