THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Zags could get richer, and other non-Zags news

The Zags are making a lot of noise…

Around the country, in our neighborhood, and in the media.

Fair enough.

Legitimate shots at making sports history don’t come around every day — especially not when the school in question is right down the road.

There is one teeny downside to all this NCAA tournament hoopla, however.

It’s tough to fit anything else into the paper.

Or in my case, into the Cheap Seats.

I’m not saying these tournament thrills aren’t something we’ll remember for life, now.

But for your friendly local columnist, there’s a danger that some other interesting items might get overlooked.

We can’t let that happen, so…

Let’s grab our chance today, and peer across the athletic landscape, shall we?

ITEM: Well, shoot.

One look around, and we’re right back to Gonzaga basketball.

What can I say?

Sigh.

Anyhow…

If all goes according to schedule, the Zags are looking at a big date on Friday.

Yes, I know they don’t play Creighton in the Sweet 16 until Sunday.

But Friday is March 26, and that happens to be the date on which Hunter Sallis was born.

For sentimental reasons, we suppose, Sallis — a 6-foot-5 guard from Omaha who is the consensus No. 6 national prep recruit — has said he’ll announce his college destination on his birthday.

According to several solid sources, Sallis has abandoned Kentucky and will select Gonzaga as his next basketball stop.

Among other reasons for the choice — Spokane’s tourist allure, for instance — Sallis perhaps sees himself as a natural fit to replace future pro Jalen Suggs as Mark Few’s next point guard.

Anyhow, it’s expected Sallis will choose Gonzaga with his announcement on Friday. 
Oh, and Chet Holmgren, the 7-footer from Minnesota who is the No. 1 consensus recruit by some distance, also should make HIS college announcement soon.

Holmgren is also supposedly headed for Gonzaga.

Of course…

WE MIGHT learn fairly soon just how seriously the Seahawks have taken Russell Wilson’s whining about his offensive line, about not having enough weapons, and especially…

How he wants to have more input into the team’s personnel decisions.

Now…

Even with the importance of elite quarterbacks in the NFL, they haven’t quite taken over player movement throughout the league.

Not yet, anyway.

Wilson, though, clearly wants to be an unofficial part of the front office.

He’s said it pretty bluntly.

We now may be looking at the first test, a real peek at where Russ stands with Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider.

Wilson has made it known that he’d like the Seahawks to sign bad-boy wide receiver Antonio Brown — with whom he’s spent some recent offseasons as both pal and workout partner.

Russ asked the club to sign Brown a year ago, even though A.B. was on the hook for an eight-game suspension (for various ugly transgressions).

Seattle passed on the chance, and Brown wound up taking his talents to Tampa Bay — where he behaved, played well and won a Super Bowl.

Brown is now once again a free agent.

Wilson is advocating for the move.

Loudly.

One interesting aspect to all of this is that the Seahawks need to work on salary cap issues if they intend to sign anybody, and their most obvious remedy would involve restructuring Wilson’s contract.

Impasse, perhaps?

Russ will never have more leverage than he does right now.

The salary cap will rise with increased TV revenues in 2022, so this is Wilson’s chance to be…

What?

Assistant general manager?

We shall see.

SPEAKING of players with leverage…

Or potential leverage, at the very least.

Mariners rookie Jarred Kelenic seemed to be headed for a month (or more) at the club’s alternate training site after suffering a pulled adductor muscle while running out a ground ball in spring training.

It wasn’t a serious injury, but it appeared the problem would set Kelenic back long enough that he would miss a shot at opening the season with the Mariners.

Legitimately.

You may recall that this is an uncomfortable subject, especially after former Mariners CEO Kevin Mather admitted — in an idiotic public appearance — that the club would intentionally manipulate prospects’ service time, in order to push back eventual free agency by a year or more.

That admission enraged plenty of people, including Kelenic, his agent and, well…

The MLB players union, among other groups.

The Mariners desperately wanted to avoid facing that accusation again, almost a certainty if Kelenic had a great spring.

In the club’s view, he truly needed more seasoning once the minor league schedules geared up at the beginning of May.

That adductor muscle injury seemed to get them off the hook.

Except…

Kelenic has healed quickly, has played VERY well (and launched a couple of scorching homers), and last weekend, got a base hit to left-center and ran like a scalded you-know-what…

Jarred flew into second base in a cloud of dust, and might as well have held up a sign that read: “I am totally fit, and ready to star in big-league baseball.”

So, the Mariners have a problem.

It’s a good one, since they have a legit mega-talent ready to play, but…

Can they still hold him off the roster for a month?

That’s one more season of team control before free agency hits after six seasons.

Over to you, fellas.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the NCAA tournament. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, will return and run each Sunday after Gonzaga’s season is concluded.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which will be published each Thursday during the tournament.