A Grip on Sports: It’s always nice when only a few offseason roster additions are needed to continue a run of success
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Anyone want a dog? No? Darn it. How about a new Gonzaga basketball lineup? Or a new edge rusher? Ya, those are probably in more demand than a little mutt who can’t understand why his morning pillow is no longer around the house.
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• Speaking of mutts, how about Andrés Muñoz’s slider much of this season? The M’s closer better get that pitch figured out soon or all the World Series dreams may be replaced with a few Freddie Krueger-like nightmares.
But I’m not here to write about Matt Olson’s 412-foot ninth-inning blast that handed Seattle a 3-2 loss on a Tuesday night when Cal Raleigh returned to the lineup. Albeit as the designated hitter.
No, the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks signing a needed piece Tuesday, depth at the edge rusher spot, is more of my focus. Besides, I sort of enjoy typing the phrase “defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks” and sort of look for every excuse to pound it out in the morning. While I can.
The news 31-year-old Dexter Fowler Jr. would be joining a defense that lost some key rush components in the offseason broke yesterday morning. Early enough I was able to add a few links. But none of them really focused on what Fowler might bring to Seattle.
After all, he’s been in the league for 11 years. He has 58.5 career sacks. He’s played on five teams. He was also a free agent who had just three sacks last season in Dallas. Is the tank empty?
If the Hawks needed him to be the main focus, maybe. But he’s joining three returners – DeMarcus Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu and Derick Hall – on the edge, and if each stay relatively healthy, the expectations are spread out. As is the stress. And the opposing offense’s focus. The signing – especially at a reported $5 million one-year deal – seems like a win for the Hawks. And for Fowler, who was more of an after-thought with the Cowboys.
If any of the quartet break down? There are young players waiting, though none have the resumes of the top four.
No Super Bowl champion goes through the offseason unscathed. The Hawks lost four starters to free agency. They needed to find replacements. Or, at the least, new faces to backfill the losses. Three players picked in the draft fit that bill.
Fowler? He is the new Boye Mafe. And, unlike the others, has experience in the league.
• Having to rebuild a roster every season is no longer a new experience for college basketball coaches. But it is still young enough the old guard like Mark Few and Dan Monson must sometimes wonder what happened to their offseasons.
As local coaches go, though, Few and Monson aren’t dealing with the stress David Riley and Alex Pribble are facing.
Riley lost basically his entire roster. He’s had to dip into the portal to even have a squad for next season. Pribble actually enticed one of the WSU defectors, Kase Wynott, back across the border – Wynott is the state’s all-time leading scorer from his time at Lapwai High – to help fill one of the handful of open spots Idaho had.
Monson’s losses were more to expiring eligibility – yes, that still happens – than the portal. There are still some vacancies in Cheney but there is a core available.
In Few’s case at Gonzaga, the core is a trio. Post Braden Huff, coming off a season-ending knee injury. Wing David Fogle, the freshman who bullied his way into the starting lineup midway through last season. And point guard Mario Saint-Supery, who slowly and surely took over the offense’s reins his freshman year.
Four rotation players with assured eligibility entered the portal, some expected, some not. But the most important need opened due to more old-fashioned issue. Graham Ike’s college career was finally over. The Zags needed to find a big in the portal.
Enter Arizona State transfer Massamba Diop, a 7-foot-1, 230-pound seemingly perfect fit. His transfer became official Tuesday when he signed financial aid papers.
Diop, who played against the Zags as a freshman last season, can score, as his 13.6 points per game in a guard-oriented attack. He rebounds, averaging 5.8 per game. All well and good. And needed.
But his biggest attribute? He’s an athletic rim protector, someone who should improve the Zag defense by his presence. Diop blocked more than two shots a game and finished third nationally in that stat among freshman.
Yes, it’s a headache to have to shop in the portal each offseason. For everyone. But when you have just a few needs and your able to fill one of them with a player of Diop’s stature, the foray can be labeled a success.
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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, you ever stood on the shores of the Columbia River down by Astoria? We have. And, wow, it’s wide. But not nearly as wide, it seems, as the gap between the amount of money the Big Ten distributes to its 16 full-share members and that handed out by conferences like the Pac-12 or Mountain West or, heck, the Big 12 and ACC. It’s also a wide gulf between what those 16 earned and what Oregon and Washington took home. Jon Wilner delves into that in the Mercury News. … Speaking of the Huskies, Pat Chun sees that gap as problematic for his school. John Canzano covers that. … The football program had some spring standouts. … We always like to pass along Stewart Mandel’s Athletic mailbag when we find it. There is a mention of Washington State and the Paul Wulff era. You’ve been warned. … Recruiting may have stopped at UCLA under the last regime. It is going fast under the new one. … It snowed in Colorado yesterday. Which triggered a look at Colorado State’s memorable snow games. … In basketball news, the Washington men reportedly added a player from Brazil. … Oregon State once featured a Puerto Rican star, Jose Ortiz. The big man died this week at age 62. … The Beavers added another player to this year’s roster. … Didn’t college coaches learn anything from the Mike Price-to-Alabama fiasco? Sign the contract right away. Randy Bennett has yet to sign his with Arizona State. … Arizona’s academics have done well even in this era of transfers and NBA defections. … The newest San Diego State player came from an Italian family that, shockingly, wasn’t all-in with soccer. … Utah State and BYU have agreed to keep their series alive.
Gonzaga: Guess what? Theo Lawson has another in-depth story on Diop. But you knew that, as we linked it above. Here too. … It also seems like a good day to drop-in another link to Theo’s Pac-12 transfer tracker.
Idaho: Spring football is over in Moscow. Which means Peter Harriman tries to put what happened into some sort of context. He shares what we learned over the 15 practices. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the conference’s softball tournament continued yesterday. Montana survived a loser-out game and eliminated Portland State. Second-seed Northern Colorado did the same, knocking out Weber State. Top seed Idaho State and Sacramento State met with a spot in Thursday’s championship game (or games) on the line. It was the Bengals who earned the day off, winning 15-7.
Preps: The playoffs are starting, though Dave Nichols’ roundup covering all the action in boys soccer, baseball and softball from Tuesday includes some of the final GSL contests as well. … Madison McCord has a preview of the District 6 4A and 3A fastpitch tournaments starting today around the region. … Dave also has a story on a bunch of local coaches who will enter Hall of Fames this spring and summer. The number with deep ties to Colfax High is impressive.
Indians: The nightmare road trip is over, with some of the memories of nine losses in 12 games washed away yesterday at Avista Stadium in a 4-2 win over Tri-City. Dave was there for the elementary-school-themed day game and has this story.
Mariners: Yes, we linked Adam Jude’s game story above. And do it again here. But there is more to pass along, including this Matt Vorel column in the Times on what the M’s should do with Kade Anderson, dominating at Double AA. … A Braves pitcher from Seattle was thrilled to throw against the M’s. Sure, especially the lineup they have at the moment.
Seahawks: We linked Bob Condotta’s Times story on Fowler in the S-R above. And do it again here. … Former Hawks running back Kenneth Walker III said in a Monday interview he expected last season to be his last with the team. … Back to Fowler. There are other stories to pass along as well.
Kraken: Could the franchise have a little draft lottery luck please? It will pick seventh this year after yesterday’s sweepstakes. The big winner? San Jose, who moved up to second.
Storm: Seattle cut first-round draft pick, guard Taina Mair, Monday. Tuesday they re-signed her and made the Duke grad its first developmental player. The spot is part of the new collective bargaining agreement.
Golf: With the LIV Tour in the Washington D.C. area this weekend and the organization’s much publicized funding gap, there are more than a few stories available about its future. The players seem ready to find places to land. Should the PGA Tour want any of them?
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• My son once proclaimed our adopted mutt Donut, “hit the doggie lottery.” True. I’m a softie. Spoil the dude. Walks, car rides, pets, treats, beds, toys, you name it, he gets it. And that largesse bit me in the ankle when I needed time to put together this column today. Donut is more of a “hey, don’t ignore me” type of guy than an NFL receiver. Ya, that bad. Until later …