Live to play…

The NCAA tournament has gotten to be my source for reality TV because it is real. There are no scripts to follow. Sure, there are game plans but the other team may mess up those really good ones and all of a sudden the team has to ad lib. And don’t forget the emotions.

We’ve seen how being a high seed may not mean much. Kentucky, a number 2 seed gets beat in the first round by 15 seed St. Peter’s. It took overtime but overtime should have favored UK but it didn’t. By the way, St. Peter’s athletic budget is $7.5 million and Kentucky is paying their head coach over $8 million per year. I think the St. Pete’s coach makes about $233,000 or so. At least one of those guys has earned their paycheck. Oh, I know that Kentucky sells out Rupp arena and the get a lot of money from TV and I also know that Coach Calipari brings in McDonald’s All-Americans. But dollar for dollar St. Peter’s coach has the Peacocks in the sweet 16 which has brought a lot of notoriety to the Jersey City, New Jersey school.

The WSU and Gonzaga women traveled east to participate in the women’s NCAA event. The Cougs led at halftime and lost by ten. The Zag women knocked off Nebraska in their first game but ended up dropping their final game of the 2021-22 season to the number one seed Louisville Cardinals and Cashmere native Hailey Van Lith. It was a great season for both teams and certainly something to build on for next year.

The WSU men won their first two games of the NIT beating Santa Clara at home and the SMU Mustangs in Dallas. The Cougars of WSU will now meet the Cougars of BYU in Provo on Thursday at 6. If you are counting the WSU boys are one of eight teams remaining which means if they beat BYU they will be in the Final Four of the NIT in Madison Square Garden. Beating BYU in front of 20,000 screaming fans is a tall task. Gonzaga has had a winning formula there on several occasions. Simply get a lead and take the fans out of the game which is easier said than done.

If you missed Saturday night’s game between the Memphis Tigers and the Gonzaga Bulldog men you missed an instant classic. In the first half Memphis dominated the offensive rebounds giving them extra opportunities to score and get fouled. Freshman phenom Chet Holmgren had to sit for the final six minutes of the first half with two fouls. The Tigers led at halftime as the Bulldogs once again had a problem making free throws, especially Drew Timme.

You may have seen the Northern Quest commercial with the famous nonathletic face of the casino passing basketballs to Timme while he shoots free throws. You would have noticed that Drew makes every shot. Timme needs to imagine that every referee that passes him the ball is Northern Quest guy and as weird as that sounds maybe then the big guy can hit those freebies.

At halftime Timme gave an inspired speech to the team in how to play any game that may be your last. Leave everything on the court and you will never have regrets. Or words to that effect and as Drew said at the press conference the ‘G’ rated version. If it only fired up Timme it worked as he scored the Zags first 11 points of the second half digging into the Tiger lead.

Now to be fair Timme said that the team needed to make their free throws and Drew did miss some but two Bulldog guards hit six down the stretch. Bolton with two and Nembhard with four seldom looked flustered or let anything bother them even when things looked bleak. They are mature team players who make things happen when the team needs it most.

The Zags rallied from 12 down early in the second half to win 82-78. It was an amazing come from behind victory and the first after trailing at halftime this season. The talking heads stated that the game reminded them of an elite 8 or final four type of game. It probably should have been one since Memphis was better than a nine seed for sure.

Now it is on to San Francisco where the Zags will play Arkansas, and Duke will play Texas Tech. For the seventh tournament in a row, (there was no tournament in 2020) the Zags are in the sweet 16. The Zags will need to start a lot faster than having to wait for a second half rally. Get a win and you live to play another day.