A GRIP ON SPORTS • Today is a national holiday. Not really, of course. But in my mind it is. Our should be. Call it James Naismith Day and give everyone the day off everywhere. Except the folks connected to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball title game.

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• Oh, and add one other element. Force baseball to moves its opening day to the first Monday of April as well. As it once was. And always should be.

Then again, I’m not sure my liver, heart or mind could take it.

Give me a couple minutes and I’ll explain. But first, a shoutout to UCLA. Its women’s basketball team. Its coach Cori Close, the school’s last true connection to the GOAT of college basketball coaches, John Wooden.

The Bruins demolished South Carolina on Sunday, 79-51. Won the national title in very Wooden-like fashion. But the motivation came from a place Wooden’s teams only had to draw from once. In his last year, 1975. The year before, quite possibly the best of his teams lost in the NCAA semifinals. To North Carolina State. A loss as unexpected as it was deflating.

Wooden’s final group of Bruins, sans the stars of the past, traveled down I-5 to San Diego for another Final Four. Defeated Louisville in the semifinals. Went up against Kentucky in the finals. Found a way to win 92-85 and send Wooden into retirement with 10 titles.

Fast forward 18 years. Close is 22. A college assistant. She meets Wooden. Makes a connection. They begin to get together a couple times a month. Do so until Wooden’s death in 2010. They talk, not surprisingly, basketball. And more.

It wasn’t until 2011 Close is named UCLA’s coach. Too late in one sense. Just right in another. Like Wooden, who didn’t win his first NCAA title until he was 53 years old, Close has to build a foundation in Westwood. Shaped like a pyramid, of course.

Now, at 54, she has her first. Her Bruins were blown out in last year’s national semifinal by UConn, the closest thing to Wooden’s Bruins in women’s hoop history. That loss burned. Sunday’s win, capping a Final Four which featured a coach acting very un-Wooden like (Geno Auriemma), another who is even older than Wooden when he retired (Texas’ Vic Schaefer), a keeper of the game’s flame (Dawn Staley) and the newbie (Close) will burn as well. In a different way.

More like a tattoo, which seems appropriate. Tattoos were not much of a thing in Wooden’s day. Neither were transfers or over-the-table payments or extra years of eligibility. All are in play now, and Close used every one of them to build her title team.

Along with dance lessons, an off-court bonding exercise that Wooden would have approved of I’m sure.

The Bruins danced past South Carolina with a combination of energy, effort and efficiency that would have made Close’s mentor proud. They earned the win not in the 40 minutes Sunday but in the year since their semifinal loss burned the desire deep.

Maybe they will all, from Most Outstanding Player Lauren Betts to four-year starters Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez to transfers Gianna Kneepkens and former WSU star Charlisse Leger-Walker, will all dance to a Westwood tattoo parlor and burn in the memory forever. Together.

• About that national holiday. The NCAA has been playing the men’s title game on April’s first Monday night since 1973, when Wooden’s Bruins, behind Bill Walton’s 44 points – he missed one of his 22 shots – and 13 rebounds, routed Memphis 87-66. It was a pretty good show with a pretty good rating.

Over the years, the first day of baseball’s regular season coincided with the title game. Not often, and no longer, but the times the beginning and the end of two major sports collided, the day was Christmas-like for fans of both.

No longer. Good for TV executives, bad for the rest of us.

Baseball starts too early. Fix that. Move it back to today each year. Stagger the starts, with day games in the East until the title tip (tonight’s matchup of Michigan and UConn starts at 5:50 p.m. on TBS). The West can have a couple of night games that might conflict. Or not. If it’s a holiday, who cares?

For those of us who love both sports, an early morning to late night Monday of sports viewing is just about perfect. As long as you don’t do what I did a couple years. Plant myself at a local watering hole, watch baseball all day while saving prime seats for a few friends. Then continue on all evening with them as the NCAA title game played out.

I was played out too, and slept all the way home in the passenger seat as Kim laughed at me, laughter that continued the next morning when I went off to work with a hangover from hell.

• Tonight’s game? There is history on the line.

A Michigan blowout, especially with star Yaxel Lendeborg hobbled with a leg injury would cement the Wolverines’ status as an all-time great team. Heck, even a close one if Lendeborg doesn’t contribute much, could earn them that status.

And type of UConn win would be the Huskies third in four years. That’s dynasty status these days, especially considering no school has done that since Wooden’s Bruins. And UConn has its injury problems, with star guard Solo Ball walking around Sunday in a protective boot.

The script has been written. Let’s see what type of blockbuster it produces.

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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, UCLA is in that “old” Pac-12 category. Part of the new Big Ten. It matters. But not when it comes to today. Modern college athletics includes so many changes, it’s probably necessary to allow us a few more years of connections to the past. Leger-Walker’s time in Pullman was special enough (and long enough), it seems appropriate to celebrate her accomplishment. … Jon Wilner has his thoughts in the Mercury News on tonight’s men’s game. … John Canzano has even more universal thoughts from Sunday. He mulled over the end of his children’s youth sports years. … Oregon State added its first men’s recruit of the Justin Joyner era and locked in a previous one. … Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd was named the Naismith Coach of the Year. … Boise State’s roster has been denuded of starters. … Colorado State has been luckier, keeping most of its core intact. … The Oregon State women are losing their backup point guard to the portal. … Colorado had two players announce the same on Sunday. … In football news, a new Oregon State assistant is happy to be in Corvallis. … One assistant believes Oregon could have a scary good defense. … Colorado is once again rebuilding its offensive line.

Gonzaga: Did we mention change above? Why, yes we did. No one should ever be surprised anymore by any change, including player movement. Emmanuel Innocenti’s reported decision to enter the portal, which opens tomorrow, fits that category. Theo Lawson has more on the development in this story. I’ll add this. No school is immune to roster turnover. Once you have come to grips with that, life is easier.

Chiefs: Spokane’s WHL season is over. It ended Sunday night in Prince George, with the Cougars earning a first-round series win with their 5-3 victory. Dave Nichols has more in this story.

Indians: It was a busy Easter for our friend Dave. It began at Avista Stadium for the afternoon matinee that went extra frames. The host Indians won in the 10th when Everett misplayed a sacrifice bunt and Spokane earned a 10-9 victory that was filled with much more than one miscue.

Mariners: The M’s made some minor league-level plays Sunday in Anaheim and lost another series. Seattle is 4-6 after the 8-7, 11-inning defeat to the Angels. … The M’s were still in awe of Jo Adell’s defensive prowess from Saturday night.

Seahawks: With the NFL Draft on tap before the month ends, there are more than enough mock drafts on the way. Here’s one with the Hawks picking an edge rusher in the first round and a running back in the second. … Even if Seattle doesn’t add an impact player in the draft, there are at least seven players on the current roster who may just have a bigger impact next season.

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• One thing I can assure you. If I were king, making today a national holiday would not be the first item on my holiday-revamping agenda. But it might be No. 3, after making the Monday following the Super Bowl one. And banning a bunch of fake ones like Valentine’s Day and Father’s Day. Ya, my reign probably wouldn’t be a long one. Until later …