A Grip on Sports: There is a traffic jam of sorts in the local sports world as spring and postseason basketball both vie for our attention
A GRIP ON SPORTS • The term “zipper merge” started appearing less than two decades ago. The idea is simple. When two driving lanes become one, melding them together by alternating back-and-forth, like a zipper, makes sense. But most of the time such situations just become a big mess, right? Welcome to the zipper-merge time of high school sports.
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• OK, not just high schools. But that’s the most egregious example as March begins. This is the final week of the most-popular winter sport in Washington, basketball. The main part of the State tournaments starts Wednesday, with 144 teams gathering at three sites to determine 12 champions. When Saturday night rolls around, winter sports will be officially finished.
And spring sports will have just finished their first week.
Yep, a bunch of athletes throughout the state have traded their indoor equipment for their outdoor stuff, from track spikes to baseball gloves to golf clubs and beyond. As the week wears on, thousands of teenage girls and boys will be trying to merge onto teams. And it will probably flow quite a bit better than I-5 at rush hour.
If the weather cooperates. There is nothing more helter-skelter than a high school gym complex this time of year when the snow flies. And it always seems to fly on this side of the Cascades sometime in early March.
Everyone has to practice inside. Baseball and softball players jammed in one gym. Track and field folks in the halls, maybe the other gym, heck, under eaves and awnings. Soccer balls bouncing down the stairs. Golfers unrolling a putting green in the cafeteria. Tennis volleys rebounding off that one wall no one else knows about.
The weather will clear at some point and that’s when high school athletes suddenly become drainage and top soil experts. It’s one of the underrated aspects of the high school sports experience in this area. An education in how to turn mud into solid rock, thanks to a bucket brigade and diamond dry.
One day a high school basketball player is sweating a free throw in a key situation, the next week he or she is sweating over a rake, hoping to clear a big-enough spot so they don’t have to field another ground ball off the hardwood.
• The zipper merge isn’t just limited to the Fords, Dodges and Hondas of high school sports. College basketball teams are dealing with the same issue of trying to get through the funnel that is the postseason.
It has begun. The aptly named Little Dance of conference tournaments. One last chance at glory. An opportunity to don a slipper and see if it stays on for long enough to necessitate buying an entire Big Dance ensemble.
For a large majority of the almost 3,000 college basketball programs around the nation, men’s and women’s, winning their conference tournament is the only way to guarantee another week of play. But only one team in each tourney can grab that crown.
Talk about a road rage.
About 3,000 SUVs, sedans and Mack trucks trying to force themselves through a merge point toward a diamond lane that isn’t built to handle the traffic? Madness indeed.
• Where do the local Division I teams stand?
The WCC tournament kicks off this week, with Washington State and Gonzaga participating in their final Orleans Arena bottleneck.
The Big Sky dubs their annual Boise crash-fest Starch Madness, which might just be the best nickname in college hoop. That tournament also starts this weekend and will end with the dreams of all but two teams mashed into oblivion.
In each tourney, there is a local squad that is among the favorites.
Both Gonzaga teams are in that category, though the women have the two seed and the men have two injuries that need some healing to ensure a better parking space in the NCAA bracket.
The Idaho women are the Big Sky favorites, befitting their regular season run to a conference title. And, despite Monday’s loss at home to Idaho, Eastern Washington’s men, winners of eight of their final nine games, have to feel good about their chances in what should be a wide-open tournament.
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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has his weekly ranking of next year’s conference men’s schools in the Mercury News. He also wonders about David Riley’s job status. … Former Oregon State men’s coach Wayne Tinkle spoke with John Canzano yesterday. Tinkle is still coaching and hopes to have a couple injured players back for the WCC tournament. … With all that is going on in the world, the problems of charter flights for participating NCAA basketball teams seem not worth a hill of beans. But they aren’t nothing. … The second-ranked Arizona men are the outright Big 12 champions after they threw a net over sixth-ranked Iowa State in Tucson last night. … Oregon has a tough assignment. No. 11 Illinois on the road. … Colorado visits Utah tonight. … If Utah State wins this week it wins the Mountain West regular season title. No one can catch the Aggies. That quest starts tonight in Las Vegas. … USC’s decision to boot guard Chad Baker-Mazara wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. It’s been building a while. … UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau, a Washington native, doesn’t talk about himself much. … Bobby Hurley is about to coach his final Arizona State home game. It will tonight against No. 14 Kansas. … Boise State has four seniors playing their final home game tonight. The Broncos host San Diego State. … Colorado State will be one of the hottest teams when the MWC tourney begins. … USC has been a force in the NCAA women’s tournament recently. That probably won’t be the case this season.
• In football news, recruiting never stops. Nor does the importance of it for Washington. Nor the coverage at On Montlake. … Colleges have spent about $270 million so far this offseason buying out coaches. … The death of Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder is hitting his teammates hard. … How has Arizona’s offseason been progressing? Coach Brent Brennan answers that question.
Gonzaga: The 70-59 road loss to Saint Mary’s helped the Gaels in the polls more than it hurt the Zags. Randy Bennett’s team jumped from the “others receiving votes” category to 21st, the first time this season it has appeared in the Associated Press poll. The Bulldogs? They dropped from ninth to 12th. Jim Meehan has all the particulars in this story. … Former GU and Gonzaga Prep player Anton Watson is still playing professionally in the United States. He’s in Southern California, grinding away with South Bay, the Lakers’ G-League franchise. … Are the Zags still in play for a three seed? … Elsewhere in the WCC, the Gaels’ Mikey Lewis has picked a good time to pick up his game.
EWU and Idaho: The Vandal men bused up to Cheney a little short-handed. No matter. They found a way to get past the host Eagles 85-81 and sweep the season series between the rivals. Dan Thompson was there and has this game story from Eastern’s Senior Night. … James Snook also has this photo gallery. … The Idaho women finished off their title run with a 75-64 comeback win over the visiting Eagles. Peter Harriman has that game story. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Portland State righted its ship just in time. The Vikings topped visiting Weber State to win the men’s title outright for the first time in 18 years. … Northern Colorado swept Montana, with the men winning in Greeley and the women in Missoula. … Montana State also won both, with the men winning in Flagstaff and the women in Bozeman. … Sacramento State’s men defeated visiting Idaho State. … In football news, Montana began spring practice with a new coach in charge.
Whitworth: The NCAA must be feeling financially sound. How else can one explain the three schools west of the Rockies all traveling across the country to play in the Division III men’s tournament? The Pirates (22-5), winners of the Northwest Conference, are headed to Houston for Friday’s matchup with 21-6 Trinity (Texas). Ethan Myers has all that information and more in this story. As for the other two West Coast representatives, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion Redlands (23-4) and conference-mate Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (22-4), are also on the road. Redlands is in Maryland and CMS is in Wisconsin.
Mariners: Cal Raleigh is no longer in the M’s camp. He’s with the U.S. team as it preps for the World Baseball Classic. … Ryan Sloan, however, is still in Peoria and still turning heads. … Just what will the Mariners’ Opening Day roster look like?
Seahawks: If John Schneider is going to try to keep as much of the roster together as possible, he started the process Monday. A couple restricted free agents were tendered contracts. … The biggest free agent questions, of course, revolve around Kenneth Walker III. Or the defensive backs.
Kraken: A great performance by a goaltender can mask a lot of issues. And win a game, as Seattle did last night, 2-1 over the Hurricanes.
Storm: The WNBA is on the backburner for every league player, what with the ongoing labor negotiations. But right now, for many players, include some with the Storm, so is basketball. They have been playing in the Middle East and now have to figure a way to get back to the States.
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• After I retired, I helped coach high school baseball for a couple years, paying back a debt to an old friend. I learned a couple things. You can never own enough cold-weather gear for outdoor spring sports in the Inland Northwest. And a good set of work gloves is as important as a well-oiled fungo. Until later …