Madness on the Court

David R.

March 24, 2011 - 11:33 AM

The College Basketball Invitational continues on as the Oregon Ducks have found themselves in the tournament's championship round. I'm not exactly sure how this championship "series" works, but it has been fun to watch the Ducks advance as far as they have and hopefully we can bring home the hardware.

On Wednesday in Eugene, the Ducks took on a known foe in Duck Nation, the Boise State Broncos. After the 08-09 debacles on the football field against Boise State, those are the first memories that come to mind when these two schools meet. It's a different sport obviously, but the rivalry is still somewhat fresh and it's fun to watch these two schools compete.

The Ducks came out hot and developed a lead that was close to 20 points at one point. Boise State kept fighting and kept themselves in the game, eventually narrowing the margin to only six. Oregon was able to hold on for the win, and senior forward Joevon Catron threw down late in the second half, which jolted the crowd because he rarely dunks.

It is interesting that Oregon has found itself in the CBI championship series, because the Ducks' first game will be against the Creighton Blue Jays, the team that Oregon's head coach left to take the job at Oregon. It seems as though maybe the CBI decision makers were hoping for this match up in the finals, because Boise State wasn't even supposed to be on our side of the bracket. We were supposed to play Creighton on Wednesday night, but the Broncos were for some reason switched to our side of the bracket instead. The switch may have been made because Boise is much close to Eugene than Omaha, but I can see why maybe the CBI bracket makers may have made the switch to try to create the ultimate match up for the CBI finals.

The CBI's big brother tournament picked up again yesterday for the Sweet 16 rounds. Jimmer Fredette's 32 points weren't enough to get the Cougars past Florida, and the San Diego State Aztecs fell to Uconn in a game that was much closer than the final score showed. The shocker of the night was watching the Duke Blue Devils fall to the five seed Arizona Wildcats. Trailing after the first half, the Cats went on a tear in the second half and beat Duke by double digits. I had Duke advancing to the next round, but it's nice to watch Arizona represent the Pac 10 conference, and hopefully they can bring it to the Huskies (not UW) tomorrow night. A conference like the Pac 10 only looks stronger when one of its teams is able to knock off someone as nationally renowned as Coach K's Blue Devils.

In my opinion, this is when March Madness becomes exciting because only the best teams are remaining. Every game will be close as each team fights to stay alive. As the games continue tomorrow, I'm excited to see who will get sent home and who will get to keep on dancin'!