THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: One more chance for Madness at the Arena

After a crazy Friday in Spokane where a 13 seed beat a 4, a 12 seed beat a 5, a team from 1,400 miles away had crowd support that sounded like that team from down the street, and the band playing Yale’s fight song was not really from Yale, what kind of wild things are going to happen today in the second round of the NCAA tournament at the Arena?

No. 12 Grand Canyon (30-4), which bounced fifth seed Saint Mary’s on Friday, will play fourth-seeded Alabama (22-11) at 4:10 p.m., and San Diego State (25-10), a fifth seed, will play 13th seed Yale (24-8), which surprised fourth-seeded Auburn, in the second game at 6:40 p.m.

The Grand Canyon-Alabama winner will advance to the West Regional in Los Angeles, and the San Diego State-Yale winner will move on to the East Regional in Boston.

In the old days, the second-round winners at a subregional site would go on to play each other in the regional. But those were the old days.

GRAND CANYON, A SCHOOL ON THE RISE

My ears are still ringing from Friday night from the Grand Canyon fans cheering on their team to their first NCAA tournament victory in three trips. 

But enough about the adults. The students brought the spirit too.

Combined, the GCU fans made it sound like a home game for their team in the Arena.

Being here at GCU and having the ‘Havocs’ backing us is like having an extra teammate out there at all times,” junior guard Ray Harrison said. “We’re always thankful for it, it makes us feel more comfortable out there.”

“That’s why they’re the Havocs — they wreak havoc,” senior guard Tyon Grant-Foster added. “They do what they need to do for us. It’s wonderful.”

“I told you reinforcements were headed to town, and they showed up,” senior forward Gabe McGlothan said. “The Havocs, they always have our backs, and it’s a blessing to be a part of this.”

“They’re 100 percent invested in our team emotionally, how they keep the energy for 40 minutes,” GCU coach Bryce Drew said. “And there’s some times during games you get tired, the other team’s on a run … but once our crowd gets right back into it, it really helps lift us up quicker.”

GCU, located in Phoenix, is a relative newbie to big boy basketball, moving up to NCAA Division I in the 2013-14 season. This is the Antelopes’ third appearance in the tourney in the last four years. Last year, GCU lost 82-70 to Gonzaga in the first round.

“We’re such a unique place,” Drew said. “We’re a school of faith. We have 25,000 (students) on the ground, we have 90,000 online, and it’s only growing.”

Drew is in his fourth season at Grand Canyon, after being fired by Vanderbilt. He recalled visiting GCU to interview for the head coaching job, and talking to school president Brian Mueller and Jerry Colangelo, better known for his work with the Phoenix Suns and USA Basketball, about their vision for the Lopes program. Colangelo was at the forefront in elevating the school and its sports programs.

“It’s been amazing to look back, and so much of what we talked about is happening now,” Bryce said. “And that’s just really cool to be a part of this.” 

Also at Friday’s game was Homer Drew, Bryce’s dad and former Valparaiso coach, who was planning to fly out Saturday to watch another son, Scott, coach Baylor in an NCAA tourney game today in Memphis vs. Clemson.

“I can’t believe you’re not staying here,” Bryce said with a laugh.

Drew praised Harrison and McGlothan for their help with bringing in this year’s recruiting class. It’s a class led by Grant-Foster, who’s averaging 20 points per game. He started his college journey at Kansas, then went to DePaul. Two years ago, after collapsing a second time, he underwent a second operation on his heart.

“When guys came on visits like Tyon, we would always group them afterward with Gabe and Ray — ‘you like ‘em, you want ‘em here, want them to be part of our family?’” Drew said. “I really credit these two guys for recruiting some great transfers to come join us.”

“What brought me to GCU was the winning culture they were building here, and how much Gabe and Ray wanted to win,” Grant-Foster said. “When I was on my visit, they talked about that Gonzaga game, like a lot, so I knew it meant a whole lot to them.”

“My only pitch to him was, I asked him if he wanted a ring,” Harrison said, to laughter among the group.

This season Grand Canyon won its first outright Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship, then won the WAC tournament to punch its ticket to the NCAAs.

GIVE ‘EM A YALE 

Maybe it’s time to stop being shocked when one of these small, “mid-major” school knocks off a bigger school in the NCAAs.

These smaller schools that reach the tournament can play, too. And in many cases, they have more experienced players than the bigger schools.

“It shows how good our league (Ivy League) is, and how good we were,” Yale senior guard August Mahoney said. “Princeton made the Sweet 16 last year and we were at home, they beat us in the (Ivy League) championship, and each and every one of our guys in the locker room were just itching to get our opportunity.”

“So the league is really good, and because of the metrics and how it works, we don’t necessarily get an opportunity to be seen in the same light,” said James Jones, in his 25th season as Yale coach. “We were fortunate to play Kansas and Gonzaga on the road this year. But I can’t tell you the last time we had a Quad 1 team play at Yale. So it’s hard to get those wins, especially if the only opportunities you have are few, and then they’re on the road.

“So our league plays at a very high level … it’s no wonder to me why we were able to do this, and why Princeton was able to do it last year.”

FOCUS ON OUR GAME!

Mark Few was a bit perturbed Thursday night when they showed live look-ins of Oakland’s eventual upset of Kentucky for fans to watch on the big screen at the Delta Center, while right in front of their very eyes, Few’s Zags were in the process of drubbing McNeese. 

The wild cheers that were going up whenever Oakland did something good, but sounded out of place during the systemic pounding happening live — especially when nothing was happening live.

They eventually turned off the live look-in of the Oakland upset at the Delta Center.

At the Spokane Arena on Friday, where San Diego State had all it could handle with UAB, they showed a live look-in of Colorado’s game with Florida on the big screen — then took it off the screen before fans got too hung up on that game.

I remember in the old days of going to NCAA tourney games, you were lucky to get a score of another game, much less a live look-in. And cell phones weren’t even a rumor.

LOOKING AHEAD TO A NEW-LOOK WCC

Randy Bennett has bigger things on his mind today — like figuring out how Saint Mary’s, the best team in the West Coast Conference by far who is not named Gonzaga, can do better in the NCAA tournament. Friday’s loss to Grand Canyon dropped the Gaels to 7-13 in 13 tourney appearances.

On Thursday, he was asked to look ahead to next year, when Washington State and Oregon State join the West Coast Conference as affiliate members for the next two years, while they figure out what to do next following the demise of the Pac-12.

“They come from a Power 5 (conference), so they have that football money, and they have resources to help our league,” Bennett said. “Washington State’s had an incredible year. Oregon State’s had a better year this year, so I think it will definitely raise our league. I think it’s a good move for our conference for these two years.”

Then what?

“They (conferences) all have got to make good decisions,” Bennett said. “I mean, we saw what happened with the Pac-12. You’re going to have to play a good hand in this card game, especially in conference realignment. If you don’t … you’ll lose your league.”

If nothing else, the WCC regular season and postseason tournament should be a little more competitive the next two years, with WSU and hopefully Oregon State providing a challenge to the Zags and Gaels.

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 X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.