CBI Update

Oregon State and UTEP square off tonight in the third and deciding game of the final of the CBI Tournament. (The two teams split the first two games, each winning at home.)

OSU (17-18) is the third-most-improved college basketball team this year, having won just six games a year ago. The Beavers trail Mizzou (+15) and LSU (+14).

Re-Shuffling the Minor Tourneys

Richmond and Oregon State both won last night in the CBI, and remain on a collision course -- but thanks to the haphazard nature of small tourneys, that confrontation will be put off for one more round.

The CBI, which is 'broadcast' on the low-distribution HDNet, apparently reshuffled its brackets yesterday, to lighten the travel load for the four remaining schools.

Oregon State will play (at home) against Pac-10 rival Stanford for the fourth time this year. Richmond will host UTEP.

Both games are on Thursday night, with the finals to take place early next week in a best 2-of-3 format.

Meanwhile, in the NIT, a confrontation of two of the best guards in the country was won by St. Mary's over Davidson. Stephen Curry had 26; Patty Mills, 23, with 10 assists.

Next interesting NIT matchup: Notre Dame hosting Kentucky, in a game that neither coach wants to lose. At all.

Oregon State Repeats

Although it did not engender the publicity of Florida's back-to-back titles in April, Oregon State won a second consecutive NCAA baseball title this evening, with a convincing 11-4, 9-3 set of wins in the Finals. UNC battled to get to the Finals for the second consecutive year, but OSU's close (they trailed for only one inning in their last five games -- a streak of 61 innings going into tonight's game -- played at the CWS)

(The above photo shows one of the few balls that OSU was unable to corral this evening -- a single over the head of OSU infielder Joey Wong.)