– Baseball America and Perfect Game released their 2014 preseason college baseball rankings on Monday and Oregon received favorable ranks. Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt has the Ducks opening this season at No. 11, while Perfect Game’s Kendall Rogers slotted Oregon at No. 9. In-state rival Oregon State are ranked No. 2 by BA and No. 3 by PG. Both rankings have Virginia as the preseason No. 1. The Ducks open the season on Feb. 14 in Honolulu against the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
– Josh Huff sat out Saturday’s Reese’s Senior Bowl after generating buzz during practices earlier in the week. Optimum Scouting raved about Huff’s day 3 practice, dubbing Huff the “receiver of the day” from the North team. Fox Sports college football analyst Coy Wire was also impressed by Huff, saying that the Oregon wideout had the best agility of any of the athletes at the Senior Bowl. Huff tweeted shortly before the game that he wouldn’t play due to precautionary reasons. The NFL scouting combine will take place Feb. 22 to Feb. 25 and the NFL draft will begin on May 8.
– Former Duck Galen Rupp broke the American indoor two-mile record by running 8:07.41 at Saturday night’s Boston University’s Terrier Classic. Rupp regained the title of the fastest American two-miler, as he had set the record back in 2012 before Bernard Lagat lowered the mark to 8:09.49 last year. It was second American record Rupp had set in a 10-day period, as he shattered the American indoor 5,000-meter record on Jan. 16. Rupp came through 1,600 meters at an astonishing 4:01.6, just under world-record pace (the world record is 8:04.35, set by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele in 2008) before lagging a bit over the second half of the race. Rupp took just 15 minutes of rest to sign autographs before cranking out a post-race workout of five one-mile repeats. He finished his final rep in 4:01.
– The Oregon men’s basketball team snapped its five-game losing streak on Sunday night with a 71-44 win over Washington State. After struggling on defense for the majority of conference play, the Ducks held the Cougars to just 10-of-40 from the floor. The 44 points was the lowest point total that Oregon allowed in a game this season. Leading the way offensively for the Ducks was Jason Calliste, who scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting off the bench. Oregon’s next game is at home against UCLA Thursday night at 6 p.m.
Follow Chris Mosch on Twitter @chris_mosch