Sleeper Dogs

Mark Wacyk at the invaluable cishoops.ca, who knows what's out there for men's basketball probably better than anyone in Canada, has a couple surprises in his first Top 10 last season.

One is the Saskatchewan Huskies at No. 5. The U of S typically isn't throught of as a world-beater in basketball (notwithstanding women's national team member Sarah Crooks) and was just 13-9 in Canada West play last season. Mark notes they have a fifth-year point guard, Rob Lovelace, who's back after a year away, and as we all know, guard play wins, especially in late-season games.

The other big change from last season, seeing only one OUA East team ranked, segues into the argument some observers are making for expanding the national tournament from eight to 16 teams. Carleton will go to the CIS Final 8 as the host team for the next three years, which is well-earned, but there could be a lot of squawking if a team from elsewhere in Canada is left out when it's clearly stronger than whoever is going as the OUA East rep.

In fairness to the OUA East, the coaching at Ottawa, Toronto and York will keep those teams from falling too far.