THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: A college hoops week with increased local interest

This could have been a REAL interesting Selection Sunday. 

And have very little to do with the Zags. 

Oh sure, the seed, site, first-round matchup and potential future matchups for the Lovables will be debated nonstop beginning later today. 

If their seed is too low ... hey, what about our lofty NET ranking? 

Actually, the matchup is more important than the seed — especially after the Zags win their first two games and advance to the Sweet 16 for the 10th straight tournament. 

WHAT WAS interesting during Championship Week — shortened to Champ Week by ESPN in recent years so they could make the word bigger on the TV screen — was all the conference tournament games which involved teams with players with North Idaho ties.

On the men’s side, there was ... 

Virginia, with sophomore Blake Buchanan of Lake City, playing well at the end of the season just to be one of the 15 teams to make the 18-team ACC tournament, then earning a first-round bye and a ninth seed, before dropping their first conference tourney game to eighth seed Georgia Tech in the second round Wednesday. 

And now comes a coaching change in Charlottesville (Tony Bennett resigned just prior to the season, and interim coach Ron Sanchez, Bennett’s assistant, was told he would not be considered for the permanent opening), and all the roster uncertainty that will follow. 

Then there was Idaho, with Kolton Mitchell, a redshirt freshman from Lake City; Julius Mims, a senior from North Idaho College; and, if you want to stretch the local tie a bit, Jack Payne from Boise and Owyhee high schools.  

The sixth-seeded Vandals won a game at the Big Sky tournament for the first time since 2017, before losing in the semifinals to second-seeded Montana, which went on to win the championship and will learn its NCAA destination today. 

ON THE women’s side, start with Montana, where Avery Waddington, a freshman from Lake City, and senior Tyler McCliment-Call, who played her first two seasons of high school ball, were starters at the end of the season for the sixth-seeded Griz. 

Montana was less than a second from upsetting top-seeded Montana State in the Big Sky Conference title game, and earning the league’s lone berth to the NCAAs, when the Bobcats scored on a putback at the buzzer to win by one, and hand the Griz a heartbreaking defeat. Especially since Montana had just taken the lead with a well-executed play that resulted in a 3-pointer with 7.9 seconds remaining. 

Both local kids got plenty of air time — Waddington driving to the basket just like she did for four years at Lake City, and McCliment-Call hitting key jumpers, like she did as a sophomore in helping Post Falls win a state title. Waddington scored a team-high 15 points, McCliment-Call nine in the title game for the Griz. 

We almost got an automatic NCAA participant out of the Mountain West tournament as well. 

Teagan Colvin, from Coeur d’Alene High was a freshman reserve at top-seeded UNLV, but the top-seeded Rebels were bumped off by fourth-seeded San Diego State on Tuesday in the semifinals of the conference tournament. 

UNLV might still get into the NCAAs as an at-large team; the Rebels are listed as one of the “First Four Out” in ESPN.com’s latest Bracketology by Charlie Creme. 

The next night, second seed Wyoming, where Madi Symons is a sophomore reserve, had its chances before falling to San Diego State in triple overtime in the Mountain West title game. 

In the Big West tournament, there was Skylar Burke, a junior guard and starter for fourth-seeded UC Santa Barbara. But the Gauchos were bumped off by fifth-seeded Cal Poly in the quarterfinals. Burke scored 14 points for the Gauchos, despite having to leave for a portion of the game with a knee injury. 

Finally, there was Hawaii, the top seed in the Big West tournament, boasting reserve post Brooklyn Rewers, a senior from Lake City who began her collegiate career at Michigan State. But Hawaii was knocked off in the Big West semifinals on Friday by fourth seed UC San Diego, despite 10 points from Rewers, and a comeback from a 27-point deficit to tie the game later, before San Diego hit a last-second shot to win by 2. 

Going into Friday, Hawaii was listed as a 16 seed in the NCAAs as an automatic qualifier. Now, we’ll see. 

SPEAKING OF the women ... 

It’s going to be weird not seeing Stanford in the NCAA tournament — a result of a combination of a coaching change, players transferring and adjusting to a new conference. 

Through all the changes in women’s basketball over the years, Stanford had been a constant — something we could hang our hat on, and say hey, they can play basketball on the West Coast, too. 

If a girl from around here was offered by Stanford, that was a big deal, especially back in the day. 

Fortunately, USC and UCLA have emerged as two of the top teams in the country. 

Hopefully both will wind up in Spokane when the Spokane Arena plays host to two of the four regionals of the NCAA tournament in a couple of weekends.  

Eight teams. Four days. Six games. Two regions. One site. For two of the four spots in the women’s Final Four. 

Combining women’s regionals. A cool idea the NCAA came up with. 

Now, if Stanford can get back in the mix soon ... 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.