And now we have one less Pac 12 team in the tournament. Arizona lost to Ohio State in the battle of the former Xavier Coaches Bowl or whatever tournament title here, 73-70.

The difference in the game was a LaQuinton Ross three-pointer with two seconds left. Ross had 17 points off the bench for Ohio State.

Believe it or not, Arizona led and gave Ohio State a run for its money. They get the good job, good effort, or however it is called, award.

The Poisonous Nuthouse will likely have more on the Ohio State side of things.

It’s clear that Ohio State used wizardry and magic to win this game. How else is it possible for them to score a game winning basket with seconds remaining in two straight games? Riddle me that, caped crusader!?

So now, it is all on Oregon to carry the Pac 12 flag. They’ll face a tough challenge Friday night when they take on Louisville. So do your thing, Oregon. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll leave as winners.

Let the smooth stylings of Doug Gottlieb get you through this recap. (NCAA/CBS/Turner Sports)

Well, the Pac 12 did it as they have teams in the Sweet 16 of this NCAA Tournament. Congratulations! I believe you have more in the 16 than Conference USA.

The two teams that advanced on are Arizona and Oregon (SURPRISE!)

Arizona defeated Harvard. Truth be told, it wasn’t even close. The score was 74-51 and Harvard looked nothing like the Harvard from Thursday night. In fact, I think the Harvard from Thursday night would have destroyed the Saturday night Harvard team, but now we’re talking about time travel, which can be very complicated. Mark Lyons led Arizona with 27 points in the win over Harvard. This is the first Sweet 16 appearance for Arizona since 2009.

LEAVE THE MEMORIES ALONE!

Oregon meanwhile told the selection committee to stick the 12-seed where it isn’t anatomically possible as they knocked off St. Louis 74-57. Damyean Dotson had 23 points for the Ducks as they advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007.

Oregon will play Louisville in the Sweet 16. So there’s that, at least. Arizona will play the winner of Iowa State and Ohio State. That said, the west looks pretty good for Arizona. Ohio State is the only top five seed left in the West. Gonzaga, New Mexico and St. Louis are all out of the tournament.

California came close, but it wasn’t enough. But they did cover the point spread or something. California lost the game 66-60 to Syracuse. The game was long and painful. It needed to end at some point. Richard Solomon led Cal with 22 points.

Meanwhile, one of the teams eliminated from the tournament could be looking for a new head coach soon. Yahoo Sports is reporting UCLA Coach Ben Howland will be fired. A couple of sources told Yahoo Sports Howland has been notified of his termination.

So farewell to you, Mr. Howland, if the story is true.

UPDATE: I of course say “if.” Now it seems UCLA is disputing the reports that they’ve fired Head Basketball Coach Ben Howland. So…I guess the plot thickens…

Arsalan Kazemi…need I say more? (Screencap Via NCAA/CBS/Turner Sports)

Somewhere right now, Larry Scott is jamming out to Bob Seger.

The Pac 12 won all three of its games on the first day of the NCAA Tournament, including two 12-5 seed upsets. Granted, they were favorable match-ups in those two games, but hey, the selection committee will have to live with what they did.

Oregon scored the first win for the Pac 12 Thursday when they knocked off Oklahoma State in the second round of the Midwest region, 68-55. Four Oregon Ducks had double-digit points, led by Damyean Dotson, who scored 17. Dominic Artis scored 13 points, while Carlos Emery had 12.

It was a big night for Arsalan Kazemi, who scored 11 points and had 17 rebounds, giving him a double-double. Kazemi had a successful night despite getting stuffed by the rim on a dunk attempt during the first half.

Oregon advances to play St. Louis on Saturday.

The other 12-over-5 win came in the East region when California defeated UNLV 64-61. It was a back-and-forth game, but the Golden Bears were able to hold on late and win. This game isn’t being considered much of an upset, mainly because it was played in San Jose, which is pretty much, kinda-sorta, a home game for Cal.

California’s opponent for the third round will be none other than Syracuse, who pretty much wiped out Montana. (Well the game was still being played when I posted this, but seriously they’re up by a lot of points and it isn’t close at all.)

Finally, in the West region, Arizona knocked off Belmont, 81-64. Mark Lyons had 23 points as he was able to guide the Wildcats to the next round. Kerron Johnson and Ian Clark of Belmont had 22 and 21 points, respectively.

Arizona will advance to play Harvard, who scored a huge win against New Mexico Thursday night.

Two more Pac 12 teams will be in action Friday. Both UCLA and Colorado will be playing in Austin, Texas against opponents in B1G. Colorado plays Illinois at approximately 4:40 p.m. ET. UCLA will face Minnesota at approximately 10 p.m. ET.

Arizona is headed to the College World Series Championship series, as they defeated Florida State, 10-3. The Wildcats have yet to lose in Omaha (they have won nine in a row) and will most likely throw Kurt Heyer to start the championship series on Sunday at 8pm ET on ESPN2. Arizona will be playing for their fourth national championship, first since 1986.

It was a rematch of last Friday night’s ten inning victory for Arizona (in which Heyer yet again threw a gem deep into the game). Heyer scattered nine hits and three walks over 7.1 innings. He allowed two runs and struck out three. Heyer leads the nation with 153 innings (the most in Division I since 2006).

It started out so well for Florida State, as Sherman Johnson led off the game with a hard hit ball to left-center. He hustled right out of the box and headed to second base but was thrown out (he appeared to be safe on the replay).

Things went downhill from there.

Joey Rickard led off the bottom of the first inning with a single off FSU freshman starter Brandon Leibrandt. Johnny Field followed with a ball hit right back to Leibrandt. Double play right? WRONG. He threw the ball into centerfield.

Then the wheels fell off. Three hits, two more errors, a sac fly, and two walks put six runs on the board for Arizona. FSU was on their second pitcher (Leibrandt only recorded one out), as they would use a CWS record-tying eight total pitchers in the game.

Robert Refsnyder hit a solo homerun and Bobby Brown followed with a two-run homerun two batters later in the 4th inning. Refsnyder went 3-for-4 in the win.

*The Seminoles finished at 50-17. No other team has played in the CWS as many times without winning a championship (21st appearance).

Arizona beat Pac 12 rival UCLA to advance in the winner’s bracket on Sunday night, 4-0. The Wildcats are just one win away from the College World Series championship series.

If you like pitching, you should have been watching the second game on Sunday at the College World Series. Arizona’s Konner Wade and UCLA’s Nick Vander Tuig were locked in a pitcher’s duel, setting down the opposing offenses in order for three full innings.

With one out in the bottom of the 4th inning, Johnny Field picked up the game’s first hit. Two straight singles loaded the bases for Seth Mejias-Brean, who drove in two runs with a single. Bobby Brown followed with a two-run double to give the Wildcats the 4-0 lead.

That was more than enough for Wade, as the only jam he had to escape from came in the 5th inning. UCLA picked up their first hit with two outs in the 5th inning on a Pat Valaika single. Cody Regis and Kevin Kramer followed with a singles. Wade rebounded to get Kevin Williams to pop up to end the threat.

Wade picked up his fifth complete game, a five-hit shutout. The game ended fittingly, as Wade retired the Bruins in order.

Outside of that 4th inning, Vander Tuig was good. He allowed those four runs on six hits and a walk over 6.1 innings. He struck out eight.

*UCLA falls into the loser’s bracket and will face Florida State in an elimination game on Tuesday night at 8pm ET on ESPN. Arizona awaits the winner of that game on Thursday at 5pm ET on ESPN2.

The College World Series got underway in Omaha on Friday afternoon with the Cinderella team, Stony Brook, facing UCLA. Maybe the first trip to Omaha got the better of the Seawolves, as they lost to the Bruins, 9-1.

UCLA jumped on Stony Brook starter Tyler Johnson in the very first inning. He allowed five runs on five hits and walk in that inning. He fell behind just about every hitter.

Meanwhile, Stony Brook could do nothing against UCLA starter Adam Plutko. He allowed just one run on five hits and two walks over seven innings. He struck out seven. Freshman reliever David Berg came on and threw two hitless innings of relief.

UCLA leadoff hitter Beau Amaral collected two hits, as did Kevin Kramer. Jeff Gelalich, Pat Valaika, and Kevin Williams each drove in two runs in the win. For the Seawolves, Maxx Tissenbaum collected two of the team’s five hits.

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