Author: Frisco Del Rosario

Sometimes you think of a good title for a piece. When Utah sophomore Lani White hit the transfer portal, I thought: “Lani, we hardly knew ye”, a play on the 1972 best-selling Kennedy memoir Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye. I couldn’t think of much in support of the title, though. If any of the 2023-24 […]

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 […]

A rationale for Edwards’ offensive foul call with 3 seconds left in the Iowa-UConn semi-final: If you were facing Edwards — I’m assuming the referee was — you see her eyes move in the direction of the physical contact. From that point of view, I think he saw three lines of force on a collision […]

I said Spokane, Wash., was a fine place to visit, with a downtown full of historical markers, and new corporate logos on the faces of old buildings. So was Boise, Idaho. Boise has the best wine bar I ever visited twice, and I won the 2014 Idaho Open chess tournament there. East of Spokane, and […]

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 […]

The McCarthey Center is sold out. 5990 people here to see Gonzaga complete a sweep of its home games, and advance. Plus a 10-person group that I think is Kennady McQueen’s family. This region must be stuffed with people who think it’s natural to shoot colored people in the name of national security and oil […]

How about that Brooke Demetre!? Stanford makes a habit of recruiting players who go unnoticed until they rescue Stanford in an elimination game. Near the end of the 2021 tournament, I couldn’t remember if I’d seen Ashten Prechtel before. Who’s this kid making a flock of 3-pointers to save their season? A reporter said about […]

At 4 a.m., I still have two games I want to watch. Here’s why I don’t relish #5 Utah’s chances against #4 Gonzaga Monday night: Gonzaga has shorter lapses. The people who use “chess match” as a metaphor for A/B models think chess is an “I move, you move” thing comparable to “relief pitcher in, […]

Alone in Gonzaga’s indoor rowing facility — the media workroom, I mean — I glanced back and forth from Colorado at Kansas St. to this blank sheet. I’ve rarely been the writer who stares at a blank sheet. There’s always something to say, though it might be off-topic or mundane. (Natalie Goldberg wrote a couple […]

I’m beat. I got home from chess club Friday night, watched Stanford and Colorado on DVR, Lyfted to the airport, and here I am at the Wyndham by Ramada in downtown Spokane. I went to the Wyndham by Ramada at the airport first, but that was wrong. I also learned something about cars that start […]