Hoops: TWU axes coach, new blog

Looks like most of the hoops news is coming out of Canada West the past few days:

  • Coaches being fired at mid-season is really more commonplace in the NHL, but the Trinity Western Spartans have fired coach Stan Peters. It's curious, mainly for the timing, plus the fact the Spartans (4-8) had won three of five going into the break.

    Peters, as cishoops.ca noted at the outset of the season, lost fifth-year seniors Brian Banman and Jon Schmidt to injuries before the season. Thing is, Peters was just 107-168 in 8 1/2 years at the Langley, B.C., school. None of TWU's wins this season have been over teams with winning records.

    There might some realization on TWU's part that if it's going to get serious about basketball, now's the time to make a move. It's a tough division with the three urban schools -- UBC, UVic and Simon Fraser -- and Barnaby Craddock now being at Fraser Valley.
  • David Larkins of the Brandon Sun and Jeremy Sawatzky, a radio and TV guy in western Manitoba, have started a CIS-themed blog, The Scrum Brandon. It looks promising, especially their podcast, which is a great development.

    One small quibble is their contention that Carleton doesn't merit a host bid into the next three Final 8s. Who else has won five straight CIS basketball titles lately?

    Consider it karmic payback for 2002. Dave Smart's Ravens, No. 2 in the country, were upset in the OUA East final by York, but had no shot at the wild card since it was designated to Canada West before the season even started. Alberta, the eventual national champion, also got upset in a game to go to nationals, but it had the wild card to fall back on without it going before a committee. They might have picked Alberta still, but we'll never know.

    The OUA, minus Carleton, will have two spots for its 15 other teams, a lower percentage than for 14-team Canada West, which has plenty of teams this year who are going to have a good shot thge wild card.

    The OUA East, meantime, is not assured of two berths for its eight teams, which the Atlantic conference was during all the years Halifax played host.
  • cishoops.ca has a post on Brennan Jarrett, a freshman swingman for the Saskatchewan Huskies who's been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Wish him well.

UPDATE: The Vancouver Province has more on the TWU coaching change.

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3 comments:

  1. WOW! Where do you get the notion "none of TWU's wins were over teams with winning records?" Perhaps you should contact UBC, UVIC, Brandon and others and they'll correct this quickly, in both league and playoff competition. In fact, former UVIC standout Chris Trumpy didn't win a single game in TWU's gym in his 5 year career vs. TWU under Peters. This whole thing is brutal enough without misinformation like this.

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  2. Well, the league standings from this year -- which was what that line is in reference to -- show that TWU is 4-8.

    Their wins came over:

    Fraser Valley (5-7)
    Manitoba (1-9)
    Thompson Rivers (1-11)
    Lethridge (0-10)

    Comments like this are why I am 99% done with my main blog.

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  3. Thanks for the correction to your original blog...I believe the quote in my post came from a copy and paste of your wording which followed his overall win/loss record which made it look like none of his career wins came against teams with winning records. Apologies if I'm mistaken. TWU heads into a much lighter schedule after Christmas (8 of 12 games in the fall were on the road, with 4 of them against teams that were ranked top 10 at the time (UVIC, UBC, Brandon, Calgary). Good point that they finished 3/5 before the break and you're right, those wins came against weaker teams. The team has suffered unprecedented injuries but are on the mend. Keep writing.

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