Basketball: Ravens to face St. John's in September

Confirming an earlier report at Out of Left Field, coach Dave Smart's Carleton Ravens will face a Big East team in September, the St. John's Red Storm.

As per the press release, the game is on Sept. 6, the Sunday of Labour Day weekend. It would follow that St. John's would probably play Ottawa.

The St. John's-Carleton game will be at the Ravens' Nest. Scotiabank Place is booked for an Aerosmith concert that weekend. It's a downer not to have the games at that venue, but ultimately a big arena rock band is a better seller, even if Aerosmith is well past it. (If you were ever in doubt about Ottawa's musical tastes, last week KISS drew a crowd of 30,000 and Green Day got 8,000. KISS wasn't even good when they were the same age as the members of Green Day.)

The Red Storm were 16-18 last season, but are considered a "veteran team" (New York Daily News). In terms of hoops celebrity, one of their main forwards is 6-foot-7 Anthony Mason Jr., son of the former New York Knicks player. Mason is coming off an ankle injury and St. John's coach Norm Roberts noted the Canada trip will give him a chance to get back to game speed, so hopefully he would play extended minutes.

Carleton has a history with the Big East. They hosted Villanova, which went to the Final Four last season, at the start of 2007-08. They also took Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals to overtime in September 2006 and if memory serves, both they and the Gee-Gees have travelled south to play Cincinnati.

Carleton's release also confirmed a game on Aug. 18 vs. the Towson Tigers, as also previously noted. The Tigers will play a Ravens alumni team on Aug. 17, face the Ottawa Gee-Gees that night and face the Ravens the following evening.

On the women's side, coach Taffe Charles' Ravens will host two D-1 teams, Fairleigh Dickinson and Vermont, on Aug. 27-28, both 8 p.m. tip-offs at the Ravens' Nest. The latter game should be a homecoming for Vermont senior guard Courtnay Pilypaitis, a St. Peter alumna who led the Catamounts to the America East conference title and the NCAA Tournament last season. Vermont is also playing a game in Waterloo, since that's the hometown of another of their starters, May Kotsopoulos.
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13 comments:

  1. And Oshawa has chosen Kiss to open their new arena in the fall. The thing is Green day does not have TV program, Family Jewels, hyping the band week after week. Kiss does. The market place is all about hype and constant publicity. The Shannon Tweed Day stuff worked to Kiss' advantage as it resulted in articles in the media every day hyping Kiss and none hyping Green Day. Maybe the CIS should hire the Kiss marketing guys to teach them how to do it. There were a number of bands at Bluesfest that play better music than Kiss , but really good marketing often wins the day over the actual quality of the product. You have to make a lot of noise, pardon the pun, in the marketplace if you want to draw attention to your product. CIS take note.

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  2. Your sources suck.

    And by the way: "CIS take note" :) :) :) :) :) ....................:) :) :) :) :) :)

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  4. Neate, comparing the KISS crowd to Green Day is like comparing apples to oranges. KISS was an open air concert on the expansive grounds of Lebreton Flats, while Green Day was at SBP, which could hold maybe 18,000 tops.
    Also, KISS has a multiple generation fan base.
    Simmons himself turns SIXTY next month, and many original KISS fans who were high schoolers in the 70's are in their early to mid 50's now.
    Green Day on the other hand, while still a good band, always had a more limited appeal than an act like KISS.
    GD grew out of the punk movement, and when they went mainstream, they actually lost much of their original fan base.
    The fact that KISS drew a big crowd here certainly isn't unique to Ottawa, bands like them and Aerosmith will always draw big anywhere because of those reasons I have already mentioned.

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  5. You're right, I'm being very glib comparing the two. I should have pointed out Sheryl Crow and Coldplay, pretty popular acts, have also failed to sell out SBP. Neil Young didn't come here on his current tour. I know because I have the T-shirt from his Kingston show, which sold out.

    Anyway, the KISS phenomenon is proof Boomers are pathologically nostalgic. I don't listen to the same stuff I did in high school.

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  6. There was some earlier criticism when you pre-announced this St. John's visit... the source sucks comment was a sarcastic reference to that earlier note

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  7. Man, I'm so sorry. I've deleted my earlier comment. I wasn't sure earlier.

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  8. I didn't feel like it was criticism earlier. Wayne Kondro is 'the source' in the Ottawa media for basketball; if people want to wait to hear it from, that's fine.

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  9. So you don't listen to the same stuff you used listen toin HS anymore?
    Well, if you went to high school in the 80's I can understand why.
    Between those ghastly hair bands like Platinum Blonde and Honeymoon Suite and
    those incredibly annoying techtronic groups like Human League and Soft Cell, I would try to expunge memories of 80's music from my mind, too.
    Oh yeah, and who can forget the likes of Corey Hart, Men Without Talent...er Hats, Adam Ant, Bonnie Tyler, Luba,
    Motley Crue, Jefferson Starship and Canada's own Alotta Myles?
    God knows, I've tried.

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  10. I don't listen to the same stuff I did in high school.

    --and you won't until your 50+. Wait for it.

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  11. I'm going to assume those steroids Bill James says we'll all be taking in 30 years will also help keep you current with music. Or at least curious enough to find other artists that you might have missed in your younger days.

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  12. -and if they keep the average man living to 120 you will have a lot of music to catch up on.

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  13. Speaking of men who live to 120....does anyone know when and where the Stones are touring next?

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