A Grip on Sports: The Zags survive a first-round rock fight in Portland, one that also caused contusions for those watching from home

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There was one thing I was certain of when I began writing this column almost 15 years ago. The day Chuck Norris died, I would share my story of the lone interaction I had with the “Walker, Texas Ranger” star. It has everything. High school football. A rickety press box. Family. Sports writing. But, alas, it may have to wait. Today is just not the day.

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• Why just a tease? A couple reasons, the main one being the crowded nature of the day in sports. Though the fact about every 17th word I type is interrupted by a raspy, racking cough that sends my fingsaerg, sorry, that was supposed to be fingers, willy-nilly across the keyboard.

I’m just not up putting together a remembrance of Lenny Dykstra, a warm Orange County fall evening and the most-impressive cowboy boots I ever saw. Not when I also have to summarize Gonzaga’s 73-64 NCAA tourney loss, er, win over 14th-seed Kennesaw State in Portland on Thursday.

The loss part comes from having to watch it. The Zags’ 17th consecutive first-round victory was everything ugly college basketball can be. Wally Szczerbiak could call it a “rock fight” 100 times or more and it wouldn’t make it true. Rock fights usually are more entertaining. And better officiated.

Byron Jarrett, Wil Howard and Antinio Petty were given an impossible task. I get that. When one team understands their best way to win is to attack – read, foul – as often as possible on both ends and force the officials to decide how much they want to slow the flow with a whistle, it can be overpowering. Especially for three officials who all worked the NCAA Tournament’s first round in 2025 – and were not asked back for the second round. In other words, they were eliminated early. And probably should be this year as well.

Kennesaw State’s downhill, right-at-you, attack posture was smart. It forced the Zags to guard in space, to absorb blows often and forced their offense to deal with multiple forms of contact – including one late play when Frankquon Sherman ran at Graham Ike and used his face to help initiate contact. Ouch.

Actually, I kind of knew how Sherman’s face felt. It must have been akin to how it felt to watch. And to watch Mario Saint-Supery foul out in the final minutes after picking up three whistles in a little over a minute.

Saint-Suprey’s last one was actually committed by Ike and would have been his fifth, something KSU coach Antoine Pettway pointed out vigorously – to no avail.

Again, it was easy to understand how he felt. It was the wrong call. In a game that featured a lot of them.

That Ike then pulled Gonzaga from the fire 29 second later with a game-clinching baseline jumper probably made the Owls’ pain reach another level.

• Idaho’s men didn’t have that worry. Kelvin Sampson’s Houston team took care of that with an early 24-3 run en route to a 31-point win.

• Both the Gonzaga and Idaho women begin their NCAA tournament runs today.

• Don’t forget. You can find all the S-R’s stories about the NCAA Tournament at this one handy-dandy link.

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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner’s column in the Mercury News looks at next year’s conference basketball lineup and how the members stack up for at-large NCAA berths in the men’s tourney. … I’m a little late in passing this along but John Canzano has some NCAA tourney thoughts. … The most-shocking first-day upset this year? It may have been 12th-seed High Point taking down the Big Ten’s Wisconsin in Portland. … Are the Washington men destined to be an also ran now that they are in the Big Ten? … California picked up an NIT win, topping visiting Illinois-Chicago 91-73. … Utah State is in an 8/9 game against Villanova. It is also in an arena the Aggies play in every season. … UCLA is the higher seed but need to get past Central Florida (4:25 p.m., TBS) to have a deep NCAA run. … Not sure LIU will give West top-seed Arizona a battle this morning (10:35, TNT), especially with Jaden Bradley’s wrist injury reportedly not bothering the guard. … The Oregon State women saw their season end at home last night. It finished on a 62-58 loss to Wisconsin in the WBIT. … Washington faces South Dakota State in its NCAA opener (11:30 a.m., ESPN News) … Oregon opens up the NCAA Tournament by facing Virginia Tech from the ACC (10:30 a.m., ESPN2). … Colorado State also opens its NCAA run today against Michigan State (4:30 p.m., ESPN News). … Colorado’s begins against Illinois on Saturday. … Cal topped Santa Clara on Thursday night, with Stanford and USF also winning. … Coach Molly Miller returned for Arizona State in time for the play-in game with Virginia. But the Sun Devils lost 57-55. … San Diego State topped UC Irvine in a WBIT game at USD.  

• In football news, Morgan Scalley began to put his stamp on the Utah program as spring practice starts. … How good is Arizona’s offensive line? … Colorado has a new tight ends coach. … USC settled a lawsuit that dates back to when Mike Bohn was athletic director. … Arizona State made some staff changes.

Gonzaga: Yes, it was one battle after another. But that’s how NCAA Tournament games usually are. What matters is who gets to play again. In Thursday night’s case, that was the Bulldogs, after their 73-64 victory in Portland. Theo Lawson was in the Moda Center and has a couple items for us, including his game analysis and the top part of the recap with highlights. … Dave Boling was sitting nearby and he has his column highlighting whom he believes may just be the Zags’ most important player. … Jim Meehan also adds his thoughts in his postgame three takeaways. … The visual report? Tyler Tjomsland has that with this photo gallery. … The Zags face Texas on Saturday (4:10 p.m., TBS). The Longhorns won their second tourney game by outlasting BYU 79-71. Jim has a story on that game. … The NCAA Tournament begins for the Gonzaga women this afternoon (12:30, ESPN2). The 12th-seeded Bulldogs face No. 5 Ole Miss, a seeding circumstance GU has faced before. Greg Lee explains that in this notebook. … Greg also has a preview of the game in Minneapolis, focused on the Zags’ bench players. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s looked stiff and slow in its 63-50, turnover-filled loss to Texas A&M. The game was similar to the Gaels’ WCC tournament loss to Santa Clara. The Broncos take on Kentucky in today’s first round game (9:15 a.m., CBS).

Idaho: It would have taken a near-perfect game for the 15th-seeded Vandals to upset second-seeded Houston on Thursday. Funny, but that’s how the game began, with UI playing about as well as it could. Then the Cougars put together the 24-3 run and that was that. Madison McCord is in Oklahoma City and has the game story. … Madison also has another one on the UI women being able to watch the game in person, as they face Oklahoma in Norman this evening (7, ESPN). … Colton Clark has three takeaways from the men’s loss. … Peter Harriman has a preview of tonight’s women’s game. … There is more from the men’s loss to pass along. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana State’s FCS title is still reverberating through Bozeman and beyond.

Preps: It was a busy Thursday for softball and there is this roundup to pass along. … Dave Nichols has this story on MODE Prep’s basketball season ending a week ago.

Kraken: Getting a better playoff spot, or even earning one at all, means avoiding games like the one Seattle played last night in Nashville. The Kraken lost.  

Mariners: This is the M’s 50th season. Which means they have a rich-enough history to demand an all-time team be culled from the hundreds of players who have worn the uniform. The Times has done just that. … Is Cal Raleigh one? He returned to the M’s lineup yesterday and raked. … Logan Gilbert will be on the mound opening day for the second consecutive season.

Seahawks: I linked this Q&A from The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar yesterday. It is on the S-R website today. I link it once more.

Sonics: Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson is set to meet with NBA commissioner Adam Silver on Monday in New York. Why does that matter? The league is scheduled to take a vote on moving forward with expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas on Tuesday. … Who will win the MVP vote? Probably not Victor Wembanyama but he may be the true one.

Reign: The first week of Seattle’s regular season ends with a rivalry game.

Storm: The new CBA may not seem rooted in economic realities but it is in finally recognizing who the fans pay to see.

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• Some news. I am scheduled to write about the Gonzaga women’s game today. But because I am still dealing with some health issues. I’ll be headed back to bed in hopes of waking before the tip feeling spritely enough to fulfill my commitment. Not sure I would bet the house that will happen. Until later …