Basketball: Men's Top 10 tracker; Can West powers fall

Updated with Saturday's games, finally. The commitment to Yahoo! is first priority. A tip of the cap to Lethbridge and Victoria, which beat ranked teams on Saturday in order to earn consideration for the final Canada West playoff spot.
  1. UBC Thunderbirds (509) (17-1 CW Pacific, 1st RPI)Blain LaBranche (32 points) and Josh Whyte (24) carried the T-Birds' scoring during Saturday's season ender, a 90-83 win which eliminated Trinity Western. That's become a pretty good rivalry, so one gets the sense UBC was only too happy to play it straight-up, especially with a bye week coming up.

  2. St. Francis Xavier (459) (15-0 AUS, 6th RPI) — Sixth man extraordinaire Charlie Spurr (20 points in 22 minutes, 6-of-9 on threes) provided the instant offence in an 83-69 win at Acadia on Saturday. Alberto Rodriguez had his way inside with the young Axemen, scoring 22 to set up a matchup on Wednesday of 15-0 St. FX against 15-1 Cape Breton.

  3. Carleton (444) (19-2 OUA-E, 2nd RPI) — Hit the century mark both nights in Kingston (108-65 over Queen's and 121-54 over RMC). The scores, for our purpose at least, speak for themselves.

  4. Cape Breton (388) (14-1 AUS, 10th RPI) — Hosting UPEI again on Sunday as a final step before the long-awaited showdown with St. FX (Feb. 17, mark the calendar).

    In the first game of the series, the Capers won 103-77 with five double-digit scorers, topped by Tremaine Fraser's 19 points.

    You tell me how Cape Breton was credited with 36 assists on 40 baskets. Either the stats crew there is really generous, or this is the greatest passing team since the Bob Cousy-era Celtics.

  5. Calgary (340) (15-5 CW Prairie, 5th RPI) — Lost 58-56 at Lethbridge on Saturday (Dinos guard Jamie McLeod's heave from deep hit the rim at the buzzer), meaning Canada West has to decide whether to take the Pronghorns (10-10) or Victoria (9-9) as the eighth playoff team.

    Calgary played its starting five for most of the game, but four of them combined to hit the Mendoza (10-of-50 from the floor). Full mark to the Pronghorns. That was 11 points better than Calgary's previous low for the season, and only the third time the Dinos have been held under 80.

  6. Ottawa (303) (18-3 OUA-E, 8th RPI) — While the Ravens hit a hundred in both their games in K-town, the Gee-Gees buckled down on D and held their foes to a combined 99 points (94-40 over RMC and 72-59 over Queen's). First-year guard Ryan Malcolm-Campbell, whose initials are RMC, had a team-high 18 points vs. the Paladins. Funny how that worked out.

    Ottawa has the traditional season-ender with Carleton on Feb. 20, this time at the Ravens' Nest.

  7. Simon Fraser (265) (14-4 CW Pacific, 3rd RPI) — Lost 77-67 to Victoria, which will be considered along with Lethbridge for the final Can West playoff berth and first-round date with Calgary.

    Full credit to the Vikes, who got a 21-point night from Ryan MacKinnon. Cyril Indome, who could have been playing his last game, also had an all-around night. Cue the cliches about how he's not ready to stop playing.

  8. Lakehead (212) (16-4 OUA-W, 9th RPI) — Swept Brock in two typical tight games, 64-45 and 72-53. Power forward Yoosrie Salhia was nails, leading LU in scoring and rebounding on each night (all told he had 34 points and 22 boards, on 15-of-24 shooting and none of it will count toward someone's MUBL results since that person started a different OUA player).

    Brock's frosh sensation, Clinton Springer-Williams, was held to 11 points on 2-of-11 in the second game.



  9. Windsor (171) (15-5 OUA-W, 4th RPI)Isaac Kuon scored 30 Saturday to bring it home for the Lancers in a 91-90 OT win at Laurier. Throw in 23 from Nigel Johnson-Tyghter on the inside, and that made them tough. Laurier had a look at a game-winning shot in the overtime, but Kale Harrison could not get it to go.

    It probably was must-win for coach Chris Oliver's Lancers, who have a tiebreaker split on Lakehead with two games left but couldn't really count on the Thunderwolves getting swept at home by Western.

    Kuon should be OUA male athlete of the week. He had 56 points for the week, including 26 (on 11-of-22 shooting) in a 76-64 win at Waterloo on Wednesday. Point guard Josh Collins, among the CIS leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio, had 14 in that all-UW matchup.

  10. McMaster (94) (13-7 OUA W, 7th RPI) — With power forward Keenan Jeppesen sitting out, the Marauders blew out Guelph 86-64 on Saturday with Victor Raso having one his best stat lines all season, 19 points on 8-of-11. It was probably part good shooting and part Guelph defence, but the Marauders were money from three, making 11-of-19.

    Jeppesen had a knee-on-knee collison with former teammate Andrew Wedemire early on in Mac's 92-86 loss to Western on Wednesday (irony: It was his former team's Senior Night). Jeppesen briefly came back and try to test out his knee, but finished the game with a big ice pack around it. Mac will surely finish third in the division, but be a tough out in the post-season.

    Mac had positives, such as Cam Michaud's 27 points and Jermaine De Costa nullifying Western point guard Ryan Barbeau. It was a tough night mostly, with coach Joe Raso getting a technical foul on a night when the Mustangs shot 45 free throws, making 37. Forty-five foul shots is three games for some teams.
Also receiving votes: Dalhousie (63), Saskatchewan (60), Saint Mary’s (18), Fraser Valley (9), McGill (7).
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16 comments:

  1. is there any way that you could show the points of the teams in the top ten so that we can see how close the rankings are between teams?

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. UBC (16-1) / 509 points (38) / (2)
    2. StFX (14-0) / 459 (2) / (3)
    3. Carleton (17-2) / 444 (2) / (1)
    4. Cape Breton (14-1) / 388 (1) / (4)
    5. Calgary (15-4) / 340 / (5)
    6. Ottawa (16-3) / 303 / (6)
    7. Simon Fraser (14-3) / 265 / (7)
    8. Lakehead (14-4) / 212 / (8)
    9. Windsor (13-5) / 171 / (9)
    10. McMaster (12-6) / 94 / (NR)

    I wonder who it was that gave UCCB their 1st place vote??

    Maybe X since it didnt want to give one to either carleton or UBC?

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  3. strange that Cape Breton get a first place vote over an undefeated division rival

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  4. It's a joke that Stfx is number 2 . Who have the beat beside Dal who finally isn't ranked. Until CB and StFx play each other both should have been ranked lower. All teams below them have had a more difficult games and have played more top 10 teams. A 14-0 record against unranked teams isn't that impressive. Ottawa , Carleton , WIN, LH, wins are a lot more impressive than StFx 14-0 and CB 14-1 records . The only automatic win in the OUA is RMC ,all other teams are competitive . StFx and CB are top ten teams but are in the top 5 only because they are in the east.

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  5. Cantankerous2/09/2010 2:10 pm

    Obviously Carleton was punished not only for losing but for whom they lost to.
    # 3 seed in the country isn't the worst thing in the world for the Ravens.
    Carleton won the CIS championship in 2006 and 2007 seeded third.
    Perhaps the underdog role is what Carleton needs.
    As the hometown favourite the last two years, Carleton lost in 08 and
    came within a last second runner by Stu Turnbull of suffering the same fate last year.
    "Home court advantage" notwithstanding it is going to be difficult for
    Carleton to defend its title, but then again, what else is new?

    ReplyDelete
  6. not only were Carleton punished for losing to York, but I think they were also punished for a lack of a convincing win against Laurentian, never being able to pull away from the game like they did at home

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  7. X beat Ottawa by 15 in January. X deserves #2 ranking.
    The games between X and CB will be great battles.

    ReplyDelete
  8. One top 10 win by x (excluding dal) does not make them a number 2 team. The problem is that x and cb are probably going to end up in the top 5 having only played 2 top 10 teams all year ( Ottawa, x or Cb, &Dal whose ranking was always suspect). If x or cb sweep games how far does the loser fall?. Will x or cb drop out of the top 5?

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  9. to the comment above, technically, Ottawa's lost to Carleton, by 8 points, was at home, while StFX beat Ottawa at a neutral site by 15 points...so technically StFX's win is more impressive than Carleton's win, thus this must have had some barring in the rankings

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  10. Technically, who cares?

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  11. Officiating at Western was brutal. Mac in penalty every quarter on touch fouls that were only called one way. Official who gave the T to Raso called the game like he was a graduate of the Tim Donahay school of Officiating if you know what I mean. Very bias.

    ReplyDelete
  12. i was at the western-mac game; i would agree with the comment about the poor officiating (paul carter excepted) but there is no doubt that many of the mac fouls were deserved; oua west basketball has deteriorated into a thug fest with a ridiculous amount of contact going uncalled and then when the officials decide to get control, they ruin the flow of the game by calling stuff that was let go previously. the players have no idea what is going to be called and what isn't.
    on another note, raso is out of control anyway and argues every call. more t's should be called on such juvenile behaviour

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  13. Cantankerous2/11/2010 2:52 pm

    To anon 2:40 PM....
    Did you happen to see how jeppesen got injured and do you think it is serious.
    BTW, Western outscored Mac a whopping 37-15 from the FT line.
    A huge difference maker, for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  14. ya, andy was taking a charge on keenan and they seemed to bang knees and then keenan fell awkwardly. 37-15 is a huge difference but you have to ask yourself why? unless you believe there is a hidden agenda......which i doubt

    anonymous 2:40

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  15. Agenda doesn't have to be hidden. Raso works officials hard and some of them don't like it. It shouldn't influence how they call the game but 45 throws for the opposition sends a message, doesn't it? Too bad when thin skinned and/or incompetent refs spoil the athlete and fan experience.

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  16. Speaking of thin skinned and/or incompetent refs...
    is that Foxcroft guy still working OUA west games?
    Talk about having a Napoleon Complex...

    ReplyDelete