Basketball: Fallout from Final 8 seedings

Today's Ottawa Citizen has reaction on the Final 8 seedings:
Dave DeAveiro, of No. 5-seeded Ottawa (which plays No. 4 Western): "It's frustrating. The three times we've been to nationals, we've been on the same side as Carleton. And I don't understand how all three teams from Ontario are on the same side. We've been playing each other all year and now we have to do it again. I don't understand how the decision came about, but it is what it is. You've got to beat everybody to win, anyways."

Dave Smart, of No. 1 Carleton (which could end up facing two teams it has beaten within the past seven days): "It's unfortunate because we basically have just played that tournament the last week."
The Citizen's report adds:
National Association of Basketball Coaches of Canada President James Hillis, a non-voting member of the committee, said voting members Mike Katz of Toronto, Craig Norman of McGill, Ross Quackenbush of Saint Mary's and Mike Connelly of Lethbridge felt "other factors" were more important than avoiding intra-conference matchups.

CIS seeding rules state that early-round games between teams from the same conference should be avoided where possible, but that should only be done "without affecting the integrity of the seeds," Hillis said. "We can't make decisions based strictly on marketing or any of those kinds of external things."
Yes and no. One of the strongest points came from cishoops.ca, which calls this "the latest in a series of decisions that seem to put fans and the marketing of the game we love in the background, the potential for six very intriguing quarter and semi-final matchups that would require coaches to prepare for new teams, players to get a taste of different, championship-level play from around the country and fans to watch contrasting styles of play with some mystery around how things might shape up is greatly diminished."

No disrespect, and we're all free to agree to disagree, but it's hard to see how you get that with 3 OUA teams on one half of the bracket. Mark Wacyk also said he would have seeded Ottawa third and UBC fourth just to break up the log jam. I wish I'd had the guts to say that on Saturday. Western did win its division and lost by 14 at home to Carleton in the playoffs, which is a toss-up with losing by 21 on the road.

Related:
Draw places Ottawa teams in rerun of playoffs; Basketball nationals see Ravens, Gee-Gees on same side of bracket (Wayne Kondro, Ottawa Citizen)
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15 comments:

  1. With all the talk about their draw, no one has mentioned Carleton having the unlucky draw of St.FX as the 8th seed. Had X taken care of business against Dal, they probably would have been a 4 or 5 seed. Instead, Carleton now gets a difficult 1st round matchup against an angry team that has been mired in controversey over the past few weeks. It will be interesting to see whether Konchalski decides to dress Richards, which could have a galvanizing effect and spark a first round upset.

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  2. I would say its more of a unlucky draw for stfx.Carleton is a power house a very deep and a very good team.While a up set is possible it would take stfx having there best game of the year and carleton to have a off game.Aslo carleton has one 22 in a row most with ease.

    Carleton 100
    Stfx
    82

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  3. I'm just saying that Carleton needs to focus on X before complaining about having to play Ott/Western again as X is musch better than their seed suggests. As for X, they're have no one to blame for their seed but themselves, and are fortunate to be in at all. But again, whether or not Richards is allowed to play will have a huge impact on the outcome.

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  4. Based upon the lack of success of Canada West teams over the last six seasons at Nationals how can Calgary and UBC be ranked #2 and #3?
    The "mighty T-Birds" have been lost their opening game in their last five apperances.
    The Conference is a combined 11-22 against other Conferences since Alberta won in 2001-02.
    Granted travel may have something to do with it, but in a results driven business it is pretty difficult to justify two CW teams in the top three.

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  5. What about the goofy Canada West playoff schedule especially for PacD teams?
    UBC has to win four games every year just to make it to the conference final four. OUA top seeds only have to win one.
    Then UBC (and Calgary) have to wait around for two weeks as the other tournaments wrap up. The CW needs to match its sched more closely to the other conferences if it wants its champs to play like champs at the final 8.
    That being said, if Calgary can shoot at nationals the way they did for most of the CW final 4, I think they'll steamroll everybody.

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  6. Don Horwood told me recently that this year's Calgary team has more talent then any of three Alberta National title teams.
    So evidently the Dinos have the tools to make a serious run.

    Bob Stauffer
    Alberta SID 2000-2006

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  7. Carleton hammered X in the Shoveller tournament by over twenty points.
    Having Richards might make it closer but Carleton would have to have a very poor game to lose.
    Clearly, this X team doesn't compare to the championship teams of 2000 and 2001 nor even recent teams with Gallimore, Bell and MacDonald.

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  8. That game in the Shoveller Tournament, X played without Richards and kept the game closer than the final score indicates. Without Richards, I don't think they have much of a chance, but should X somehow "complete their ivestigation" in time to decide he can dress, I think they might have a shot.

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  9. In the oua the top seed have to win2 games to win the oua.

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  10. As it turns out Richards won't play, so X stands a snowball's chance of advancing to the semis.
    I would have loved to listen in on that conference call between the three voting members of the committee.
    Somebody is the ringleader of this group and methinks it is Mr. Katz.
    It's no secret that the once friendly relationship between Mike Katz and former protege Dave DeAviero has soured ever since Ottawa U picked up their "ringer" from Syracuse.
    Ottawa U gets in the rear twice over by the committee.
    First, a tough first round match against another OUA team Western.
    Then, if they pull through, their reward is another meeting with those Ravens.
    Dave smart was right...it's the OUA playoffs in instant replay.
    Boo hiss to the seeding committee.

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  11. To the last poster, in a related note, DeAveiro and Katz were seen having lunch together today....

    WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ?????

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  12. I can't comment with any authority on this. The relationship between two coaches, far as I'm concerned, is personal business. So please don't drag people through the mud if you're not willing to sign a name.

    I admit I have heard grumbling about Wright having a year of eligibility reinstated, so he can play as a fifth-year man next season. But people have grumbled about Ottawa having a number of transfer students on several teams, not just men's basketball.

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  13. Do you think that people will grumble when Ottawa transfer Jackie Malette competes at the CIS track championship this weekend in Windsor?

    Malette, 22, born, raised and a three-year competitor at Windsor who earned six CIS medals, has a 10-foot mural of herself in the Lancers track facility, just off the finish line for the Canadian university indoor championships, under a large heading Tradition of Excellence.

    Malette is in Ottawa's Medical School studying to be an MD.

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  14. Probably not since, right or wrong, track and field isn't such a marquee sport. Also, she's going from a powerhouse program to one that's more emerging (with the Ottawa Lions close by and the Sport Etude program at Riel, no reason Ottawa couldn't do really well in track).

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  15. Ottawa Lions are more than just close by. The Gee Gees have a partnership with the Lions and in effect operate as an arm of the Lions. The Lions provide all the coaching and if I am not mistaken, cover all the Gee Gees travel expenses.
    In only their second season of operation the Gee Gees are in the CIS top ten in both men's and women's CIS track and field top ten. This in spite of the fact they they only have track athletes. Next season they will start to add field athletes as well.
    It is an interesting experiment in university athletics partnering with an off campus organization. Could be applied to some other sports in time, due to the ever present squeeze on athletic department budgets.

    OttawaFan

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