Men's b-ball: UBC, St. FX slip up; Trinity Western takes out two ranked teams

When the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the country lose, there is the potential for some shakeup in the rankings. Trinity Western is an emerging story after beating No. 2 UBC and No. 8 UVic, which frankly, for RPI addicts, is not a stunner.
  1. Carleton – No problems in either game, 81-68 win over Toronto and 96-60 over Ryerson. Stu Turnbull was huge with 25 points and 15 rebounds vs. U of T and had a 20-point outing vs. the Rams.

    The Ravens play their next four on the road — Laurentian, York, RMC, Queen's — before the Jan. 28 Capital Hoops Classic vs. Ottawa at Scotiabank Place.
  2. UBC – The T-Birds needed 2½ quarters to find their form Saturday before rallying for a 79-67 home win over Simon Fraser, their likely first-round playoff foe.

    Josh Whyte (23 points), Brent Malish (15, all in the second half) and Kyle Watson (12 points, eight rebounds in 20 minutes after being taken out of the starting lineup) picked up the slack offensively for the T-Birds. They had a 51-point second half despite Chris Dyck not having his stroke (on the night, he shot 1-of-7 for five points with five assists and four turnovers). It should be uplifting that they didn't have to rely on their star scorer after being down seven points at halftime.

    As for Thursday's 87-78 loss to Trinity Western, giving up a 21-2 run to the Spartans is a real concern. A second-ranked team should be able to do something to stanch the bleeding in that situation -- a big shot, a huge defensive stop, a hard foul.

    Jacob Doerksen had 30 points, 14 rebounds for TWU, while Louis Hurd scored all 14 of his points in the final quarter. The T-Birds best player, Chris Dyck, scored only two points after the break.
  3. St. Francis Xavier – They overcame Acadia and Leo Saintil — 42 points, 19 rebounds; he's apparently back in fighting trim — to win 109-90 in overtime on Saturday, snapping a two-game slide. Christian Upshaw had 28 points and Terrence Taylor scored 20 on 9-of-15 shooting.

    X had 23 turnovers when it lost Thursday, 76-74 to Saint Mary's, which got a 27-point night from Joey "King Handles" Haywood and 25 from Mark McLaughlin. Those two make the Huskies awfully dangerous, notwithstanding questions about balance.
  4. Ottawa – The new guard, Josh Wright, torched Toronto for 28 points in 29 minutes Saturday, leading the Gee-Gees to an 80-72 win. Wright's addressed Ottawa's depth questions quite nicely.

    Josh Gibson-Bascombe had 22 points and dropped eight assists Friday in a 98-63 blowout over Ryerson. Donnie Gibson, whose shooting will give the Gee-Gees the chance to run a three-guard lineup with him, Wright and JGB, scored 17 points on a 6-of-9 shooting in that game, including 3-for-6 from three-point land.
  5. Calgary – Henry who? The Dinos got it done without Henry Bekkering, who's still sitting out with a strained neck, sweeping Saskatchewan 76-50 and 77-71 at home. Tyler Fidler put the U of C on his back in the second game, scoring 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting.

    Jordan Flagel, a receiver on the Dinos football team, has joined coach Dan Vanhooren's team. He played eight minutes Friday. Calgary's got a big test coming up on the Jan. 23-24 weekend, when they have two B.C. teams coming in, Simon Fraser and Trinity Western.
  6. Windsor – A rough week got worse with Saturday's 73-70 home loss to Waterloo, which got 19 points from Cam McIntyre and a 13-point, nine-rebound, three-block (!) night from big man Matt Hayes.

    Windsor shot just 36% and was credited for just seven assists on their 23 baskets (and that was at home, where the scorekeepers generally are not stingy with the dimes).

    Chris Oliver's team needs to get it together. They're at McMaster next week. The young Marauders (10-4, 7-3 OUA) have won six straight to move up to second in the OUA West, although only one of those wins was over a .500 or better team (Queen's, which is now up to 6-5).

  7. Concordia – Still aren't back in action until Jan. 16 vs. McGill.
  8. UVic – The 87-83 loss to Trinity Western was their second this season to the Spartans, whom UVic will likely face in the first round of the playoffs.

    The Spartans got 26 points from Brian Banman and Louis Hurd scored 24, with both canning five threes. Trinity, as noted, seems awfully dangerous.

    Cyril Indome kept the Vikes in the game, scoring 22 points on 7-of-8 three-point shooting. All told, the teams tried 60 threes and made 28; the refs just know might be getting the feeling back in their arms.

    UVic's depth was also evident Friday, when Jeff Cullen had 19 points in 22 minutes off the bench in a 78-53 win over Simon Fraser.
  9. Western – The 'Stangs are so loaded that they can beat Guelph by 30 (80-50 on Saturday afternoon) with 22 turnovers and 44% free-throw shooting. If the talent's there, those fundamentals should come around in good time. Brad Smith totalled 18 points and 11 rebounds despite playing just 24 minutes as coach Brad Campbell used all 12 players.

    Western has a trip to Waterloo next Wednesday, which should be a good one.
  10. Dalhousie – Guard Simon Farine (31 points of 11-of-18 shooting) carried the Tigers in a 66-48 win Saturday over UNB; it doesn't sound like it would have been much of a game to watch.

    Sixth man Yannick Walcott's 11 points off the bench was an X factor in a 78-74 win over Acadia Thursday. The former star at Northern in Toronto no doubt adds a certain something to the Tigers' offence.
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8 comments:

  1. UBC and X haven't fallen that much in RPI yet (the weekend is young...), but with that one win, Trinity Western moved up three spots to 4th place in RPI.

    Tonight's TWU-UVic game should be good.

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  2. Western is bigger, better and deeper than Windsor. I'm convinced.

    Guelph is awful. I'm convinced.

    Ok, not awful. Just average.

    Guelph hit 16 of 61 shots. The Gryphons all but quit in the third quarter.

    Back to Western; the Stangs are incredibly athletic. They're scary good.

    I'll have more on the Gryphons' woes in the Mercury on Monday.

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  3. Neate you might have missed the real story.... if Ott and Carl keep winning, Capital Hoops Classic should be #1 vs. #2 in the nation...

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  4. It's possible, but I'd rather wait to see what Rob's RPI calculations say on Tuesday.

    It did cross my mind that Carleton is the undisputed No. 1 team, and other than Trinity, no one seems to be playing better than Ottawa.

    What can I say?

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  5. I hate to spoil the surprise, but Ottawa probably won't be #2 on Tuesday. It'll take more than a loss to a pretty good team to drop UVic and UBC. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to see TWU ranked above uOttawa.

    I guess Waterloo figured a loss to Brock and a win over Windsor would bring more attention than the other way around. And keep an eye on Hayes: if this team has any playoff success this year, he'll be in the middle of it.

    Not to sound ungrateful, but with Western coming to town, it will be a novel experience to finally go down to the PAC and watch two contending teams.

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  6. Ottawa, Carleton at the end of the month should be a treat!

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  7. I would be very surprised if the coaches poll on Tuesday didn't have Carleton & Ottawa ranked #1 and #2

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  8. Indeed , the coaches poll this Tuesday does have carleton and Ottawa at #1 and #2

    MEN'S BASKETBALL
    (regular season record) / (votes - first place) / (previous rankings)

    1. Carleton (9-1) / 504 votes - 42 / (1)
    2. Ottawa (9-1) / 452 / (4)
    3. UBC (13-2) / 406 / (2)
    4. Calgary (12-2) / 373 / (5)
    5. StFX (7-1) / 364 / (3)
    6. Concordia (4-2) / 266 / (7)
    7. Western Ontario (8-2) / 235 / (9)
    8. Windsor (6-4) / 195 / (6)
    9. Dalhousie (6-2) / 175 / (10)
    10. Victoria (10-5) / 129 / (8)

    ReplyDelete