{"id":701566,"date":"2026-04-06T15:58:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/701566\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:58:24","slug":"its-not-a-national-holiday-it-should-be-but-today-is-a-good-day-to-skip-work-and-prepare-for-the-culmination-of-the-college-basketball-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/701566\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s not a national holiday \u2013 it should be \u2013 but today is a good day to skip work and prepare for the culmination of the college basketball season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A GRIP ON SPORTS \u2022 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\u2019s basketball title game.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

\u2022 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then again, I\u2019m not sure my liver, heart or mind could take it.<\/p>\n

Give me a couple minutes and I\u2019ll explain. But first, a shoutout to UCLA. Its women\u2019s basketball team. Its coach Cori Close, the school\u2019s last true connection to the GOAT of college basketball coaches, John Wooden.<\/p>\n

The Bruins demolished South Carolina on Sunday<\/a>, 79-51. Won the national title in very Wooden-like fashion. But the motivation came from<\/a> a place Wooden\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Wooden\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 18 years. Close is 22. A college assistant. She meets Wooden. Makes a connection<\/a>. They begin to get together a couple times a month. Do so until Wooden\u2019s death in 2010. They talk, not surprisingly, basketball. And more.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until 2011 Close is named UCLA\u2019s coach. Too late in one sense. Just right in another. Like Wooden, who didn\u2019t win his first NCAA title until he was 53 years old, Close has to build a foundation in Westwood. Shaped like a pyramid<\/a>, of course.<\/p>\n

Now, at 54, she has her first<\/a>. Her Bruins were blown out in last year\u2019s national semifinal by UConn, the closest thing to Wooden\u2019s Bruins in women\u2019s hoop history. That loss burned<\/a>. Sunday\u2019s 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\u2019 Vic Schaefer), a keeper of the game\u2019s flame (Dawn Staley) and the newbie (Close) will burn as well. In a different way.<\/p>\n

More like a tattoo, which seems appropriate. Tattoos were not much of a thing in Wooden\u2019s day. Neither were transfers or over-the-table payments or extra years of eligibility. All are in play now, and Close used every one<\/a> of them to build her title team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Along with dance lessons, an off-court bonding exercise that Wooden would have approved of I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

The Bruins danced<\/a> past South Carolina<\/a> with a combination<\/a> of energy, effort and efficiency that would have made Close\u2019s mentor proud<\/a>. They earned the win not in the 40 minutes Sunday but in the year since their semifinal loss burned the desire deep.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 About that national holiday. The NCAA has been playing the men\u2019s title game on April\u2019s first Monday night since 1973, when Wooden\u2019s Bruins, behind Bill Walton\u2019s 44 points \u2013 he missed one of his 22 shots \u2013 and 13 rebounds, routed Memphis 87-66. It was a pretty good show with a pretty good rating.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the first day of baseball\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

No longer. Good for TV executives, bad for the rest of us.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s a holiday, who cares?<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tonight\u2019s game? There is history on the line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Michigan blowout, especially with star Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a> hobbled with a leg injury would cement the Wolverines\u2019 status as an all-time great team. Heck, even a close one if Lendeborg doesn\u2019t contribute much, could earn them that status<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And type of UConn win would be the Huskies third in four years. That\u2019s dynasty status these days, especially considering no school has done that since Wooden\u2019s Bruins. And UConn has its injury problems, with star guard Solo Ball<\/a> walking around Sunday in a protective boot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The script has been written. Let\u2019s see what type of blockbuster it produces.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, UCLA is in that \u201cold\u201d 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\u2019s probably necessary to allow us a few more years of connections to the past. Leger-Walker\u2019s time<\/a> in Pullman was special enough (and long enough), it seems appropriate to celebrate her accomplishment. \u2026 Jon Wilner has his thoughts<\/a> in the Mercury News on tonight\u2019s men\u2019s game. \u2026 John Canzano has even more universal thoughts from Sunday. He mulled over the end of his children\u2019s youth sports years<\/a>. \u2026 Oregon State added its first men\u2019s recruit<\/a> of the Justin Joyner era and locked in a previous one<\/a>. \u2026 Arizona\u2019s Tommy Lloyd<\/a> was named the Naismith Coach of the Year. \u2026 Boise State\u2019s roster<\/a> has been denuded of starters. \u2026 Colorado State<\/a> has been luckier, keeping most of its core intact<\/a>. \u2026 The Oregon State women<\/a> are losing their backup point guard to the portal. \u2026 Colorado<\/a> had two players announce the same on Sunday. \u2026 In football news, a new Oregon State assistant<\/a> is happy to be in Corvallis. \u2026 One assistant believes Oregon could have a scary good defense. \u2026 Colorado<\/a> is once again rebuilding its offensive line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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\u2019s reported decision to enter the portal, which opens tomorrow, fits that category. Theo Lawson has more on the development in this story<\/a>. I\u2019ll add this. No school is immune to roster turnover. Once you have come to grips with that, life is easier.<\/p>\n

Chiefs: Spokane\u2019s 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\u00a0has more in this story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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<\/a> that was filled with much more than one miscue.<\/p>\n

Mariners: The M\u2019s 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<\/a>. \u2026 The M\u2019s were still in awe of Jo Adell\u2019s defensive prowess<\/a> from Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Seahawks: With the NFL Draft on tap before the month ends, there are more than enough mock drafts on the way. Here\u2019s one with the Hawks picking an edge rusher<\/a> in the first round and a running back in the second. \u2026 Even if Seattle doesn\u2019t 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 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\u2019s Day and Father\u2019s Day. Ya, my reign probably wouldn\u2019t be a long one. Until later \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A GRIP ON SPORTS \u2022 Today is a national holiday. Not really, of course. But in my mind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-701566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116358593905351961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}