THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Smith leaving WSU not a surprise

All sorts of things have knocked us around over the past few days.

We’ll try to make sense of a few items on the menu, and leave you to figure out the rest. 

OK, we have to start with Kyle Smith — fresh off carrying Washington State into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008 — and the announcement that he’ll be leaving Pullman for a move south and a coaching gig at Stanford.

You’ve got to admit it’s not a shock.

The administration at Wazzu was prepared to offer Smith an extension and richer terms to stay and build on his success, but Stanford jumped in before the season ended and got its man.

There’s certainly a financial score for Smith in this move, and Stanford carries major prestige.

The Cardinal, though, have jumped to the Atlantic Coast Conference, and will be traipsing back and forth across the country.

On a happier geographical note, Smith is returning to the Bay Area, where he coached for nearly a decade — first as an assistant to Randy Bennett at Saint Mary’s, then as head coach at San Francisco.

Smith signed off on statements from both universities Monday, making clear that he was proud of his five years at WSU, and likewise proud of the chance to coach at Stanford.

The Washington State statement concluded: “Once a Coug, Always a Coug. Much love.”

No doubt that affection is returned by the entire Wazzu community, since Smith brought men’s basketball back to life.

He inherits a drooping hoops program at Stanford, but he’s won everywhere he’s coached — and surely will do it again.

We’ll have lots more on this move, and Wazzu’s follow-up, as soon as everyone takes a deep breath.

HMMM: Either Shohei Ohtani is shockingly naïve, or he damn sure knew that his very large bank account was being tapped for the gambling of his friend/interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.

Ohtani conducted a 12-minute press briefing on Monday — in Japanese, through a new translator — and claimed that he had never bet on baseball or any other sport, that knew nothing about Mizuhara’s massive gambling debt, or the wire transfers from his own bank account to an illegal bookie operation (insisting that Mizuhara covered his debt secretly). 

According to a short summary of this situation from Front Office Sports, it is obvious that some statements here contradict each other, and at best, Ohtani apparently let millions of dollars float around with no accountability.

From FOS: “Ohtani’s statement (Monday) completely counters Mizuhara’s initial story last week to ESPN, in which he said Ohtani was aware of the interpreter’s gambling issues and knowingly helped pay off his debt.

“By leaving no ambiguity in his statement, Ohtani has given even greater weight as to the forensics behind the wire transfers in question, in which millions of dollars were sent from his account to an illegal gambling operation. 

“MLB and the Internal Revenue Service are now investigating the matter. 

“Ohtani additionally has potentially opened himself to both civil and criminal issues should his public allegations of crime by Mizuhara be proven false.

“There are still plenty of questions to be answered in this entire saga, including how Ohtani and his legal and financial representatives had no knowledge of Mizuhara’s alleged theft until last week.”

Wow.

Given what the Dodgers are paying Ohtani, they have an expensive mess on their hands, one way or another.

HMMM: There were two sports events pitting the United States against Mexico on Sunday, and both turned out a little bit … bizarre?

The contest that millions followed was a soccer match in Arlington, Texas, the championship game of the CONCACAF Nations Cup.

Games between the two countries are always spicy (to put it gently), and they’re especially raucous because — even in the U.S. — the crowds generally are pro-Mexico.

There’s also the weird fact that a score (now a strangely common score) has become sort of a nickname for this match – “Dos a Cera.”

That’s 2-0 if you don’t speak Spanish.

Sure enough, the Americans won by that famous score line again this time, on goals by Tyler Adams and Gio Reyna.

Adams’ goal was a 35-yard bullet that bent into the corner of the net.

The game was marred, for the second straight year, by sections of the crowd chanting homophobic slurs.

The referee halted the game twice — in the 88th minute and then in stoppage time — before managing to get it finished.

A year ago, this match was called off early with the U.S. up 3-0 when the ugly chants became just too much.

Why do people need to spill out such things?

It truly is hard to grasp.

Oh, I promised you a second event involving Mexico and the United States.

This one is a little bit funny.

Well, in a way.

The New York Yankees played the first of two exhibition games against Los Rojos of the Mexican League.

The Yanks lost 4-3 to a batting assault by 41-year-old Robinson Cano — an infielder formerly employed in western Washington.

Cano whacked three hits (coming a triple short of hitting for the cycle) and seemed to have turned back time.

Robbie’s postgame analysis: “Steroids are legal in Mexico.”

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.”