Basketball: Men's Top 10 tracker; UBC finally loses; scare for St. FX, Lancers hammer Lakehead but only get split

  1. UBC Thunderbirds (14-1 CW Pacific, 1st RPI) — Young Bucholtz took in the 'Birds bounce-back 77-68 win over Simon Fraser on Saturday, which could be the last game of any kind for a while between the teams (due to cross-over playoffs and things of that nature).

    The 82-79 loss to the Clan on Thursday is broken out elsewhere.

  2. Carleton (15-1 OUA-E, 2nd RPI) — Surprising tight outcome (78-70 win) over Ryerson on Saturday, but it was their third game in four nights plus Kevin McCleery (14 in 19 minutes) was limited before fouling out. Boris Bakovic had 31 for Ryerson — which wasn't even the best night by a guy playing in a game in Ottawa on Saturday.

    Fun fact: the Carleton men and women each had five double-digit scorers on Saturday and Ottawa had a player score 30 or more in each of its games. Crazy coincidence.

    McCleery went for at least 20 in Carleton's first two games: 22 in a 75-53 win over Toronto on Friday and 24 two nights earlier when Carleton beat Ottawa 74-66 in the Capital Hoops Classic.

    Talk about taking away the other team's best scoring guard: Toronto's Nick Magalas was held to six (27 less than he had in the first U of T-Carleton game) on Friday and Ottawa's Josh Gibson-Bascombe had just 13 (seven below his average).

    On Wednesday, up 15 coming out of recess, Carleton sagged a bit at the start of the second half when Ottawa made a 14-2 run to get within three. Cole Hobin got a big old-fashioned three-point play, tipping home an in-and-out Thompson shot as part of a 15-3 run to cancel out the Ottawa surge.

    There was a bit of a fatigue factor, since Hobin had to guard Gibson-Bascombe, who played all 40 minutes. The Ravens turned it over a bit — 16 turnovers, half of which were attributed to McCleery — so they weren't as efficient as they would have liked.

  3. St. Francis Xavier (13-0 AUS, 3rd RPI)Beat UPEI on Sunday by a closer margin (91-85) than you would like to see, with Christian "T-Bear" Upshaw gutting out a 25-point, eight-assist, five-steal day (six turnovers and just 6-of-21 shooting). UPEI, which played St. FX even for the first three quarters, shot an effective 56.7% to put a scare into the X-Men. Ottawa native Manock Lual had 27 for the Panthers.

    Jeremy Dunn
    and Chad Warren each had 18 points in a romp over UNB (95-78) on Saturday.


    Smushed Saint Mary's by 36 points on Wednesday (95-59), with Charlie Spurr leading a three-point bridage by making 6-of-9 for all of his team-high 18 points. Other popout stat is 7-foot-2 Riiny Ngot having four blocked shots in 12 minutes.

  4. Cape Breton (11-1 AUS, 4th RPI) — Anyone in Sydney who likes seeing a lot of points got their money's worth. The Capers hit a hundred in both games vs. Memorial (118-72 on Saturday, 106-70 on Sunday). The generosity extended to the scorer's table; Cape Breton was credited with 31 assists on 37 baskets on Sunday and 22 steals.

    The Capers seem to have smooth sailing from here until Feb. 17, when they play two in a row vs. St. FX.

  5. Ottawa (14-3 OUA-E, 9th RPI) — Two out of three was pretty good; they beat Toronto (89-69) and Ryerson (82-73) after losing early on in the week to Carleton (74-66).

    Warren Ward had a career night vs. U of T, scoring 38 points on 15-of-20. He made 11-of-12 in the first half, including all three of his triples, to finish with 25 at the break. His eye-popping statline probably shows how far Josh Gibson-Bascombe (19 points, nine assists on Saturday) has come with getting teammates involved.

    All told, WWJD (or Gibson's Finest Worldwide") scored 69% of Ottawa's points this week by our count. The Gee-Gees' glass half full is they only lost to Carleton by eight (74-66) despite Gibson-Bascombe (13 points, nine assists) not scoring his first basket until the game was 33 minutes old. The big three (JGB, Ward and Donnie Gibson) was 2-of-16 shooting in the opening half. They showed some character, not to mention their talent, in making a third-quarter run.

  6. Calgary (12-4 CW Prairie, 6th RPI) — In progress vs. Regina. Jarred Ogunbemi-Jackson (28 points, six assists) led the way in Friday's 91-74 Dinos win over the Cougars. (Speaking of that nickname, did anyone else notice Washington State has "Cougs" on the front of its basketball uniforms? Too slangy.)

  7. Simon Fraser (12-3 CW Pacific, 4th RPI) — See No. 1. They're in a pretty good position to challenge for one of Canada West's two playoff berths, or a Final 8 wild card.

    (One small note/face-saving move: Canada West is actually different from other conferences with tiebreakers; it uses records within the divisions instead of head-to-head. UBC and Simon Fraser are each 6-1 within the Pac-D (the Clan had two losses to Prairie teams), so if the T-Birds stumbled ... just sayin'.)

  8. Lakehead (12-4 OUA-W, 8th RPI) — The good news: They're still first in OUA West after losing by more than 20 (87-65) at Windsor on Saturday, thanks to the heroics of Jamie Searle (29 points, seven three-pointers) in an 89-87 OT win over the Lancers on Friday.

    Searle went from sick shooting to sic transit gloria — he was 0-for-8 from the field in the second game. Lakehead made 30 three-pointers in the two games. You can imagine how few two-point shots they hit on Saturday.

    A good debate starter: Is every team in the OUA West good, or is every team just about average? On the whole, you prefer a league with no sure things.

    Lakehead is at home for two of the final three weekends. Their road trip is to Brock.

  9. Windsor (11-5 OUA-W, 7th RPI)Isaac Kuon (26 points Friday, 24 on Saturday) was paramount in both games as the Lancers didn't get the full result they were seeking, but a gained a tiebreaker advantage over Lakehead. They seem to be slightly more consistent of the OUA West leaders, but the division has been so volatile there are four teams you could imagine making it to the Final 8 (and the OUA play-in game, should one be required, is West-hosted).

  10. Dalhousie (9-5 AUS, 18th RPI) — Held both their opponents under 60 this weekend, beating UNB (69-55) on Sunday and UPEI (76-58) the day before. Joseph Schow had 20 points in the Sunday game; Andrew Sullivan totalled 27 for the weekend, making 7-of-12 threes. When he's on, Dal can be daunting.

    Saturday, Simon Farine scored 26 and the Tigers' D limited the Panthers to an effective 37% from the field.
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36 comments:

  1. I think there might be five teams better suited to that No. 10 position than Dalhousie.

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  2. Winner of Windsor-Lakehead likely finishes first.
    Windsor needs to win 2 here...given that they are home.

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  3. I predict a split in favour of LU... either way these games are going to be close!

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  4. I think Lakehead has been punching above its weight all season long.
    They are relatively young and that will factor in sooner or later.
    They could have made this series against Windsor almost irrelevant had they
    swept Guelph and Laurier like they should have.
    Windsor has slipped up this season as well, though, losing to Waterloo and Queen's at home.
    The Lancers have to realize their destiny is in their own hands and
    a sweep of Lakehead all but assures home floor advantage throughout the OUA West playoffs.

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  5. Windsor has done well considering they lost Surmacz. I think the Lancers are on track for 16-6 at best and likely 15-7.

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  6. I cant believe that the main focus isn't on the battle of ottawa. The team that wins this game gains control of the OUA East and will probably own the top seed come playoff time.
    If its a battle of the guards then Ottawa U is definately the favorite.
    Carleton loses to Lakehead and then the next night Ottawa beats Lakehead by 25+.

    Gibson-Bascombe and Donny Gibson have to be the best 1-2 guard combonation in the CIS.

    Carleton will have to rely on the 3's like they have all season.
    Either way...will definately be tuned to SSN Canada on Wednesday night.

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  7. If you are in the Ottawa area and have Roger's Cable you can watch the big game on Roger's Community Channel 22. The men's game will be shown live at 8. The women's game will be shown on a delayed basis immediately after the men's game.
    Ottawa Citzen says that 7,500 tickets were sold as of noon Monday, so 10,000 is reachable by game time.

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  8. @10:03, yeah, we really didn't mention Carleton-Ottawa other than in the first sentence of the post. This is more of a survey of what's coming up this week and we try to show what's going on across the country.

    Interesting point about Carleton's reliance on the 3-ball, though. They're making 9.2 per game Last season, though, the Ravens made 9.8 threes per game. Really, you're just seeing a continuation of last season's trend.

    For anyone wondering, Carleton averaged 7.0 3FG in 2007-08, 8.8 in 2006-07 and 8.9 in '05-06. The year that was not like the other was also the one where they didn't win the national championship.

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  9. Cantankerous1/26/2010 11:35 pm

    To Anon 10:03...
    First of all, the leading scorer for Carleton is Kevin McCleery, their post.
    Last year, when Aaron Doornekamp was out with an injury and Dax Desserault
    had a chance to shine, McCleery schooled him in every facet of the game.
    The Gees-Gees posts are young and will have their hands full with McCleery and Tyson Hinz.
    Maybe Ottawa has the best 1-2 guard combo but Carleton goes 4 deep
    with Kenny, Manigat, Thompson and Cole Hobin at the guard position.
    And even if Carleton loses Wednesday, Ottawa has to face Carleton again next month at the Raven's Nest.
    However if Ottawa loses tomorrow, its a 2 game lead for Carleton and pretty much all she wrote for the Gee Gees finishing 1st.

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  10. It's really unbelievable that we have to wait till mid February before
    we get to see the two best teams in the AUS clash.
    X and Cape Breton have not only been winning, but crushing opponents in the process.
    Too bad there is only one assured berth for the AUS.
    X or Cape Breton must surely be the wild card choice.

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  11. There is a good reason why X and CB are crushing opponents, every one else stinks . It's a joke that Dal is ranked 10th. There are 10 teams not ranked that are better than them . X and Cb are quality teams that play in a very weak conference .

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  12. X and CB are excellent teams, right up there with the top five teams in the contry.

    Dal has only lost two games outside their conference both to teams in the top 10 (Ottawa and Calgary).

    Dal is a boderline top 10 team...there are not 10 teams outside the top 10 that can beat them.

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  13. Lakehead wins by 2 in OT. That was the good news. The bad news was that they blew an 8 point lead in the last 90 seconds of the 4th to allow Windsor to force OT. Searle was huge for LU with 29 points.

    I'm worried about LU's ability to finish games - they've had trouble in recent weeks.

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  14. At least the AUS has two good teams.
    The QSSF is without doubt, the worst conference in the country, maybe the worst ever.
    One thing the "Q" doesn't stand for is quality.
    I saw Bishop's play two weekends in a row in Ottawa.
    They sucked, although UPEI was even worse if you can believe it.
    Carleton obliterated them by 53 points.
    The fact the Gaiters actually beat UQAM, supposedly the QSSF's best team tells
    you all you need to know about that league.

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  15. Teams better than DAL not in top 10 SM , TO , MAC , QUEENS , WATERLOO , WESTERN, TW, REGINA . CB has only beat 3 teams who have been in top 10 all below them, Ottawa in exhibition( 2nd game of year )and DAl ,SM both questionable top 10 teams . Not good enough to be ranked 4th in country . Dal wins against Ont. teams were teams that will have trouble making post season. East should not have 3 teams in top 10 or 2 in the top 5 .

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  16. Dal is not a top 10 team and never should have been in the first place.
    Their 15-8 overall CIS record isn't so hot when you break it down.
    Of their fifteen wins, none were against teams that were top 10 ranked at any time this season.
    In fact the Tiggers' record against top 10 teams is 0-7.
    Every time they played X or CB this year, they had their heads handed to them.
    Only against Calgary did they rlose by less than 10.
    Ottawa U clobbered them during their Shoveller tournament.
    Of their 7 AUS wins four were against MUN, two against Acadia and one against UNB.
    Dal got its ranking by beating second and third rate teams but against
    top tier teams, they fold.

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  17. I know teams generally get better as the season moves forward but St. FX went through Ontario in October. Beat Brock but lost to Mac and Guelph. Both Brock & Guelph will be fighting to make the post season. I agree with a previous comment that both X and CB are good teams in a bad conference. If the AUS gets a wild card, I don't think it'll be reflective of the top teams in the country, not to mention a Quebec team will be already be there.

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  18. To any Lakehead fans I say simply this. Enjoy the ride and quit qriping. Yes, it is a young team but so what? They are playing great and this season is the best in 25 years...enjoy the ride...Windsor is also a young team and I think these two teams will have a lot of great games over the next few years...Great job by the Windsor play by play team of Kieran and CJ...

    Mike Aylward

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  19. Talking about wild cards, CW will definitely be in the mix as SFU, Calgary, and UBC are probably all top 6 teams. I guess it depends how high the two AUS schools stick.

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  20. Regarding this site's RPI.
    You need to check your Lakehead W-L record as you are missing 1 Lakehead victory.

    Their current record is 12-4 in League play and 4-1 in CIS non-conference for a total result of 16-5 after this weekend's play. They were 15-4 before this weekend's play, not 14-4 as listed in the RPI.

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  21. With Lakehead not sweeping Guelph last week, Windsor's schedule is set up for them to win the OUA West. L.U. should still finish second. Any idea if and or when Lakehead ever hosted a playoff game in the OUA?

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  22. for Windsor to finish first....no less than 16-6

    they must win all remaining games at home (UG, WLU, Ma)

    take 2/3 on the road (Wat, UG, WLU)

    very do able.

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  23. Their current record is 12-4 in League play and 4-1 in CIS non-conference for a total result of 16-5 after this weekend's play.

    I don't suppose you'd care to enlighten me as how they got that 4-1 record, would you? I have them at 3-1 in non-conference play; I could only find four games (three of which were against Brandon), which is actually quite a feat given that their website only lists three non-conference games.

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  24. Mac Should get that 10th spot

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  25. Regarding the Carleton Ryerson game, the Ravens definitely showed signs
    of fatigue, at least of the mental kind in their uncomfortably close win.
    In Toronto, Bakovic got himself tossed early and as a result Carleton romped.
    This time, he kept his temper and mouth in check and in turn kept his team in the game.
    The Ryerson starters actually outscored the Carleton starters by a significant margin.
    That was due to the fact the Ravens starting five, Kenny and McCleery especially, were
    plagued by serious foul trouble, and sat on the bench for long stretches.
    However, as is always the case with Ryerson, lack of bench scoring did them in.
    Carleton's non starters outscored Ryerson's bench 27-5, with
    Willie Manigat and Aaron Chapman scoring 10 each.
    Carleton guard Elliot Thompson, who led Carleton in scoring with 15,
    described his team's performance as "brutal".
    It was sloppy and sub par, but that might be because it was Carleton's 3rd game in 4 days.
    NCAA Div 1 teams wouldn't dream of scheduling like that.

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  26. Rob...
    Lakehead is indeed 4-1 in NC play.
    They played 3 games against Brandon in October, winning two.
    Then they competed in the Wesmen tournament Dec 28-30.
    They beat Laval, Bishop's and Minot state to win it.
    Check Martin Timmerman's site.

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  27. Bishop's indeed beat UQAM...in OT. The fact is that Bishop's is starting to "gel", so is McGill (with both team having huge loses...Zanaty, Anthony and Nicolas just to name a few).

    I don't think there are powerhouses in the Q this year, so you are right on this point. Still, I think that every team (except Concordia), would be a "middle of the pack" team in ANY other conference, and could have a great run in the Nationals (don't forget, UQAM took Carleton to a 3 point game in 2006...even if they had a losing record coming in the Nationals.)

    By the way, it's funny how many anonymous posts there are in here.

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  28. Lakehead has never hosted an OUA home play-off game, nor have they had a plus .500 record in conference play since joining the OUA.

    Windsor has to win 1 more game than Lakehead the rest of the way to finish 1st. If Lakehead goes 4-2, Windsor must go 5-1, etc.

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  29. Windsor:
    UG, WLU, Mac...at home
    @UG, @WLU, @Wat

    Lakehead:
    UWO, Wat at home..
    @ Brock

    I would be surprised if Lakehead lost to Waterloo. The Warriors haven't been playing well as of late. I can see the Stangs and Brock splitting. Windsor will certainly have to finish 5-1 for a shot at first. I just don't envision Lakehead going anything less than 4-2. Perhaps the Badgers can sweep the Thunderwolves, but I just don't see it happening. Windsor had their chance at home but didn't get it done.

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  30. Well, I would be surprised Lakehead would lose to Waterloo,
    but then again, I was surprised Lakehead lost to Guelph at home.
    In their last six games, the T-Wolves are only a .500 team, and
    apart from their crucial OT win in Windsor, haven't played especially well.
    Perhaps, the Lakehead Locomotive is slowing down a bit.
    Windsor can still catch them but realistically they'll have to run the table
    from here on out and hope Lakehead falters in at least one game.

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  31. Cantankerous2/01/2010 5:21 pm

    Once again, Dal chews up a couple of AUS weak sisters.
    Thank god for MUN. UPEI and UNB for artificially inflating Dal's bogus record,
    and thereby keeping Dalhousie in the Top 10.
    Truth is, whenever they play anybody "good", ei, ranked in the Top 10
    like CB or X or even Ottawa, these Tigers have as much bite as a whale shark.
    I saw UPEI play at Carleton's House-Laughton and they were awful.
    They even got hammered by Bishop's.
    Easily the poorest coached and most disorganized team I've seen this year.
    I thought to myself as I watched them surely they have to be the worst team in the AUS this season.
    I was wrong.
    The fact is, UNB and MUN are even worse than they are.
    So far this season Dalhousie has collected 7 of their 9 conference wins
    against this mighty triumverate of greatness.
    Their five losses all were against X and CB and all weren't close.
    If they are still in the top 10 this week, that's proof you can indeed fool all the people all the time.

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  32. If you take out pre-season games, Dalhousie would have a record of 10-7. UQAM / Lava would be 9-4. Not saying they deserve a TOP 10 spot, but Dalhousie doesn't deserve one to me.

    People say that the Q is weak/average...but so is the AUS (minus StFX and Cape Breton)

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  33. OUA has to be the strongest league in the whole country....look at the last decade of basketball....some may say that its all because of carleton but each year there are atleast 2 teams making it to the semi-finals and the last 6 CIS Champions. Also in 2004 it was an all OUA Cis Championship final with guelph losing to carleton. Last year there might have been 3 teams that would have made it to the semi's if it wasnt for the schedule makers having ottawa play western in the first round.

    The stats dont lie and wouldnt be suprised if histroy repeats itself once again this year.

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  34. Out of Dalhousie's 17 wins against CIS competition overall, TWO have come
    against teams with a conference record above .500...Western and Laval.
    Dalhousie is 2-8 against teams with .500 or better records and 0-7 against Top 10 teams.
    I say goodbye Tigers, hello Marauders.

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  35. Don't worry about Dal - they're not going to Ottawa unless they run the table.

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  36. I'm not worried at all about Dal and I don't think anyone else is either
    ...well, unless, of course, you're John Campbell.
    BTW, Dalhousie's RPI is 18th....hardly surprising.
    Every other Top 10 team's RPI is between 1 and 9...somebody don't belong here.

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