Cal State Fullerton picked a very, very bad time to hit the skids. Not only were they the second seed in the College World Series, but they had a relatively easy draw as well – Arkansas is red hot, but they slumped badly heading into the postseason, and Virginia had never been in the CWS before. Two bad games, though, and it’s back to Fullerton for them. They lost a wild one to Arkansas for their first lost in the double elimination tourney, then waited too long to wake up and mount a comeback against Virginia today. They were heavy -280 favorites today, so people who could find a reason to back Virginia are happy campers right now. A best-of-one tournament like this is very hard to handicap, but it is brilliant to watch and it deserves more coverage and respect than it gets (though the coverage has improved infinitely recently).

I was honestly and truly surprised today to hear that Jodie Meeks has decided to stay in the draft instead of returning to Kentucky. I haven’t seen anyone who gives him more than an outside chance of making the first round, and if he returned to Kentucky the team would probably have been the first overall seed. He obviously has his reasons, but they aren’t at all apparent. I was less surprised that Austin Daye and Jeff Teague both stayed in, but I still wish that they had gone back for another year. That’s my bias, though – I’d rather watch a guy be a stud in college than ride the bench in the pros. With that in mind, I was very happy with the decisions of Luke Harangody and Greivis Vasquez to stay in school. Both guys are fun to watch.

Strange story out of Orlando. The Magic barely returned to Orlando after losing game five before Hedo Turkoglu, through his agent, announced that he was opting out of his contract to become a free agent. I’m not that surprised by the move, but the timing seems odd. You think you’d let things settle down a bit and let some of the playoff wounds heal a bit before you made this public. It’s not like there was anyhurry – he can’t do anything for two weeks. I might be reading too much into things, but it makes me wonder if things aren’t as rosy as they appear in Orlando. This doesn’t have the look and feel of a move a guy who was in love with his playing situation or respectful of the fans who support him would make.