Gonzaga NBA Draft Recap: Graham Ike Signs With Warriors, Jack Kayil Taken by Knicks
For the second straight year, the Gonzaga Bulldogs weren’t represented in the 60 available slots of the NBA Draft.
But shortly after 2026’s “Mr. Irrelevant”, Malique Lewis, was selected by the Washington Wizards, former Zag Graham Ike didn’t remain without a team for long, reportedly agreeing to an Exhibit-10 deal with the Golden State Warriors, first reported by The Consensus NBA. Just like Ryan Nembhard did last summer with the Dallas Mavericks, Ike will look to break into the NBA after being an undrafted free agent.
Meanwhile, ex-Zag commit Jack Kayil was one of the prospects who did hear his name called in Brooklyn. Although the reported first-round feedback he received didn’t come to fruition, his chapter with the Bulldogs officially came to an end after the reigning champion New York Knicks selected him 39th overall on Wednesday.
Bryan Woo Groundhog Day, Randy Arozarena Game of Inches Produce Disastrous Pittsburgh Rout
An exasperated Bryan Woo talked with the media after his loss on Wednesday, a game where he gave up a nuclear inning in an occurrence that has become awfully common for the team’s 2025 ace. He was frank about his struggles and the fact he isn’t sure what the source of his woes has been.
“It’s baseball, you know. And it’s kicking my ass right now,” Woo said.
It may have been very close for an 11-1 game. In other words, it was a perfect reflection of what happens when a winnable game snowballs totally out of the control of the losing team, with all fight and verve driven from the Mariners blow by blow as the Pirates tacked on hit after hit to pounce on every chance they had.
Pittsburgh melted Bryan Woo in the fourth inning, handing Woo the fifth five-run start of his season.
Since April 25, Woo has had an ERA of 5.31, but this doesn’t tell the full story of his struggles in 2026. It is often broken down into home and road splits - where his ERA is 2.00 at home but 6.38 on the road - but this is also an incomplete look at the situation as it currently stands.
Looking at the things a pitcher can control, Woo has struck out 40, walked 11, hit two, and given up seven homers in 48 innings on the road; at home, he has struck out 52, walked seven, hit one, and given up two homers in 45 innings. Turning those results into fielding independent pitching (FIP) numbers gives a 4.14 FIP on the road and a 1.90 FIP at home.
But the big note from it all is that the damage is coming in the form of big crooked innings. As soon as teams get a man to second, the wheels fall off the bus and fast. That’s what happened on Wednesday as Woo fell apart in the fourth inning.
Cole Young’s Hometown Game-Winner Marks Early Career Highlight, M’s Win 3-2
Neither Pittsburgh nor Seattle sit directly beside an ocean (though Puget Sound of course connects quite nicely to the Pacific and gives the Emerald City a strong oceangoing port), yet these teams cleared the decks for their first of three sea battles on Tuesday night.
It was a low-scoring affair, but the Mariners’ two cannonballs were enough to seal the deal as they came out ahead 3-2. The one homer had special significance for Cal Raleigh, as it was his first big fly since returning from the IL, but it was the second that shone brightest: Seattle’s own Yinzer flipped the score from a Mariners deficit to a Mariners lead.
Triumphant homecoming is one of humanity’s oldest seagoing motifs, but with a 22-year-old hitting three homers in a month for the second time in his career, the game had more to do with the beginning of Young’s odyssey than its end.
Cole Young blasted a go-ahead homer in his Pittsburgh homecoming.
Going into Tuesday, the Mariners were tied with the Twins for the second-worst winning percentage (.094) when trailing a game at the beginning of the seventh inning, having won three of 32 such contests. The only teams worse in this regard (the Giants, Angels, Guardians, Astros, Rangers, and Royals) had a combined 212-261 record and .448 winning percentage.
For comparison, the two teams FanGraphs projects as more likely than the Mariners to win it all (the Yankees and Dodgers) have a combined .196 winning percentage when entering the seventh inning in a deficit. The Brewers, Braves, Phillies, and Rays - the next four teams down after the M’s on FanGraphs’ projections - had a combined .227 winning percentage in games where they entered the seventh inning losing.
And when the top of the seventh began on Tuesday, the M’s trailed 2-1, marking the 33rd time they had entered that inning with a deficit in the season. Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller had thrown just 72 pitches, the M’s struggles continuing with the bat as they didn’t break up his efficiency or get many runs across.
Kraken Check Off Big To-Do List Item, Re-Sign Bobby McMann to Six-Year Deal
While the Seattle Kraken as a team imploded down the stretch last season, it was certainly no fault of Bobby McMann. The Kraken swung a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the veteran’s services ahead of the trade deadline in March, sending a fourth round pick from this upcoming draft and a second rounder from 2027 to Toronto.
From the jump, it seemed like a match made in hockey heaven. McMann did his best impression of Wayne Gretzky in the first three games as a Kraken, totaling four goals and two assists. Even as that torrid pace cooled, he was the best offensive skater Seattle had for that final stretch of the season by a wide margin. Between the time McMann arrived in Seattle to the end of the regular season, McMann’s 10 goals was more than double the next closest Kraken skater, who was Jared McMann with four goals.
McMann’s total was also tied for 10th-highest in the entire NHL in that timeframe. He was one of the hottest goal-scorers in the league for that final 20-game stretch, providing a rare bright spot for a Kraken squad that struggled to score all year long as a team.
Gilbert, Mariners Salvage Red Sox Matinee, Keep Heads Above Water
All wins are equal on the final sheet of standings at the end of the year, but not all these wins mean the same things when they are played. Some wins are triumphant jewels in the crowns of great streaks, others are dead cat bounces for a team plummeting into the gutter. The Mariners’ 3-1 win over the Red Sox on Sunday was neither of those, but it was the definitional salvaged game, turning what could have been a sweep to go under .500 on the summer solstice into a lost series and a 40-39 record with the halfway point nearly reached.
The offense, for the eighth straight game, didn’t impress, but the Mariners worked a win anyway thanks to an incredible start from a rebounding elite arm, a couple of timely hits, and a sharp bullpen. And yet the win may be pyrrhic, with another key player falling to the injury bug.
Logan Gilbert worked into the seventh and kept the Red Sox to a single run.
While the Mariners haven’t had everyone clicking at the same time, they have had the relative luxury of often getting a cold man hot once their hot man goes cold. While Emerson Hancock has seemingly taken a big step back over the past two outings, Logan Gilbert has finally settled into a real adjustment against the five-and-dive outings and long at-bats that had created them.
This adjustment has been quite simple and equally effective: instead of relying solely on his secondary pitches in favorable counts - a strategy that teams effectively countered by simply laying off the low sliders and buried splitters they would see time and time again - Gilbert has truly mixed things up with fastballs, curveballs, splitters, and sliders in these counts. This means, in the aggregate, that he is throwing the heater a lot more.
Trade! Kraken Deal 25th Overall Pick for Panthers’ Mackie Samoskevich
The 2026 NHL Draft begins this Friday, June 26 with the first round in Buffalo, New York. With the Seattle Kraken holding two first round picks and three top-40 picks overall, it was a safe assumption that they would be making and fielding trade offers to better their team before the festivities kick off.
The first salvo has been fired ahead of next weekend’s draft. According to reports on Sunday, the Seattle Kraken traded their 25th overall pick this year and a second rounder next season to the Florida Panthers for the services of winger Mackie Samoskevich.
Washington State Adds Three-Star Tackle to Growing 2027 Recruiting Class
The Washington State Cougars landed two more commitments as their 2027 recruiting class continues to grow under first-year coach Kirby Moore, pushing their total number of commitments to 17 by signing a pair of line prospects.
One of the newest additions is Randolph Santiago, a 6-6, 275-pound offensive tackle from Kailua. Currently rated as a three-star prospect, Santiago carries an 84 overall rating according to 247Sports. His recruitment included offers from programs such as UNLV, Boise State, Oregon State, New Mexico, and San Diego State, making him a stellar addition to the trenches for Moore’s squad.
Washington State also landed another defensive prospect from California with the commitment of Richard Orosco, a 6-4, 240-pound EDGE rusher from St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower. Orosco has received scholarship offers from New Mexico, UNLV, and San Diego State, among others, and looks to be an ascending recruit despite not having a star rating at this point.
Bryan Woo Burns Through Baltimore Lineup, Mariners Win Series
The Mariners scored three runs in each of their games against the Baltimore Orioles as they began a two-series homestand against a pair of East Coast teams, a tally of runs that is seldom enough for consistent victory. And yet thanks to some incredible pitching - from Logan Gilbert on Tuesday and from Bryan Woo on Thursday - they won two of their three games and took their first series against the Orioles since 2022.
Seattle is now two games above .500, 39-37, after playing a series without Randy Arozarena or Luke Raley and having missed Josh Naylor for two games and Julio Rodríguez for one. In spite of all their hardships over the past couple of weeks, they have kept their heads barely above water as the days of June tick forward and the halfway point inches closer.
Bryan Woo struck back on Thursday, pitching seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts.
This year, Woo hasn’t benefited from the incredible consistency of his 2025 campaign, coming into the game with a 4.28 ERA thanks to a newfound tendency to give up scores of hits with runners in scoring position. With a 1.037 WHIP, 3.25 FIP, and 5.27 strikeout-to-walk ratio, this ERA pace marks a significant outlier. Still, it takes a certain amount of mental fortitude to keep tough innings from becoming disasters, and Woo had given up five or more earned runs in a start four times out of his most recent nine outings. Interspersed among those games were four quality starts and one “Felix quality start” of seven innings, no earned runs, and nine strikeouts.
That seven-inning outing was repeated in style on Thursday as Woo did all three of those things once more. His ERA dipped back down to 3.94 as he mowed down the Orioles inning after inning, catching them off-guard with fastballs well above the zone and using an effective two-strike mix of heaters and breaking balls. A greater unpredictability in his pitch mix was the thing Woo cited as his main adjustment.
Tyon Grant-Foster Cleared by NBA After Final Collegiate Season with Gonzaga
Unlike some of his former teammates at Gonzaga in Graham Ike and Jalen Warley, Tyon Grant-Foster hasn’t received much, if any at all, NBA Draft buzz since he walked off a college court for the final time back in March.
That wasn’t without reason, as it was announced that Grant-Foster has now officially been cleared by the NBA’s fitness-to-play panel, making him eligible to compete in activities affiliated with the association. The 26-year-old notably missed two seasons during his time in college after experiencing two separate cardiac arrests, needing a defibrillator implanted before he could return to the floor for the 2023-24 season. Following his two years with Grand Canyon after his second heart issue, Grant-Foster transferred to the Zags for his final season in the NCAA, finally getting his eligibility waived during an injunction hearing one week before GU’s first game of the regular season.
Huskies Forward Hannes Steinbach Readies for Jump to NBA
A couple of years ago, Hannes Steinbach realized he might be pretty good at basketball.
Since then, his game has taken him from professional ball in Würzburg, Germany, to the Washington Huskies and, soon, to a yet-to-be-determined NBA city. The experience playing for the Würzburg Baskets of the German Bundesliga made him realize his stop in Montlake could be brief. In his one-and-done season, Steinbach established himself as one of the top freshmen in the NCAA by leading the country with 22 double-doubles with averages of 18.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game.
Speaking to the media Thursday after a pre-draft workout with the Golden State Warriors, Steinbach talked about his whirlwind college career and preparing for Tuesday’s NBA Draft.
Seahawks Move Swiftly Shoring Up Front Office With Six-Pack of Promotions
Success always comes with a price in the NFL, and while the Seattle Seahawks managed to escape the offseason losing only five free agents off of their Super Bowl LX team and kept a large chunk of their coaching staff intact with departing offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak being the biggest departure to replace, reigning Executive of the Year John Schneider will have a much different front office around him moving forward.
In a rare June hiring, the Minnesota Vikings tabbed ex-Seahawks assistant general manager Nolan Teasley as their new general manager, the first of several dominos that fell in quick order. Once Teasley had been introduced in Minneapolis, he made sure to steal a few former colleagues from Schneider’s front office cabinet to come with him, including bringing Minnesota native Trent Kirchner back home with the promotion of assistant general manager and hiring Azzaam Kapadia as assistant director of pro scouting. Kirchner and Kapadia served the titles of vice president of player personnel and NFL scout for Seattle last season, respectively.
Such a drain from the front office wouldn’t typically happen at this stage of the NFL calendar, but Schneider has been forced to make a major pivot retooling the personnel department around him, and ironically, it can be argued that the current situation actually benefited the Seahawks over the norm. Rather than suffering sighe organization had all hands on deck for the entire pre-NFL draft circuit, including the scouting combine, through free agency and the actual draft itself, with Teasley and Kirchner in particular having major voices in the player evaluation and decision-making process throughout in their prior roles.
Sounders Return to Training, Drop Shortened Practice Game vs. Belgium
The Seattle Sounders are back in action after 18 days away from training and games on account of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Life has changed considerably since the Sounders last dropped their last game on May 24 to LAFC to drop to 7-3-3 (6th in Western Conference), as they are sharing their Renton training facility with the Belgian Red Devils and are planning their training sessions around the national team's schedule. The Rave Green were compensated for their hospitality on Tuesday, as Belgium, fresh off a 1-1 draw against Egypt on Monday in Seattle, played a consortium of Sounders and Tacoma Defiance players in a shortened practice game.
The game featured two 30-minute halves, and the Sounders fell 2-1 in a match that former U.S. Men's National Team winger Paul Arriola described as a solid learning experience in this makeshift offseason program.
"It was a difficult game for us; we defended for a lot of the time," Arriola, 31, said. "We saw a few offensive plays that I think we did pretty well in, and then defensively it was a lot for us to handle. Typically we're a team in MLS that we kind of try and dictate the game and the tempo… yesterday we were put under a lot."
Cougars Bolster 2027 Recruiting Class, Sign O-Line and WR Prospect
With their latest latest wave of commitments for the 2027 recruiting class, the Washington State Cougars continued a trend that has become a major focus during the first full recruiting cycle under first-year coach Kirby Moore and his staff. The Cougars have put a significant emphasis on recruiting talent throughout the western United States, particularly in California, and that strategy paid off once again with commitments from offensive tackle Landon Guenter and athlete Sirjewel Glover.
Guenter is a 6-6, 255-pound offensive tackle from Redwood High School in Visalia, California. He becomes the 10th California prospect to commit to Washington State in the 2027 recruiting class, further strengthening the Cougars' footprint in one of the nation's most talent-rich recruiting states. Guenter chose Washington State over offers from Fresno State, UNLV, Idaho, and several other programs.
Joining Guenter in the class is Sirjewel Glover, a 6-0, 180-pound playmaker from Rainier Beach High School in Seattle. Glover gives Washington State another talented in-state prospect to develop and becomes the third commitment from Washington in the 2027 class. He selected the Cougars over offers from Oregon State, UNLV, New Mexico, and several other programs.
Five O-Line Recruits, One Huge Weekend Upcoming for Huskies
Rolling out the red carpet as they continue to build an intriguing 2027 recruiting class, the Washington Huskies will try to reel in the foundation of their next great offensive line with coach Jedd Fisch hoping to end the official visit season with a clean sweep locking up top-tier prospects in the trenches.
Offensive line coach Michael Switzer has a chance to put his stamp on this latest recruiting class for the Huskies, with as many as four future Big Ten-caliber starters flying into town. After last year’s crop that brought in five-star left tackle Kodi Greene, UW hopes to be building the next front worthy of the Joe Moore Award, which they last won when they advanced to the National Championship Game in 2023.
Who will be on Montlake this upcoming weekend?
Seattle World Cup Matchday 1 Recap: Egypt and Belgium Draw, Fans Fall in Love with Lumen
SEATTLE — The FIFA World Cup, bigger than ever in its new 48-team format, made its way to Seattle on Monday afternoon as Belgium and Egypt met in their group stage opener. The tournament, spanning 16 cities and 104 matches, will give six to the Emerald City.
Fans showed up in droves for each side, while some locals took off work and school to see international superstars like Thibaut Courtois, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah up close. The game didn’t disappoint, as a first-half goal from the underdog Pharaohs set the tone. Then, Belgium's all-time leading scorer, Romelu Lukaku, subbed on in the second half and forced an Egypt own goal mere seconds later. That 1-1 scoreline would hold as fans from the game were treated to watch parties across the city for the remaining two games of the day.
Monday demonstrated the undertaking this World Cup is from a logistical perspective, and Seattle seems to have passed with flying colors. Fans online praised Lumen Field, or Seattle Stadium on account of FIFA’s advertising guidelines, for its design and the noise it can help generate. On the ground, there was no shortage of ways to stay connected with the rest of the tournament as the city truly breathed the game.
What was the experience like on the ground as Seattle introduced itself to the biggest sporting event on the planet?
“There’s a Feeling of Emptiness”: Late Legion Push Drops Seawolves in Semifinal
TUKWILA, Wash. - A week prior, it had been the California Legion who regularly tried one offload too many, who had suffered a few too many penalties, and who had generally gotten in their own way.
The shoe was on the other foot on Sunday night, however, and the Seawolves’ season ended with a loss to the California Legion in the playoff semifinal. The MLR Shield, though it will be ultimately decided in Chicago on June 21, will not be coming to Seattle at the end of the year.
“It’s exit interviews and mop-ups from here on in,” Seawolves head coach Allen Clarke told Emerald City Spectrum. “There’s a feeling of emptiness because we weren’t quite ready for the season to end yet.”
Seattle fought valiantly to the end, taking a brief lead in the second half and getting plenty of chances to pull the score closer or return to that lead as the match continued, but in the end, the Legion triumphed by the palindromic score of 43-34.
“I think the fight was there up until 79 minutes, 40 seconds in, you know,” said blindside flanker Marno Redelinghuys. “Doesn’t matter what the time says on the clock, we always wanted to fight and just get a last try in. It doesn’t matter if the scoreboard says we’re not going to be able to win.”
Gonzaga Finalizes Commitment From French Guard Juwan Ekanga-Ehawa
Exit one young French guard, enter another.
Saturday at 2 PM PT was the deadline for international players to withdraw from the NBA Draft, and to no surprise, Jack Kayil remained in the process and looks to hear his name called early next week in Brooklyn. But the Gonzaga Bulldogs have already been operating on the conclusion that he was never re-routing back to Spokane.
Pivoting to a countryman of Kayil, the Zags have reportedly landed a commitment from 6-5 combo guard Juwan Ekanga-Ehawa, adding the talented 18-year-old into a backcourt that already includes Mario Saint-Supéry and Isiah Harwell. The move marks GU’s seventh added player of the offseason, and its third incoming freshman.
Washington State Signs Two More California Recruits to Growing 2027 Class
Washington State continues to build momentum on the recruiting trail under first-year coach Kirby Moore, as the Cougars added two more commitments to their 2027 recruiting class this weekend heralding from the Golden State.
Pledging their commitments to the program, cornerback Noah Clark from Inglewood High School and edge rusher Sonasi Maka II from Deer Valley High School in Antioch, California, both announced their intentions to take their talents to Pullman.
With the additions of Clark and Maka II, Washington State now has 14 total commitments in its 2027 class. The Cougars have made California a major priority in this recruiting cycle, as nine of those 14 commitments currently come from the Golden State. The entire class is made up of players from the western region of the United States, highlighting the recruiting strategy being used by the Washington State coaching staff.
Mariners Forget Fundamentals, Drop Saturday Game 8-3 to Nationals
It seems the Mariners are yet to escape their consistent inconsistency. After having beaten the Washington Nationals 10-2 the previous day, with every starting Mariner position player getting a knock, the team lost 8-2 as the pitching slipped up and the offense took a big step back outside of the ever-impressive Colt Emerson.
But the biggest issue for the team was the defense, which was docked for three errors and looked quite shaky even outside of those official events on the scoresheet. The game served as an example of bad fundamental play across the board and a reason why the team has a losing record in one-run games and just one win after trailing in the seventh. They still have the luxury of playing in the division that they do, but they aren’t forming good habits for the playoffs and the lack of precision has turned what should be a lock in the weakest division in baseball into a 1 ½ game lead over a mediocre Athletics team.
Defensive miscues piled up early, and a would-be clean first became a three-spot for the Nats.
Josh Naylor didn’t have himself a very good game on Saturday, with big misses with the glove and stick. The former came first, with a bad throw in the bottom of the first allowing the Nationals to put together a two-out rally and tack three runs on Luis Castillo.
Washington State Lands Two More Recruits as 2027 Class Takes Shape
Washington State's 2027 recruiting class continued to gain momentum over the past several days as the Cougars secured commitments from two more prospects who fit the program's growing emphasis on winning recruiting battles in nearby Western states.
The first commitment came from edge rusher Tautai Meredith, a 6-3, 260-pound prospect from Lehi High School in Utah. Meredith chose Washington State over a number of offers that included Boise State, Colorado State, and San Diego State, among others.
Meredith becomes the second edge defender to commit to Washington State's 2027 class, joining fellow defensive prospects Colton Ritchter and Sonasi Maka II on the defensive front. While he is currently listed as an edge rusher, Meredith possesses a frame that could allow him to add significant weight over the next several years. If that development occurs, it would not be surprising to see him spend time at defensive tackle during his career in Pullman.
Washington State followed Meredith’s commitment with another addition on Wednesday when safety Nate Obasanjo announced his commitment to the Cougars. Obasanjo, a 6-1, 210-pound safety from Mount Rainier High School, selected Washington State over offers from Utah, Colorado State, and New Mexico.
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