THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Just when we planned to give Zags thoughts a rest ...

It was going to be a Gonzaga-free zone today.

We’ve used up a lot of words and thoughts (deservedly) on the Zags’ brilliant run all the way to the NCAA tournament title game.

So, with that runner-up finish to a great Baylor team and a 31-1 record in their pocket, I was thinking the Zags could take the day off here.

Hey, there are plenty of other sports stories zipping along, and we need to be catching up.

Ah, but then…

Arizona finally fired embattled coach Sean Miller, and the questions began about possible successors in what should be one of college hoops’ better jobs.

And what do you know?

Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd seems to be in the picture.

Lloyd is a brilliant recruiter and tactician alongside Mark Few, and if Arizona is willing to hire an assistant (when several terrific head coaches are available, notably former UA star Damon Stoudamire at Pacific), then there’s suddenly a chance that Gonzaga could lose its heir apparent.

Stay tuned on this one.

ITEM: Speaking on behalf of several million golfers — and thousands right in our neighborhood — I just need to make something official.

Justin Rose, you’ve done us no favors.

The game is just NOT that damn easy.

On a day when scoring was a serious issue for the world’s best pros (wind and brutally hard, fast greens), Rose kicked the ball around Augusta National like he’d landed at the Hardscrabble Country Club in Fort Smith, Ark.

Rose was two over par through seven holes in the first round of the Masters on Thursday, when without much warning…

He scorched the next 11 holes as though he’d sold his soul to the devil.

Rose eagled No. 8 and took off from there, shooting nine under par in that rub-your-eyes stretch – while the rest of the field was simply trying to reach the clubhouse with scorecards in one piece.

Just a thought here from a guy who lived in Scotland for a few years…

If anyone at all could produce magic on an impossible day to score, it was likely to be someone from the UK.

I mean, you play in “Can-I-quit-now?” conditions all the time in Britain.

Rose probably thought it was just nice day for a round.

The rest of us would have been in triple figures.

Easy.

ITEM: Wow!

James Paxton’s comeback with the Mariners was an eye-opener.

What an inning.

Unfortunately, that was inning…as in singular.

The incredibly talented Paxton got the start Wednesday night against the White Sox.

He absolutely breezed through the first inning, and then — are we surprised? — that magical left arm betrayed him again.

Paxton had to be removed in the second when he said there was pain in his forearm.

The big man has had so many injuries, it’s hard to catalogue them all — but the Mariners were hoping (crossing fingers, lighting candles) that this might something minor.

Just some stiffness from extending a little too quickly in his first comeback start.

But with The Big Maple?

Nah.

An MRI Thursday showed that Pax will need Tommy John surgery — although Paxton isn’t convinced and wants a second opinion.

What a shame for everyone involved.

Paxton can be SO good (57-33 with a 3.58 ERA over eight years for the Mariners and Yankees), and he had no injury or soreness issues in spring training.

If he’d turned in a dominant type of season, the M’s either could have traded him around midseason for more talented youngsters — or honestly, they may have considered working out a multi-year deal, letting Pax lead the staff when Seattle hopes to contend in 2022 and beyond.

Sorry, no luck.

Sad.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which will be published monthly during the offseason.