Castor canadensis, baby!

I have to admit it: Before tonight's game, I didn't give the Oregon State Beavers men's basketball team much of a chance against the bigger, badder Oklahoma State. But the crew from Corn Valley pulled off an amazing win, which puts them into the Sweet 16 of the national tournament. Smell their sacs!

The Beavs will play another lowly upsetter, Loyola Chicago, in the next round, which starts on Saturday.

In other Sunday upsets, Oral Roberts (a.k.a. ISIS University) defeated the Florida Mar-a-Lagos, and Syracuse took out the West Virginia Manchin Munchkins. The first eight teams in the Round of 16, which are supposed to have been seeded 1-1-2-2-3-3-4-4, are in fact the teams seeded 1-2-3-5-8-11-12-15.

That is why they call it March Madness. Anybody with the actual surviving eight in their bracket is deranged.

I think the lack of big crowds in the stands is playing a role here. With the hot-shot schools unable to transport huge crowds to the games, it's just excellent players duking it out against each other in a gym with cameras. I think that's also how the Miami Heat made it to the finals in the pro game last summer. Fine with me.

Tomorrow we get four more Pac-12 men's teams in the mix for some Monday melees: Oregon, Colorado, USC, and UCLA. They've all got tough opponents, save UCLA, which is up against felow upsetter Abilene Christian. (Who?)

So far the Conference of Champions is 7 and 0 in the men's Big Dance.

Down in Texas, the Pac-12 women are also getting it done. Yesterday's first-round winners included Stanford and Oregon State. Alas, Washington State faltered at the end of their game against South Florida, winding up on the short end of a 57-53 decision. Tomorrow the women Ducks, UCLA, Arizona, and Arizona State all give it a go.