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By Dale Anderson
Sports Columnist 

Worst Seat In The House: Let the games begin

 

Last updated 3/21/2019 at 11:53am



I watched a lot of basketball this past week with all of the conference tournaments going on. There were several that were very interesting to watch and might just be a precursor to the outcome of the NCAA tournament. Our local teams of interest didn’t fair quite so well but that is what can happen come tournament time.

Tuesday of last week the No. 1-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs were in the championship game of the WCC tournament against their biggest rival St. Mary’s. This was the third meeting between these two teams this year. St. Mary’s did their best to control the shot clock by utilizing a passing game and then try for a shot in the last 7 seconds to score. It was very effective and when the Gaels missed a shot they made sure the Zags weren’t able to get into their fast break. Or they would get the rebound and reset the shot clock

Gonzaga played just good enough to lose 60-47 allowing the St. Mary’s to get into the NCAA tournament as the WCC champion. Last year the Gaels were denied a berth even though they had a 30 win season. So they figured they could only get to go to the big dance with a win and they certainly earned it. Not sure if the Zags thought they would cruise to victory or what the problem was. Good chance the loss was a wakeup call which means it is time to work hard and get refocused.

On Wednesday, the WSU Cougars faced off with the Oregon Ducks. The Ducks were putting together a late season rally and would need to win four games to secure a shot at returning to the tournament which they missed out on last year.

The Ducks played well enough to blowout WSU setting a tournament record largest margin of victory. WSU on the other hand played just good enough to get Head Coach Ernie Kent fired. You can feel bad for Coach Kent but his bank account will be richer by $4 million. That is a lot of money but for anyone that has watched a WSU game this winter you could see that there were a lot of empty seats in Beasley Coliseum. Start filling those seats and it will certainly help the coffers.

The Washington Huskies won the Pac 12 regular season championship. In their first game against USC the Huskies got past the Trojans by three and then hung on to defeat Colorado by 5.

Oregon dropped WSU by 33, took care of a pretty good Utah team, the three seed by 12, stopped second seeded Arizona State by four and then they completely dismantled the number one seeded Huskies by 20.

I don’t always agree with Bill Walton but I couldn’t see how the Ducks wouldn’t make the NCAA without winning the Pac 12 tournament. But apparently that was the case. Walton was adamant about how the Ducks should be a shoo-in to make the field of 68 teams. He was actually a bit overboard about it but I’ll just leave it at that.

I guess it is a good thing that Oregon was able to play their best basketball at the right time of the year. I guess the only thing I would say may be a little off is that the Ducks were given a 12 seed. With the way they are playing defense right now I certainly wouldn’t want to play them in the first round anyway.

So it looks to me like the Washington Huskies played just good enough to allow the Ducks to win the Pac 12 basketball tournament championship.

Finally, the Gonzaga women lost two key players in their semi-final victory against St. Mary’s. Laura Stockton and Jill Townsend who are very important players for the Zags were injured in the two overtime game. Sadly, both players will not be available for a team that set a record for most victories this season. Stockton is a senior and has played her last game for GU. Townsend a sophomore will hopefully be able to continue her career next season.

During the championship game against BYU there was a family emergency for Coach Lisa Fortier. The following day it was announced that Fortier’s brother had passed away. I’m not sure what one can say about the 24 hours of GU women’s basketball with all of the agony and sadness. It should make people think about how quickly things can change. Nothing is guaranteed in life so it is important to make the most of every moment because we just don’t know.

Let the games begin and enjoy the excitement and drama.

 

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