THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: The WCC thud, and a big cat in Seattle

The plan was to write a notes column strewn with confetti.

There are different sports and athletes in the spotlight today, but I kind of thought we’d be celebrating a couple of Gonzaga hoops championship.

The women’s team breezed to the West Coast Conference final in Vegas, overwhelmed the conference from start to finish — and then lost 77-76 to Portland in the title game.

Ugh.

Could the men get redemption against Saint Mary’s as both teams tune up for the NCAA tournament?

Hey, seeding mattered (I assume).

It turns out the men did everything wrong, played totally into Saint Mary’s hands, gave the ball away, missed short shots and long ones — and let the Gaels finish a WCC double by shoving them around in a 69-60 mess.

The Zags have had a strange regular season, but they not only improved, they looked like a legit tourney team by the time they reached Vegas.

Saint Mary’s, though, is the neighborhood bully, and every few years they hand Gonzaga a knuckle sandwich.

Bottom line: This one was ugly.

Will it mean anything at the Big Dance?

Hmmm.

Let’s talk about it after tournament draw on Sunday.

PURRR: If you don’t see a theme rumbling along in the NFL, you aren’t looking very hard.

Teams that win Super Bowls, or come close enough to be called contenders, almost all have elite quarterbacks.

They also have beasts to anchor the defensive line — both to pressure those zillion-dollar QBs, and to take a major role in stuffing your run game.

That’s why, no matter how else they fiddled with their cap space, the Seahawks were always going to make sure they held on to Leonard “Big Cat” Williams to hold down the center of their defensive line.

The 6-foot-5, 300-pound Williams was acquired from the New York Giants for two draft picks just prior to last year’s deadline.

Now he’s been hooked with a three-year deal worth $64.5 million, as new coach Mike Macdonald rebuilds the Seahawks defense.

Fairly pricey for a cat.

Even a big one.

Oh, right, there was a theme mentioned here.

The biggest free agent signing across the league, now that the new NFL business year has begun, was another brute defensive tackle who dominates games — Chris Jones of the Super Bowl champion Chiefs.

Jones got a five-year deal worth $95 million guaranteed.

Safe to say that the price of stars in the trenches is going up.

OUCH: Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto met with the media just prior to the start of spring training, and made no secret of his optimism.

“I really like this team,” Dipoto said. “We just need to stay healthy.”

Not long after Dipoto uttered those words, some key contributors to the team’s strengths became the walking wounded.

Mariners fans surely were counting on a dominant bullpen to hold up its end of the battle this summer.

The group, unfortunately, is off to a rough start.

Matt Brash and Gregory Santos (obtained via trade with the White Sox), figured to be two-thirds of late-inning trio with Andres Munoz.

However, Brash and Santos both have felt arm discomfort, and neither has pitched in an Arizona exhibition game.

With fingers and toes all crossed, the club says that while Brash and Santos won’t be ready for opening day (March 28), it appears they’ll both be pitching for real —um, sometime into the regular season.

Meanwhile, the Mariners (who have a reputation for creating or rebuilding terrific relievers) were really enthused about waiver acquisition Jackson Kowar.

Alas, after two appearances throwing near 100 mph and overpowering hitters, Kowar felt that awful elbow pain — and yes, he’s out for the year and scheduled for Tommy John surgery.

If the Mariners are going to build these dynamite relievers, the next job is finding a way to keep them sturdier.

By the way, I’ve preached for years that spring training results don’t mean much (other than those injuries we’re discussing).

We need to hope that my long-held belief remains true this year — especially since the Mariners currently have the worst ERA in major league baseball.

Yikes!

CINCH: Sometimes you need to hang on and hold your breath while waiting for results of a vote.

Not this time.

These two were easy.

Washington State’s Kyle Smith has been named Pac-12 men’s hoop coach of the year — the very last one, at least as the conference is configured at the moment.

Wazzu’s Myles Rice, a cancer survivor, was an easy choice as Pac-12 freshman of the year.

Rice came back from Hodgkins Lymphoma during his first year at WSU to average 15.5 points per game and rack up 121 assists as a redshirt frosh this season.

Smith, meanwhile, patched together a group of transfers, freshmen and a couple of veterans (one of whom, Andrej Janikowski, is struggling with an injured shoulder).

These Cougs, who perhaps should have worn name tags to introduce themselves at practice, finished second to Arizona in the Pac-12, currently sit at No. 17 in the AP poll — and will take a 23-8 record into the conference tournament beginning Thursday.

Oh, and they’re a cinch to play in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 16 years.

As I said, easy choices.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

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