Click here for Jon Teitel’s interview with former Oklahoma head coach Billy Tubbs and Brian Schodorf (director/producer of “The Wayman Tisdale Story”) as it relates to former OU legend Wayman Tisdale
It became official last night – for the first time since 1975, the Ivy League has another postseason championship thanks to Columbia’s 73-67 win over UC-Irvine in New York City last night. Grant Mullins led the way for Columbia with 20 points, and CIT Tournament MVP Maolo Lo added 13 points for the Lions as well. Irvine did have a 53-48 lead at the under-8 timeout, but Columbia would go on a 17-4 run to take the lead for good.
Besides Maolo Lo, the Lions also had Mullins and Alex Rosenberg named to the All-CIT Championship team (with Luke Petrasek as an honorable mention), UC-Irvine had Mike Best and Alex Young on the championship team (Luke Nelson honorable mention). Elijah Wilson of Coastal Carolina and NJIT’s Damon Lynn were also named to the All-CIT Championship team; other honorable mentions were NJIT’s Ken Coleman and Grand Canyon’s Grandy Glaze.
As you go down Broadway from 116th Street at Columbia University down to 32nd street/Penn Station, there were also 2 NIT semifinal games played at the Garden last night. Valpo and BYU were tied in the final minute of the game, and the Crusaders’ David Skara hit a wide-open 3-pointer with under 20 seconds remaining to give Valpo a 3-point lead. BYU was able to get a 2-point shot on the next possession, but had to foul Valpo to extend the game. After making 1 of 2 free throws, BYU would have the last possession, but their final shot at a game-winner was cleanly blocked, and Valparaiso moved on to the championship with a 72-70 win over BYU.
Their opponent will be George Washington; in a role reversal in the NIT so far, it was not San Diego State who was able to make their opponent tap out with a suffocating defense, but it was the Colonial Army that held the Aztecs to a paltry 28.8% from the field on 17-for-59 shooting in a 65-46 GW victory. Tyler Cavanaugh led the GW parade with a 20-point/11-rebound performance, and Patricio Garino also had 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting for the Colonials.
CBI Championship Series (Game 2)
MOREHEAD STATE AT NEVADA (9:00 PM, ESPNU) – The Eagles held serve at home in Game 1 with an 86-83 victory on Monday night, but now travel for the final two games (if needed) to Reno to face the Wolf Pack in their own backyard. They should be well-attended by the locals; Nevada has had far and away the 3 biggest attendance figures with 4,524 fans in Round 1 against Nevada, 6,053 against Eastern Washington and 6,133 against Vermont. By comparison, the next largest crowd was 4,187 who attended Game 1 in Morehead, Kentucky.
OLD DOMINION VS. OAKLAND (10:00 PM, CBS Sports Network) – While UC-Santa Barbara was able to stay competitive with ODU for a half and briefly take the lead, it was clear that the Monarchs were large and in charge last night. Aaron Bacote led ODU with 26 points and 8 rebounds; Trey Freeman did get a double-double (18 pts, 10 rebounds) for the Monarchs. Their opponent will be the Oakland Golden Grizzlies; Oakland also pulled away from ETSU after a close first half; they ended up winning 104-81 thanks to a triple-double from Kay Felder (29 pts, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) and 28 points from Max Hooper in just 24 minutes of play. Did we forget to remind the public that they’re playing the games at the Mandalay Bay Arena? Plenty of tickets still remain.