THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: NCAA thoughts, and more Mel talk

How do you go on with the rest of your day, after one of your teams blows a 25-point lead before lunch?

It was another crazy day watching the NCAAs — men and women.

• I thought Washington State’s women had the right strategy against Kansas State — double-team Ayoka Lee, the Wildcats’ 6-foot-6 junior second-team AP All-America post, and dare the other players to beat the Cougars.

It almost worked.

But you have to score more than 40 points yourselves.

Lee finished with 20 points (on 5-of-11 shooting) and 15 rebounds, but the other Kansas State players were a combined 9 of 42 from the floor.

Unfortunately for the Cougs, WSU was only 14 of 56 from the floor.

Still, a really good season for WSU, which had played in the NCAAs just once before making it the last two years, but a lousy ending.

• Meanwhile, Gonzaga’s women are still playing, but the team that beat them twice to win the West Coast Conference (BYU) went down in flames in the first round.

• How North Carolina came back to beat top-seeded Baylor in overtime is somewhat of a miracle, after the Tar Heels wet all over themselves in the last 10 minutes of regulation.

Obviously Baylor wasn’t the same team that bullied the Lovable Zags in last year’s national title game, but they were still good enough to come back and earn another No. 1 seed.

• At this rate of top seeds falling, the Zags might end up playing Owyhee in the natty.

The Zags almost fell themselves, but found enough toughness to come back in the second half and beat Memphis and advance to the Sweet 16 for the seventh straight time.

Depending on how Zag-colored your glasses are, it's either a concern the Lovables had such a hard time surviving the first weekend, or an encouraging sign that they made it through to the second weekend when a lot of good teams were bumped off.

• So if Michigan State ends Coach K’s career today, will the Duke coach be able to take that temp job at AT&T? He’ll no longer need the whole month of March off.

• I really thought Boise State was going to beat Memphis on Thursday, and find a way to at least make the Zags sweat on Saturday. Still, a really good season for the Broncos, but a lousy ending.

SPEAKING OF Gonzaga’s women …

Last Sunday, at a media gathering after the NCAA tournament selection show(s), Bulldogs coach Lisa Fortier spoke glowingly of senior forward Melody Kempton, the former Post Falls High star.

On Friday, after ninth-seeded Gonzaga beat 8-seed Nebraska in the first round of the NCAAs in Louisville, Fortier was asked again in the post-game presser about Kempton, the leading scorer on a balanced-scoring team, and the squad’s top rebounder.

“If we had some sort of award for the steady player … and we’ve had one or two of them each year over the years, who’s in the right place at the right time, but that’s not an accident, right?” said Fortier, in her eighth season as GU head coach. “Making the next right play; that’s not an accident. Just showing up and consistently running, and consistently guarding, and consistently talking, then we would probably name it after her. And that’s quite a testament to her, because I can think back through my time at Gonzaga, and think of many players, who, each year, they’re not the glue guy — or the glue woman, whatever you want to call it — but they’re that person that’s just consistently available and giving their best effort. And you can’t tell the difference on her, I can’t tell to look at her if she needs a sub or not. She just does the right thing, all the time.

“And again, I’m talking about all these things that are fun to coach,” Fortier continued. “This is a fun group of players, so we really are lucky to have people like (junior guard) Kayleigh (Truong), who makes the extra pass, and Mel, who will run until she just can’t run anymore. And we haven’t got in that place yet. I think she can go forever, I’m not sure. It really steadies the team when you have a couple players out there who aren’t going to play outside of themselves. They’re going to do what they do, and what they practice, and do it at a high level, and do it every possession.”

Gonzaga plays top-seeded Louisville today (4 p.m., ESPN) in the second round.

AND FINALLY …

Also last Sunday, I asked Kempton for her thoughts on Marc Allert, who recently resigned after 11 seasons as Post Falls coach. He guided the Trojans to state titles in 2013 and 2018 — the later one with Kempton as the star — and received a lot of love from other coaches, players and others on his way out.

“He’s great,” Mel said. “He really pushed me to become the best player that I possibly could, and really helped me to get to where I am today. So I’ve got nothing but appreciation and love for him. I’m happy for him, and excited for what he does next.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.