A Grip on Sports: At least a trio of WCC schools have found a way to be good in men’s and women’s basketball this season, instead of just one
A GRIP ON SPORTS • The West Coast Conference has a dozen members. Twenty-four basketball teams descended on Las Vegas for the conference’s tournaments. Eight are left. The semifinals are today. Guess how many schools are represented.
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• If you guessed eight, go to the end of the line. Or the Big West Conference. If you said four, you would be close. Like the Mountain West, to continue the current left coast basketball conference analogy.
But the number is five, which seems sort of odd to me. Are there really just three schools in the conference that actually care about both of their basketball programs? Supports both? Nurtures them? Sort of seems that way. And two of them, Gonzaga and Oregon State, won’t be around when the basketball season kicks off again in the fall.
The other school with their men and women in today’s semifinal? That would be Santa Clara, the university who once not too long ago took at a full-page advertisement in The Spokesman-Review to tell everyone they were coming for Gonzaga. Uh, that hasn’t happened.
Though this afternoon at 2:30, if you have access to ESPN+, you can watch the Bronco women try to make the grandiose claim stick when they face the Zags with a trip to the finals on the line.
But at least Santa Clara, college home of Steve Nash, Gavin Newsom and my buddy Bud Nameck, has both of its basketball teams still playing. The Broncos’ opponent on the men’s side, Saint Mary’s, is alone.
The Gael women bowed out the first day. Just like Loyola Marymount’s men, while LMU’s women earned the conference’s top seed.
Give SCU credit. The school’s three-letter acronym may sound like the place you do your banking, but its programs have risen enough they are a threat to make the NCAA Tournament no matter what happens today. At least the men, who ESPN bracket guru Joe Lunardi basically ordained last night. He gave them his stamp of approval as long as they got past Pacific in Sunday’s quarterfinals. The 25-7 Broncos did, 76-68.
Will the NCAA Selection Committee follow suit on Sunday? Herb Sendek’s team can ensure they do with a win tonight (8:30, ESPN2) over the 27-4 Gaels. That would also ensure three WCC teams are in the NCAAs as well, something that would line help the bottom lines of the schools who aren’t bailing, as they will reap the benefit of the NCAA payout for years to come.
Maybe Saint Mary’s can invest in its women’s program. Or in air conditioning for their gym. Either would seem to be appropriate. And needed.
• Oregon State’s basketball success this week is a tale of two coaching tenures. Women’s coach Scott Rueck’s will continue, seemingly, as long as he wants. The OSU alum has built a sustainable ecosystem in Corvallis, a program that seems destined to finish in the top echelon of whatever conference the Beavers find themselves in. Next season that will once again be called the Pac-12, though besides Washington State the rest of the members will be new.
But even when UCLA and Stanford and the rest were members, Rueck’s teams excelled. Heck, the last season – 2023-24 – the old Pac-12 was together, Oregon State not only made the NCAA Tournament, they advanced to the Elite Eight. And not for the first time. Rueck got that far twice with Division III George Fox – a Northwest Conference member who had to deal with Whitworth and its then exceptional women’s program – and three times with the Beavers, including a run to the Final Four in 2016.
Want more evidence of his coaching acumen? After the Pac-12 broke up, so did Rueck’s Elite Eight roster. Nearly everyone headed off to Power Conference schools. So what did he do? He put together a group that won 19 games. This year Oregon State has won 22.
That’s the stable program residing in the OSU Basketball Center. The men’s program is not built on the same bedrock. In fact, coach Wayne Tinkle, the Ferris High grad, has already been fired. He’ll be looking for work whenever the Beavers’ season ends.
It wasn’t last night, even though his fourth-seeded team took six minutes to score against fifth-seed USF. Despite have a lame-duck guy on the bench, the Beavs kept digging and built a second-half lead. Then held on, earning them a matchup with top-seed Gonzaga tonight.
Tinkle’s record at Oregon State is under .500. He’s only made the NCAA Tournament twice in his 12-year tenure. In fact, if not for the second one, in 2021, he would be coaching somewhere else today. But Oregon State won three consecutive games that year to win the Pac-12’s automatic berth, then won three more in the COVID-19 bubble. The Elite Eight run earned Tinkle a contract extension instead of a pink slip.
The next season OSU finished 3-28.
Since then he’s hung on. Until Feb. 26, when athletic director Scott Barnes, once in charge at Eastern Washington, announced a change. Tinkle, given the choice by Barnes, decided to finish out the season. Two nights later, the Beavers lost at Santa Clara. Then came last night’s win
Two more, including an upset of Gonzaga tonight (6, ESPN), and does Tinkle get a do-over? Nope. But a new spot to ply his trade? Count on it.
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WSU: Colton Clark has been writing a college baseball weekend summary this season. Today’s topic? The freshman who are giving Washington State and Gonzaga a boost. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, the Big Ten has not been kind to the four former Pac-12 schools in men’s hoop. And, as Jon Wilner tells us, the future seems bleak too. Then again, why have the women done so well despite the same travel issues? … John Canzano has a column on his four years in business for himself. … Tinkle’s team gave him an honor last night he’s never received before. Everyone chipped in for it. … Colorado lost to Arizona but built some confidence while doing it. … Arizona State will enter the Big 12 tournament with nothing to lose. Except, maybe, the chance to keep playing. … Arizona earned a breather before it hits the court again. … Fresno State won’t win consistently, its coach says, unless there is more money available. … I mentioned Oregon State’s women above. And link the stories about their win over Portland here. … Second-ranked UCLA mauled Iowa in the Big Ten tournament final, winning by 51 points. Does that mean the Bruins will win the NCAA title? … San Diego State suffered a stunning defeat in the Mountain West tournament. … Colorado State won on a buzzer beater. … In football news, a former Washington player is in a battle with cancer. … Colorado picked up a receiver in the portal. … San Diego State will hold a pro day Tuesday.
Gonzaga: Yes, Theo Lawson has a preview of tonight’s semifinal against Oregon State. But he does not have the usual key matchup. Let me make the choice. Mark Few and Tinkle. A mismatch if they met at the block. A mismatch in the coaching box, though the Beavers have that little extra motivation I described above. … Greg Lee also has a preview of the women’s game. Gonzaga and Santa Clara met just once during the regular season, with the Broncos earning a four-point home win. … Dave Boling focuses on the past today. He has a column on Adam Morrison and his thoughts on GU leaving the WCC. … There is one more Gonzaga story to pass along. Mathew Callaghan’s on the Kennel Club. … And one from The Athletic on the rivalry with Saint Mary’s. … The latest Associated Press poll will be out today. Where will Gonzaga land?
Idaho: Both Vandal teams won in Boise last night, moving on in the Big Sky’s tournament. The men posted a four-point upset of second-seeded Montana State. The women, who won the regular season crown and are the top seed, had no trouble with Weber State. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Portland State’s men won over Idaho State to advance. … Montana hopes to ride recent improvements to victory in the tournament. … The Montana State women topped Montana for the third time this season and moved on in the tournament.
Seahawks: Free agency is underway. What does that mean for Seattle?
Mariners: Those big, bold predictions for the M’s I linked before when they were in the Times? They are available on the S-R site. So I link them again. … Bryce Miller is slowly on his way back. … With Cal Raleigh away, the pitchers will play – with calling their own pitches.
Storm: Is the WNBA management ever going to sit down with its players again and hammer out an agreement? Maybe not.
Kraken: The NHL’s only women assistant reflects on the changes in her second year behind the bench.
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• Santa Clara’s win last night may just have assured the WCC the West Coast crown this season. No other men’s conference on this side of the nation will send three schools to the NCAA tourney. Not the Big West (one), Big Sky (one), Mountain West (maybe two) or even the Big Ten (maybe one), Big 12 (one) or ACC (maybe two), if you are counting their western-based schools. Until later …