THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: How 'bout them Cougs?

Yes, there’s more.

College hoops, I’m talking about.

Not just the Final Four, either — we’ve got a local team aiming for a hell of a title.

Please don’t insult me, now, because OF COURSE I’m aware that Gonzaga tripped over Arkansas last weekend, and despite a nation-leading seventh straight trip to the Sweet Sixteen, the Zags will have to reload this coming fall.

I’ve got some things to say about Gonzaga, and where things might go from here, but first …

How ‘bout them Cougs?

Washington State coach Kyle Smith told us a few months ago that his young team needed time to jell, and then along the way, he asked once again for a little patience — because it was getting almost impossible to keep this gang all healthy at the same time.

So, guess what?

The coach wasn’t spoofing.

WSU is 22-14 overall, but now that the Cougs have recovered from flu, Covid, various knocks and assorted ailments, things have come together.

JUST AS Smith promised, by the way.

Wazzu wasn’t getting kicked all over the Palouse during those frustrating times, in the first place.

They led at halftime in nine of those 14 defeats, so you could see victories on the horizon, and without much squinting.

And here they’ve come, seven of the last eight — including three thumping postseason wins over Santa Clara, SMU and BYU (the latter two on the road).

Suddenly, the Cougs find themselves in New York City, gearing up for the semifinals of the historic National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Washington State faces top seed Texas A&M (26-12) Tuesday night at 6:30.

The game will be televised on ESPN2.

St. Bonaventure and Xavier meet in the other semifinal.

The Cougs are enjoying their late-season run, and then some — I mean, seeing a video of Smith singing “New York, New York,” (or dancing in the locker room after the win at SMU) is worth the price of VIP tickets for next year.

Smith is a stickler for hustling, playing hard, defending and taking care of the ball, but there’s obviously another side to his method.

“They’ve got a good makeup,” Smith said of his team. “They like each other and that always helps.

“They sing before, during and after. We have fun.

“They stay loose on the road. We’ve been good that way.”

THE COUGS have been good, period — especially over the second half of the season.

Transfer guards Michael Flowers and Tyrell Roberts have scored and run the offense (Flowers broke Klay Thompson’s single-season WSU record for 3-pointers) while Efe Abogidi, Dishon Jackson and freshman Mouhamed Gueye handle work in paint.

Last year’s leading scorer, Noah Williams, has struggled with his shot this season, but he’s still hit some big buckets down the stretch.

No matter what happens in New York, the Cougs intend to have fun — and looking ahead to next season seems equally enjoyable.

That reference brings us back around to …

The Zags.

They will be watching Duke, Carolina, Kansas and Villanova slugging it out in the Final Four this weekend, and wondering just what went wrong — in a game against Arkansas that saw them forget how to aim a basketball.

THERE’S a website called Quality Shots, and the idea is to use algorithms and determine how basketball games should have turned out, depending (as the name implies) by the number of quality shots each team could manufacture.

Quality Shots gave Gonzaga an 83 percent chance of winning (predicted score 87-78) against the Razorbacks’ 17 percent.

I don’t know much about algorithms, but I CAN see easy shots being missed — the same shots the Zags have buried all season.

Who knows why a game like that pops up out of nowhere?

Arkansas can take credit for its defense, and that’s fine, but it’s also not really the issue.

Gonzaga had a boatload of makeable shots, inside the arc and outside, and nothing seemed to fall.

The next question is obvious …

How many of the current Zags (all of whom have eligibility remaining) will choose to return?

It could be almost everyone, or it might be just one starter.

We’ll try to unpack all that on Thursday in this week’s Zags Tracker.

In the meantime, let’s rock with those Cougs in the Big Apple.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published weekly during the season.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”