The Pac-12 ended not with a bang, but a whimper.
It was possible for seven Pac-12 teams to reach the round of 8. Southern Cal and Oregon State succeeded, but were stopped there by UConn and South Carolina.
Except for #5 Colorado winning at #4 Iowa State, the Pac-12 won no up-pairings.
Since the Covid-abbreviated 2021 season — when Stanford and Arizona met in the national championship game — the theory was that the Pac-12 teams were better prepared for that NCAA tournament by playing multiple top-tier opponents during conference play.
The Pac-12 flag kept flying during this 2023-24 season, with six Pac-12 teams usually ranked among the top dozen in the country.
USC was knocked out in, technically speaking, an upset. Stanford was knocked out similarly. So was UCLA.
I think — in the big picture — this is great! The other Division 1 conferences caught up to the Pac-12, coinciding with the highest broadcast share in WCBB history.
The immediate general opinion following Gonzaga’s second-round win over Utah was that the Utes failed to execute on defense. I don’t think that gives enough credit to Gonzaga — I think Utah did execute its defense, but Gonzaga gradually outplayed it.
Associate head coach Gavin Petersen got off the bus to talk to me. I said our team followed his defensive instructions, but the home team just overcame it. “Those savvy 5th-year players can do that”, said Petersen.
At practice on the rest day, the Utes ran through a Gonzaga offensive set, preparing for when Brynna Maxwell would be releasing the ball quickly. Brynna can single-handedly shoot an opponent out of the McCarthey Center, and Utah kept her well under wraps — Maxwell was their 5th-leading scorer while the other Bulldogs shot 11-of-19 3FG.
Gonzaga made 9 3FG in a row: The last one tried in the 1st quarter, 5-for-5 in the 2nd quarter, plus 3 more to begin the 3rd. Gonzaga won the 2nd quarter 24-8, mostly attributed to a Utah defensive breakdown — again, I think the offense broke it down.
I loved the college district in Spokane.
Maybe because it was my only road trip all season. When I look back on the 2023-24 season, one of its worst aspects was watching most games on a laptop or phone.
A TV broadcast limits us to seeing what the directors in the trucks want us to see. If there’s anything you want to observe that’s off ball, forget about it.
The directors told me what to see, while the play-by-play and color broadcasters told me what they saw — never pausing for thought.
So it was good to visit Spokane, free to watch the games as I liked, then write about the games weeks later.
I got to see Gonzaga and Spokane during the day. With the off day between rounds one and two, I walked downtown Spokane, playing the geo-location game Ingress.
That day, the only task related to journalism was a media conference with players and coach, and watching the team practice.
I thought I mentioned last month that attending practice in March is different than it is in November. There are fewer surprises in March.
I had a minute with Utah director of basketball operations Kendall Rodriguez. Kendall is the only player in my experience to walk away from a media conference, and remind me that I was in this.
Pacific had just lost a Big West Conference tournament semifinal to a weaker team. That one hurt.
Coach and players met the press later, while I was face down in the laptop. They left the dais, and while walking past me, Kendall nudged me.
It was the reassuring nudge that one expects from a championship-bound captain. Get your face out of the laptop, and let’s get ready for the trips home.
I said to Kendall: “Coach told me to walk. She said: ‘Are you getting outside? Are you walking?’. I said: ‘Am I what?’. Coach said: ‘You’re one of the most observant people I know. Go out for a walk, and write down what you see. It’s not chess or basketball, but you can manage’.”
I’ve been walking 5-10 kilometers per day since then, I said. I wanted the pedometer to hit 300, in case Coach asks.
Walk around the parking lot a couple times, the director of basketball operations said.
That was how I discovered Gonzaga’s campus is special, while tacking kilometers on the pedometer within the game Ingress.
Ingress and its younger cousin Pokemon Go put your GPS location in an alternate reality, in which objects around your neighborhood are significant places and things.
The player walks around town or state, staking claim to painted trash cans, or outdoor memorial benches. Then links those objects to form triangular groups.
So you’re forced to look around while you walk, and see details in the landscape that you might have otherwhise overlooked.
Here’s the funny part: There’s a cluster of game objects surrounding Gonzaga’s athletic fields, and the McCarthey Center. I could make a link in the game from places inside the building, forming a triangle that encompassed the media workroom, and a baseline inside The Kennel.
McCarthey Center staff thought I kept getting lost inside their building. I was managing the game triangle while walking the halls. So I had to walk through Gonzaga’s basketball hall of NBA and WNBA players, several times.
Each player is represented by a pro jersey framed inside a Gonzaga action shot. It’s a narrow hallway, lit like a museum. It’s dazzling, and that was before someone left the door open to the trophy room.
I blanketed that part of the campus in blue triangles, so I had to circle Gonzaga’s performing arts center, basketball arena, baseball diamond, and law school. There’s a river running through the campus.
My chess friend went to high school in Spokane Valley. He said the amazing thing about that river is that it’s unpolluted.
In downtown Spokane, there’s a five way traffic intersection that goes around a statue of Lincoln.
Yeah, so I loved an afternoon as a tourist in Spokane.
I don’t see myself visiting Coeur d’Alene, ever.