Seattle: Winning isn’t easy to do

🏀Men’s college basketball: Top-ranked Gonzaga kept their foot on the gas on Saturday, racing away with a 106–69 victory over San Diego. And with just two regular season contests remaining on the schedule, it seems pretty likely the 22-0 ’Zags will enter the postseason undefeated. Knock on wood.
- Meanwhile, unranked Washington State is unlikely to make March Madness. But they had a marvelous time ruining everything for Stanford on Saturday, with Noah Williams scoring a career-high 40 points to lift the Cougs to a triple-overtime victory. Oh, what a night.
🥎🏐Huskies: The bats were on fire for No. 2 UW softball yesterday, with the Huskies taking a 17–0 (!!!) five-inning mercy victory over Utah Valley. But the classic struggle for women’s sports fans everywhere: there was no video stream of the game. Sigh.
- The softball squad wasn’t the only Husky team winning this weekend. No. 10 UW volleyball won both of its weekend matches against Colorado, first with Friday’s thrilling five-setter and then with Sunday’s sweep. Killing it.
⚾️Mariners: The Mariners are in the news for all the wrong reasons. CEO and president Kevin Mather’s disparaging, shady and xenophobic beliefs recently came to light in a talk with the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club. Look (and hope) for the Mariners to take action on this soon. Ugh.
Chicago: Feelin’ good as hell

⚽️USWNT: Chicago Red Stars midfielder Julie Ertz and goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher both had killer performances in the USWNT’s first two matches of the SheBelieves Cup. With her two shutouts, Naeher made herstory as the only USWNT goalkeeper to ever post a shutout in 10 straight international games.
- Meanwhile, Ertz has played every minute in the tournament so far, and she’s used her elite defensive skills to keep opponents from scoring in key moments.
🤸♀️Illini: Despite narrowly losing to the No. 8-ranked Wolverines, the No. 20-ranked Fighting Illini of the U of I women's gymnastics earned a season-best score of 196.650 yesterday. We love losses that somehow still feel like a win.
Junior Mallory Mizuki, who’d been battling injuries all season, also captured a personal win yesterday, competing for the first time and securing the bar title with a score of 9.900. Now that’s the Fighting Illini spirit.
LA: Star power

🏀Clippers: After Friday’s impressive bounce-back win ruined the Utah Jazz’s perfect February, the Clips fell 112–108 in crunch time yesterday to the Kevin Durant-less Brooklyn Nets. The combined firepower of Brooklyn’s James Harden and Kyrie Irving was too much to handle.
- And while turnovers definitely contributed to the Clips’ loss, we’ll still be side-eyeing that offensive foul call on Kawhi Leonard with eight seconds left. Hmm.
Lakers: The Clips have their stars back...but the Lakers are sorely missing one of theirs. The absence of Anthony Davis— who is out for four weeks recovering from a calf strain and Achilles tendinosis— was evident in Saturday’s loss to the lowly Miami Heat.
- No matter what LeBron says, the whole team needs to step up if the Purple and Gold want to get back to their winning ways. We’ll see if they do tonight against the Washington Wizards at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.
🏒Kings: Somewhat surprisingly, the Kings earned their fourth-straight win on Saturday. They’ll put that streak to the test tonight at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT against the West Division-leading St. Louis Blues. Don’t let the Blues play Gloria.
D.C.: It’s a new dawn

🏒Capitals: Yesterday, the Caps erased their early two-goal deficit to beat the New Jersey Devils 4–3. For the first time in forever nine games, winger TJ Oshie scored not one, but two goals. Still, that score is a little too close for comfort against the Devils, a team we don’t consider a tough test.
- The Caps will need to be sharper against the Pittsburgh Penguins tomorrow night at 7 p.m. ET. Here’s hoping that Ovi’s words of congratulations for rival Sidney Crosby’s 1,000th NHL game doesn’t actually bring the Pens luck.
🏀Wizards: All we do is...win? With Saturday’s victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, the Wizards are now on a four-game winning streak (!!!), their longest in three years. First-time All-Star starter Bradley Beal still leads the offense, but the Wizards’ improved defense also deserves kudos. Growth.
While it’ll be a tall order to defeat the LA Lakers tonight at 10 p.m. ET, the defending champions have been shaky lately, especially without star Anthony Davis. Let’s see if the Wiz can brew up an upset.
Dallas: Let’s make a deal

🏈Cowboys: We knew the weeks leading up to NFL free agency would bring even more drama in the Dak Prescott contract negotiations, but who knew the two parties would be at odds when it came to this unprecedented weather emergency? (Spoiler alert: we all could’ve guessed.)
- While Cowboys owner Jerry Jones celebrated hitting the “jackpot” thanks to surging gas prices, Dak was stepping up to help, donating meals to help feed homeless individuals impacted by the storm. That’s our quarterback.
- Given this moral divide, it’s no wonder both sides have yet to agree to a long-term contract extension. Thankfully the drama will come to a close by March 9th at the latest, when the Cowboys will apply the franchise tag to Prescott if they have yet to sign him.
🏒🏀What to watch: Both the Stars and Mavericks will be back in action tonight, with the Stars taking on the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT and the Mavs tipping off against the Memphis Grizzlies at 8:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. CT.
And a special shoutout to the Mavs’ Luka Doncic. Not only was he named a starter for the upcoming NBA All-Star game, but Doncic also led off the court, joining Mavs owner Mark Cuban to donate over $1 million to the city’s winter storm relief fund.