The CIS Blog

It's not every day that a student-athlete is banned from university property, but that's what happened Wednesday at the University of Waterloo.

The unnamed football player is "being investigated by police for the possession of a substantial quantity of steroids and human growth hormone with the intention of trafficking" (as per The Record's Christine Rivet). As part of this investigation, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport brought every Waterloo player in for testing this morning, and the student has been kept off campus, apparently by order of the university themselves. (If some of the tests come back positive, we'll know more because CCES will make those results public.)

The investigation is ongoing and the police say no charges have been laid at this point.

There do appear to be two stories here: the drug testing and the police investigation. We're not here to chase down every CIS player who might have used steroids, but when Waterloo Regional Police are involved, and terms like "trafficking" are thrown around, it's certainly a noteworthy event and one we felt we should mention.

However, without more information, it's best to leave it there and not speculate further. We'll know more when we know more.

UPDATE (Apr. 1, 11:30 pm ET)

Laurier's team is involved in tests now, reports Rivet, and she says that other teams are being tested as well, possibly McMaster, Guelph, and Western (all the local teams). Rivet talks about "what is believed to be a pipeline of performance-enhancing drugs, one that could be pumping into local high schools and area gyms," which is certainly "explosive" news, but also sounds a lot like "think of the children!"

OUA football convener Peter Baxter's quote in Rivet's article is also notable: "Ontario university football will survive this black cloud."

No doubt it will — people forgot about the Derek Medler story at Laurier six years ago — but it's also notable that someone as versed in spin control as Baxter uses the phrase "this black cloud." That can be stated without risk of fear-mongering.

(Rosemary Pitfield provides another local connection here: she's quoted in the article and referred to as a CCES spokesperson, but is actually their director of communications up in Ottawa, a role she previously held at the City of Kitchener.)

Incidentally, one question that should be asked at some point: the results will take a while to come back, but with exams starting next week, will the unnamed student-athlete be allowed to return to campus by then?

UPDATE (Apr. 3, 12:40 pm ET)

The Hamilton Spectator's in on this now, too: "Marauders coach Stefan Ptaszek said six of the nearly 75-member football team were tested on Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports." It was the first time Mac had been tested all year, which is kind of interesting to someone who doesn't follow these things closely. Not to mention the 70 or so McMaster players who weren't tested, on a day when I understand the entire Waterloo team gave urine and/or blood samples. We also learn that the Windsor Lancers have not been tested in relation to this investigation.

Related:
UW football player being investigated for use of banned substances (Christine Rivet, The Record)
Drug testers descend on area campuses (Christine Rivet, The Record)
Drug testers descend on area campuses (Nicole O'Reilly, The Hamilton Spectator)
Lancers not hit by drug probe (Jim Parker, The Windsor Star)

McMaster coach Stefan Ptaszek is hopeful he's found a Brian Devlin for the new decade.

You would recall that when Ptaszek was offensive coordinator with Laurier's 2005 Vanier Cup winner, the Golden Hawks had a pretty good kicker in Devlin, who made the game-winner in the 2005 final. Now his Marauders have
landed a prized kicking specialist out of Ottawa, Tyler Crapigna, who has set Ontario Varsity Football League records at all levels.

The tendency with this site is to be catch-as-catch-can with recruiting news. Crapigna, who was profiled in the Ottawa Sun recently, seems like the real deal. He might be a one-man argument for why the kickoff spot in amateur football should be moved back from the 45-yard line.

Related:
Marauders get a kick out of Tyler (Ted Michaels, AM900 CHML Hamilton)
Crapigna kicks it up several notches; 17-year-old boots way to Pro Bowl week showcase (Ottawa Sun, Jan. 13)

The Guelph Gryphons had no trouble putting together four quarters for their new coach, Stu Lang, reports Greg Layson:

"Lang admitted that during his presentation to athletic director Tom Kendall he offered to work for mere pocket change; the equivalent of four quarters.

"That's right. Lang offered to work for a buck. That little gold coin you save for pesky panhandlers and conveniently placed vending machines.

" 'I thought, "well, that’s creative," ' Kendall said Tuesday after announcing Lang as Kyle Walters’ replacement. 'But we can’t do it.'

"Instead, Kendall said Lang will make somewhere between $55,664 and $83,496 — otherwise known as grid P05 of the university’s professional/management salary bands effective May 2007-May 2010.

"And then Lang will promptly donate somewhere between $55,663 and $83,495 back to the football program.

" 'That’s confidential,' Lang said when asked how much he’ll pour back into the perpetually cash-strapped program."

It's a unique arrangement, to be sure.

"Guelph gets a proven winner on and off the football field for next to literally nothing. Lang, who played hockey and football at Queen’s University, won a Yates Cup with the Golden Gaels and five Grey Cups with the Edmonton Eskimos. After his playing career, Lang was president of his family-owned company CCL Label International, which had previously recorded $1 billion in annual sales.

"Gryphons football and its players receive that wealth of experience, a winning attitude, leadership and nearly a 100 per cent return on its annual investment ... the money Lang donates back into the program will be used to hire two full-time coordinators, staffing virtually unheard of at a school of Guelph’s size.

" 'Give me two days and I can come up with the perfect play,' Lang said. 'But I can’t do it in two seconds.'

"For that reason, Lang said his offensive co-ordinator 'will have to be the smartest guy on the coaching staff.' "

I’ll buy that coach for a dollar (Greg Layson, Guelph Mercury)

A couple quick bullet points from new Guelph football coach Stu Lang's introductory press conference this afternoon. Greg Layson and Mike Treadgold should have more to say (the latter now has a post up).

Lang emphasized wanting to create "success that is sustainable" and made mention of Guelph's desire to have a new stadium that would be a focal point on campus.
Guelph will indeed have three full-time coaches, including the head man. No word yet on who will end up as the offensive and defensive coordinators.
Tom Kendall got some laughs when he said Lang, a former Queen's receiver, "won the Yates Cup as a player at another OUA school."

More to come.

Western has decided make a change in women's hockey, and Paul Cook is moving on after seven seasons.

It does not exactly come off as a resignation. The Mustangs have won only 27 of 81 league games across the past three seasons and were 53-99-21 overall (or 53-86-21-13, depending how you account for overtime losses).

That is a somewhat better winning percentage than he had in his one and only season in the OHL (16 wins in 66 games with the Kingston Frontenacs), but in that stretch the 'Stangs did not better than a tie for seventh in the 10-team OUA.

That is glaring, considering how popular female hockey is in southern and southwestern Ontario. From the press release:

" 'Paul exhibited unquestionable commitment and passion to keep our women's hockey program moving forward,' said Therese Quigley, Director of Sports and Recreation Services at Western. 'We thank Paul for his efforts and now will begin the search for a strong replacement who will ensure our program can continue to move forward.' "

In 24 hours, you'll know who is Guelph's new football coach.

The U of G will have a press conference at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday (live on SSN Canada). Much of the speculation has suggested receivers coach Stu Lang, but other names such as former Mount Allison coach Steve LaLonde and Queen's (and former Guelph) defensive coordinator Pat Tracey have surfaced.

The other question is whether Guelph, one of three OUA teams to make a coaching change this off-season, will finalize its coaching staff.

UPDATE (2:04, Mar. 30): It's Lang; apparently a "unanimous" decision, as just revealed in the press conference.

Related:
Sources: Stu Lang will be next Gryphons head football coach (Speak Into The Mike, March 26)
Previous:
Gryphons about to go Lang (March 26)
Eskimos great Lang a candidate to lead Gryphons (March 23)

Mike Aylward sends along some post-University Cup thoughts.

Congratulations to the Saint Mary's Huskies for winning their first ever CIS men's hockey championship! It was a great game and they are deserving winners. Also congrats to Alberta for again showing they are a class act.
Watching Huskies coach Trevor Stienburg during his post-game interview on Rogers Sportsnet brought tears to my eyes ... I admit it. It was a very heartwarming moment and I am very happy for him.
Mike Danton getting a national championship is also a story to cheer about and also reflects very well on coach Stienburg, his team, and Saint Mary's.
I am often critical of the national media on either its lack of coverage of CIS sports or its poor coverage when they do show up. So now, credit where credit is due. Last year at the 2009 men's hockey nationals in Thunder Bay, I was vocal critic of Sportsnet's coverage.

I doubt anything I said affected this year's coverage, but am happy to say that I think this year they did a hell of a great job. Bringing in Rob Faulds for play by play this year was a fantastic choice. He was enthusiastic about the CIS game and it showed. Full marks to colour man Sam Cosentino for upping his game from last year as well. He still mentioned the players' major junior connections a lot. This year, he put brought relevance to these mentions and he didn't concentrate on them. He also knew the players' CIS stats, who were the award winners in the conferences.

It was major sea change from last year's coverage. And the graphics this year had the players' CIS stats, good live interviews and features, great effort overall.
Again, excellent job Sportsnet (except for the tape delay thing; never, never, never tape delay a live championship game please!).

Also kudos to Sportsnet for allowing their TV feed to be carried Streaming Sports Network Canada at last year's and this year's championships, unlike another Canadian sports network which shall remain nameless. In fact, if not for the videocast; I could not have watched tonight's final game live.
As mentioned before; live international videocasting of all championship games needs to be mandatory for the CIS when it draws up its broadcasting contracts. Also, no tape delays of TV games in that contract.
Now that Sportsnet has done the men's hockey for two years; I am wondering what will happen in 2011 in Fredericton when UNB hosts? Will the CIS and the hosts bring in another network? Will they stick with Sportsnet?

My vote is they stick with Sportsnet and bring back Faulds and Cosentino and build up a relationship for this sport with Sportsnet and try to get some consistency going; i.e. how TSN did it with the world junior hockey championship and how CBS did with the NCAA basketball tournament.

Maybe this is an approach the CIS should look at. Build relationships with the various networks for various sports instead of an overall grouped package.
Again, congrats to Saint Mary's for winning the University Cup, to Trevor Stienburg and Mike Danton for making us all feel good, and to Sportsnet for really stepping it up this year.

As I type this the Huskies and their small but vocal contingent of family and fans are starting to celebrate downstairs in one of the hotel meeting rooms. Could be a long night as SMU celebrates their first ever University Cup, with a 3-2 overtime win over the Alberta Golden Bears thanks to Brad Smith knocking in the rebound off captain Marc Rancourt's shot at 9:13.

For those who were at the rink or watched on television, once again CIS hockey delivers a dramatic finish. Add in the feel-good story of Mike Danton that some media were a bit over-fixated on and you get great TV as they say ...

So maybe do we dare hope that CIS hockey might get some games on national TV before next year's University Cup in Fredericton? One can always dream, but I guess we'll have to stick with regional TV and webcasts.

Related:
Huskies win first-ever CIS men's hockey title with OT win (CIS story on AUS website)
Huskies win University Cup (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
SMU claims men's hockey supremacy in super finish (Evan Daum, South Campus Sports)

Join us for the championship game of the 2010 Cavendish University Cup between the Alberta Golden Bears and the Saint Mary's Huskies.

Tonight's game will be live at 7:00 pm EDT on Sportsnet East and Pacific. Sportsnet West will be tape delaying the game until 7:00 pm MDT. I guess the Oilers take priority in Edmonton.

While the coaches were unanimous against the idea of trying to bring back the bronze medal game for the University Cup, the buzz is that they are in favour of having a true semi-finals added which would be one more day and two more games for the tourney. As I understand it we would still have the six team two-pool round-robin per usual. So that is six round robin games in total, just like the Thursday to Saturday games now, which they would probably start a day earlier if this goes through. Then the top team out of pool A would cross over and play the second best team in pool B in one semi-final while the top team out of pool B would play number two from pool A in the other semi-final; these would probably be TV games on Saturday. Then the two winners face off for the Cup on Sunday. However, this still has to be passed by the CIS and all of the athletic directors at the annual general meeting (in June?), and the coaches don't always get what they want. Which means we could still get a bronze medal game against their wishes.

So the only OUA team to win a game this year was Lakehead, and that came against UQTR. This is the seventh year in a row that either a Canada West or AUS team will win the University Cup, with UNB and Alberta splitting the last five. Not telling the OUA how to enhance their competitive balance, but ...

Have to say it. Not impressed with the crowds in Thunder Bay considering how well they draw in the regular season, and the recent sell-out for the Queen's Cup. The biggest games of the last two years and you don't fill your barn? Is it just because you don't want to buy a tournament pass or the two-game day pass they added this year? And how come the actual attendance for the afternoon games is less than half of the paid attendance?

On the other hand all of the host committee and volunteers in Thunder Bay have been great, especially the volunteer drivers. I hope the crowd numbers haven't hurt their bottom line because the folks here deserve all the accolades and thanks they might get.

David Naylor made a good point last week in a post on the death of the International Bowl. There is passion for football in Toronto, but it's not reflected in attendance at pro or collegiate games.

" ... the death of the International Bowl speaks to a much larger issue -- the complete financial failure of every football venture in Canada’s largest market.

"The International Bowl? Dead.

"The Vanier Cup? Moved from the Big Smoke because of lack of interest.

"The Buffalo Bills playing once a season? No Thanks.

"The CFL’s Toronto Argonauts? They haven’t turned a profit since this year’s class of college seniors were in diapers.

"Meanwhile, the football programs at York University and the University of Toronto are traditionally at the very bottom in terms of on-field success and support in the stands."

However, there is a silver lining:

"... High school football in Toronto is right now making a strong comeback. And as for anyone who might suggest Toronto’s multicultural nature is responsible for a football malaise, well forget it. Immigrants now make up the biggest area of growth in football at the grass roots, a trend that is apparent at the high school, collegiate and professional levels in Canada."

The question, from a CIS and OUA perspective, is if/when the programs in the GTA will reflect such growing interest, instead of Toronto and York being 1-55 (you could look it up) against all other opponents across the past four seasons. The talent pool, though, is not among the obstacles York and U of T face in football.

Related:
Football's decline in Toronto (Naylor's Sideline View)

Well, Saturday's semi-finals went pretty well as I expected, with the top teams out of the AUS and Canada West advancing to today's final for the University Cup.

The Manitoba Bisons were a game squad, but the Saint Mary's Huskies executed their game plan exactly as they wanted, with their strong forecheck pressuring the Bisons all game long. Sniper Cody Thorton got SMU on the scoreboard midway through the first period with a power play marker, but the back breaker was probably when All-Canadian defenceman Andrew Hotham was all alone in front of the Bisons net and able to pick a rebound puck off Steve Christie's pad and deposit it in the net to make 3-0 31 seconds into the second period. Speaking about the 5-0 loss after the game Manitoba coach Mike Sirant pointed out that this week was a learning experience for his team. He said first-time teams don't usually win, and it is no coincidence that SMU, Alberta and Lakehead were at Nationals last year and in the final four this year. The positive for him and his players is now they have a better idea of what it takes to win at this level, and they are confident they can play with those teams.

The much anticipated evening battle between Lakehead and Alberta started well for the home team. In a sign of how the game would go, local product Ryan Baird scored just under three minutes in on the power play. Lakehead had a great first ten minutes, outshooting the Golden Bears 9-1. For the second game in a row Alberta had a slow start, but they picked up their play and got a power play goal later in the period. After 20 minutes the shots were 11-9 in favour of the Golden Bears. The two teams exchanged power play goals in the second period, but the turning point was the Kyle Fecho power play goal with 7 seconds to go in the period. The Golden Bears looked pretty much in control of the the game in the third period when the two teams were even strength. Brock MacPherson made it interesting for the local fans when he got his second power play goal at 15:13 of the third, but Alberta was able to cruise to the 5-3 finish. Overall in the game it didn't look like Lakehead had the team speed to hang with the Golden Bears, and they were completely dependent on their power play for offence.

So this evening we get Alberta looking for their 14th University Cup while Saint Mary's tries for their first. SMU was last in the championship game in 1973 when they lost 3-2 to Toronto; Alberta of course last won 3-2 over UNB in 2008.

Related:
Huskies down Manitoba, advance to national final (CIS)
Huskies blank Bisons (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
Power play propels No. 1 Bears to U Cup final (CIS)
Bear of a powerplay (Reuben Villagracia, The Chronicle Journal)
Alberta rolls over Lakehead (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
The scene is set: SMU vs. Alberta (Evan Daum, South Campus Sports)
Huskies, Bears in hockey title tilt (Glenn MacDonald, Chronicle-Herald)

Join us for game 6 of the 2010 Cavendish University Cup as the Alberta Golden Bears face off against the Lakehead Thunderwolves in the second Saturday semifinal.

Join us for game 5 of the 2010 Cavendish University Cup as the Manitoba Bisons face off against the Saint Mary's Huskies in the first Saturday semifinal.

There has been some back-and-forth in the comments section and between the site's writers over what is truly an upset ... in that vein, it is worth pointing out The Onion had some fun with all the lingo about Cinderella teams and bracket-busters that basketball fans hear in March.

"Cornell's basketball team had on Wednesday squandered most of its underdog goodwill by using every opportunity to explain that, given a finite set of possible outcomes and a sufficient period of time, the sheer quantity of opportunities available to accomplish an improbable outcome makes its achievement likely if not almost certain. "It'd be foolish to ascribe any of the properties of a pan-dimensional function space to the NCAA Tournament,' said Cornell center Jeff Foote, who has averaged 14 points per game in the first two rounds. 'However, bear in mind that we're not talking about a null probability space. With eight teams in the Ivy League and 65 in the tournament, you eventually run out of possible permutations. One could even make the case for historical inevitability; we won, so we were always going to win.' "

Any objection to people reflexively saying "upset" comes from despairing at how many CIS sports are covered fleetingly and superficially by traditional media (hence the term "drive-by media").

For instance, after eventual men's Final 8 champion and No. 5 seed Saskatchewan ousted No. 1 seed Carleton in the national semifinal, Huskies coach Greg Jockims was asked, "Is this the classic case of a team which doesn't know it's not supposed to win?" Professional courtesy forbid yelling, "Did you watch the game, pal?" given the Huskies had shot the ball better than the Ravens and come out slightly better than even in rebounding and loose balls. Jockims politely answered that his coaching counterpart had called the Huskies "the best team here" one night earlier.

Point being, sometimes traditional media devalue "upset" or "Cinderella story." They also go a little heavy on a particular team's reputation, but everyone is a little guilty of that sometimes. Never in a million years was "drive-by media" intended as a shot at anyone who's blogging on this league.

Related:
Cornell Drains Fun Out Of Cinderella Run By Explaining How On A Long Enough Timeline The Improbable Becomes Probable (The Onion)

Fans of McGill must be getting frustrated, as the Redmen blew another two goal lead in losing to Saint Mary's 4-2 in the Friday afternoon game. However, I thought the Huskies were the stronger team in the first period, even though McGill scored two opportunistic goals. The Huskies fore check was definitely more physical than that of the Redmen, and their star forward Francis Verreault-Paul took several retaliation penalties out of apparent frustration from his treatment at the hands of SMU. In the third period the Huskies showed they can play a smothering shut-down team defence as good as any out there.

For Lakehead's first game in the evening, we finally got a fan presence (around 3000) at Fort Williams Gardens, to the extreme of almost being deafening. The more LU pounded in the goals, the more ecstatic the crowd became. Add in all of the hubbub next door at the Wolf Den in the attached curling club and a fun time was had by all ... except les Patriotes. There was no flow in this 7-2 rout, what with 18 power plays in the very tightly called contest. However, I don't think that bothered the home fans one bit.

Evan brings up an important point in his blog. Today we're back to the more simple you-win-you're-in semi-finals and don't have to worry about tie breaking formulas. Too bad, last year I kinda enjoyed watching the drive-by media scratching their heads when teams were pulling goalies and counting plus-minuses.

We'll once again have livecasts of the afternoon SMU-Manitoba and evening Lakehead-Alberta tilts.

Related:
GAME 2 POOL B: CIS championship: No. 3 Huskies come back, eliminate McGill (CIS)
GAME 2 POOL A: CIS championship: Host Lakehead eliminates UQTR (CIS)
Semifinal Saturday: This time it's easy (Evan Daum, South Campus Sports)
Huskies eliminate McGill (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
Wolves slam Patriotes (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
Ex-Patriotes (Reuben Villagracia, The Chronicle Journal)

Join us for game 4 of the 2010 Cavendish University Cup as the UQTR Patriotes face off against the Lakehead Thunderwolves.

John Ferguson Jr. garnered lots of attention in the rink yesterday. He was here to scout for San Jose and didn't get a lot of privacy in the stands ...

It certainly hasn't been spring like in Thunder Bay the last two days. -20 with the wind chill yesterday and around -13 today. I know, boo hoo ...

Dustin Friesen, the captain of last year's champions UNB, was called up this week by Bridgeport in the AHL. Former Tommies forward Jean Borbeau was also called up by the Sound Tigers.

Some chatter in the hospitality suite last night, and on the agenda in the coaches meetings this morning, about bringing back the bronze medal game at the University Cup. I haven't discovered a CIS hockey coach yet who likes the idea, but apparently there's some in the CIS that think the men should have a bronze game like the women. Good luck with that ... have they not seen the tape for UNB-Alberta bronze game in 2003?

The crowds have been underwhelming so far -- the rink has not been more than half-full for each of the first three games. Should be a sell-out for Lakehead's first game tonight. It it interesting that so many of these local folks will buy tournament passes and only show up for LU games. The same thing happened last year but the excuse was that fans wanted the option of buying day passes, which they do have this year. That might explain why the Lakehead games didn't sell out last year, but doesn't account for why so few fans come to non-Lakehead games.

McGill coach Jim Webster complained about the officiating again today after their afternoon game against Saint Mary's. They had five minors compared to SMU's four, but Francis Verreault-Paul picked up a ten minute misconduct in the third period when he lipped off to the ref on a non-call. Webster thought V-Paul was being targeted by SMU (do you think that might happen to the OUA's top player?) and felt that V-Paul's two minors came as he was trying to stick up for himself. He then went on to admit that McGill is the most penalized team in the OUA, but explained that as the fact that they compete so hard for the puck. I dunno, if you are the most penalized team you think it might be something other than the refs, like perhaps sucking it up in big games?

Not that I'm trying to egg on the regional chauvinism among CIS hockey fans, but so far this week the OUA is 0-3, Canada West is 2-0, and the AUS is 1-0. Just sayin'. The OUA has to get a win tonight since Lakehead is playing UQTR.

The SMU players are finally admitting that they were overconfident going into their semifinal last year, since they had beat McGill who it turn had beat Western earlier. They also said that in that fatal third period they were thinking too much about the math and not about simply winning the game.

Ever smiling Michel Belanger from the CIS tells me today that Sportsnet's television broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday will be picked up by Eurosport TV. Kinda cool.

Related:
Ferguson Jr. still in the game (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
Ferguson in the house Reuben Villagracia, Chronicle Journal)

The working week is almost up with still no head coaching announcement from Guelph.

Spring football is in two weeks for most teams in eastern and central Canada, so one has to believe the decision to hire Stu Lang is coming sooner rather than later. It is unconfirmed by Guelph, but Gryphons players have been told there is a meeting on Saturday. It's not going to be about ordering T-shirts.

Mike Treadgold is running with it like Jimmy Allin through Guelph's special teams. By most accounts, the player response about Lang's personality and football know-how has been very positive.

The only unanswered question is how Guelph AD Tom Kendall allocates his spending on coaches' compensation, namely whether one or both coordinators get a decent salary. It also worth noting the incumbent defensive coordinator, Billy Brown, was a point man for Guelph's recruiting. Keeping him on might make sense from a continuity standpoint. Lang might work for a nominal salary (verrrrrrry nominal), allowing Guelph to hire two coordinators .

Previous:
Eskimos great Lang a candidate to lead Gryphons (March 23)

Join us for game 3 of the 2010 Cavendish University Cup as the McGill Redman face off against the Saint Mary's Huskies.

I'll save myself some writing and include the links at the bottom of this post for the coverage from our Evan Daum as well as local Thunder Bay writers Leith Dunick and Reuben Villagracia, who between them have captured the game play and all of the good quotes from the post-game press conferences. Leith, who doesn't have the space restrictions of Reuben, has been generating lots of copy this week in T-Bay (or you can just give him credit for being more productive than Reuben!).

From my viewpoint Manitoba admittedly surprised me in battling back from the two-goal deficit against McGill after the first period. To be fair the Bisons missed several open nets in the first 20 minutes, and rung a couple of pucks off the iron. The scrambly goal by Ian Duval with 4.8 seconds left in regulation was dramatic to tie it, and then Mike Hellyer's goal in overtime, his second of the game, off the pass by Duval was obviously huge for the 5-4 win. It was interesting to hear McGill coach Jim Webster single out, and not compliment, the refereeing in the post game news conference. Webster stated the tight calling of penalties forced McGill to ease up their strong fore check after the first period, and he felt that helped the Bisons get back in the game.

In the evening game, Alberta for the third year in a row came out flat in the first period. UQTR was quicker on the puck and the Golden Bears defence struggled to break out of their zone cleanly with the puck. If Jesse Gimblett doesn't score that power play goal in the last minute of the first period to change the momentum, one wonders what might have happened. Like Webster, UQTR head coach Jacques Laporte was not happy with the officiating and the penalties they had to kill in the final two periods. I thought their last two hooking calls were simply because Alberta had their feet moving and UQTR was sagging under the pressure. After the 4-2 loss both Laporte and his players said that their dramatic comeback against Western in the Queen's Cup gives them confidence in what they can control - how they play their game.

If you're keeping score that is two wins for Canada West and two losses for the OUA. Just sayin'.

So 2:00 pm this afternoon we have McGill looking to bounce back against Saint Mary's, who are on their own redemption tour. UQTR gets to face Lakehead at home at 7:30 tonight, when we should finally see a big crowd here at the University Cup. We'll have liveblogs here for both games.

Related:
Best of the West (Reuben Villagracia, Chronicle Journal)
Bisons shock Redmen in OT (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
Golden Bears double Patriotes (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
Bears top Patriotes to open nationals (Evan Daum, South Campus Sports)

Join us for game 2 of the 2010 Cavendish University Cup as #1 seeded Alberta Golden Bears face off against the #6 seeded UQTR Patriotes.

Join us for the liveblog of the first game of the 2010 Cavendish University Cup from Thunder Bay.

Just in time for today's opener between McGill and Manitoba:

Chances of finishing first in respective pools:
Pool A
Alberta 53.5%
Lakehead 28.9%
UQTR 17.6%

Pool B
SMU 41.4%
McGill 41.3%
Manitoba 17.4%

And what most people care about, the chances of winning the University Cup:
Alberta 32.5%
McGill 20.5%
SMU 17.5%
Lakehead 14.6%
UQTR 8.6%
Manitoba 6.6%

McMaster is the largest university outside Quebec which does not compete in CIS hockey. It might be of interest that The Sil, whose sports editor is our own Brian Decker, is pointing out some would like that to change.

"Both the men's and women's teams are considered competitive clubs, and do not enjoy many of the luxuries that come with this varsity status. This is not due to a lack of trying on behalf of hockey players at Mac. Still, awareness is key, says Kelly Phair.

" 'We’ve talked with Jeff Giles (athletic director) about it. The main thing is getting people aware about the team, talking about it and knowing about it.'

"The problem is, because McMaster has not had varsity hockey teams for so long, interest can be difficult to find within the student body. Without a rink on campus and sufficient funding, the teams cannot reach varsity status."

It seemed worth linking to Brian's post, if for nothing else to point out that a McMaster team would have to sport jerseys modelled on the Hamilton Mustangs in the movie Youngblood. (Just change the colours from red to maroon and get rid of the horse.) Mac has fared pretty well as a sports school without hockey, which would make not adding it totally understandable. In this case, it would also require building an arena on or close to campus (like Carleton did and like Ryerson is doing with the Maple Leaf Gardens reno). Hamilton has an AHL franchise and is a much different market than North Bay and Thunder Bay, where Nipissing and Lakehead are the high-profile team and play in the city's main arena.

Pretty touching moment: The Saskatchewan Huskies thought to have floor leader Michael Linklater bring the W.P. McGee Trophy to the hospital room of Bob Florence. Florence, you will recall, is a long-time Saskatoon StarPhoenix journalist.

"Florence went to hospital in critical condition with a massive head injury following an assault in the wee hours of Feb. 27 while walking home from work. He spent the next few weeks in an induced coma, with his survival at some points hanging in the balance.

"Linklater and Florence had never met until that moment in the hospital room; the former a burly athlete at the height of his powers, the latter frail and unable to speak, struggling to rebound from a horrific brain injury.

" ... Florence surprised them all when he tried to talk -- the words catching as he worked to force them out.

" 'We told him we won, and he was happy. You could see it,' Linklater said Wednesday. 'He wanted to talk to us, and I'll never forget that moment for the rest of my life.' "

Related:
Hospital visit inspires Huskies athlete; SP journalist recovering slowly after serious assault (Darren Zary, Saskatoon StarPhoenix)

Lots of talk this morning on local radio here in Thunder Bay pumping up the Cavendish University Cup that starts this afternoon. It has been pointed out that the Thunderwolves players were shut out from all of the awards last night.

UQTR had all sorts of road trip woes yesterday. For some reason some of their players couldn't get their connection from Toronto and spent all day there in the airport before the last nine or so arrived here around 5:00 p.m. Their gear also arrived in dribs and drabs, they missed the opening press conference and had to reschedule their afternoon practice yesterday, and had no goalies dressed for the session. A bit of a distraction considering you're playing favourite Alberta tonight.

The Mike Danton circus was definitely in town yesterday, with media all trying to get their one-on-ones. TSN flew in a reporter (sorry, I forgot her name) and a cameraman yesterday just to get an interview and B-roll footage of Danton and his SMU teammates. Local media also got interviews and photos. Hopefully everyone remembers that the Huskies are a pretty good team without him, and Danton isn't even the best player on their team. To be fair, the coverage on Danton here so far has been pretty even (yes, we Maritimers can be a bit overprotective ...).

UNB coach Gardiner MacDougall the hockey dad couldn't wait to leave the banquet last night and get back to his room to watch online the QMJHL playoff game between Cape Breton and Moncton. The Screaming Eagles staved off elimination in the series as Luke Adam had a hat trick sandwiched around Taylor MacDougall's game winner in the 4-1 victory.

Lots of talk last night, and a little grumbling, about how regional politics might be affecting some of the major award winners as the recognition could be perceived as being distributed across the CIS. This is an annual debate/discussion. Having two new national awards, for top goalie and top defenceman in the CIS, helps give more slots if you follow that logic. If you take the high road, you could interpret the rumblings as the fact that there are great nominees in all of the conferences, and the runner ups are as deserved as the winners, which in turn in a great bill of health for CIS hockey.

Consensus among everyone here is that this year's University Cup is wide open with UNB not making it out of the AUS. SMU's Trevor Steinburg got lots of laughs with his shout out to StFX in the press conference yesterday. On a personal note, I'm starting to get tired of explaining how UNB lost to StFX ... maybe I can just make up a one-page FAQ to hand out to all of the other media here.

Related:
Time for another title (Reuben Villagracia, Chronicle-Journal)
Danton arrives (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
Anybody’s game (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

I'm a bit late getting this posted as I had a few "pops" with friends after the awards banquet last night. Who knew the LCBO gives out air miles with purchases?

First, let's copy and paste all of the award winners, and therefore not bury the lede.

2009-2010 CIS MEN'S HOCKEY AWARDS & ALL-CANADIANS

Senator Joseph A. Sullivan trophy (player of the year):
Hunter Tremblay, UNB
Defenceman of the year:
Marc-André Dorion, McGill
Goaltender of the year:
Steve Christie, Manitoba
Clare Drake award (rookie of the year):
Jared Gomes, UPEI
R.W. Pugh award (most sportsmanlike player):
Francis Guérette-Charland, UQTR
Father George Kehoe memorial award (coach of the year):
Gardiner MacDougall, UNB
Dr. Randy Gregg award (outstanding student-athlete):
Tyler Metcalfe, Alberta
First Team
Position - Athlete - University - Year - Hometown - Faculty
Goaltender Steve Christie Manitoba 4 Winnipeg, Man. Kinesiology & Recreation Management
Defence Marc-André Dorion McGill 2 St-Hubert, Que. Physical & Health Education
Defence Andrew Hotham Saint Mary's 3 Barrie, Ont. Commerce
Forward Chad Klassen Alberta 4 Saskatoon, Sask. Physical Education & Recreation
Forward Francis Verreault-Paul McGill 2 Mashteviatsh, Que. Science, General Kinesiology
Forward Hunter Tremblay UNB 3 Timmins, Ont. BBA
Second Team
Goaltender Keaton Hartigan Waterloo 2 Kitchener, Ont. Sociology
Defence Kyle Fecho Alberta 4 Hanna, Alta. Business
Defence Luke Gallant UNB 3 Bedford, N.S. BBA
Forward John Scott Dickson UNB 5 Barrie, Ont. BSc Kinesiology
Forward Chris Ray Waterloo 3 Kelowna, B.C. Environment & Business
Forward Derek Ryan Alberta 3 Spokane, Wash. Physical Education & Recreation
All-Rookie Team
Goaltender Neil Conway Saint Mary's 1 Concord, Ohio Commerce
Defence Ben Shutron UNB 1 Orleans, Ont. BND
Defence Scott Aarsen Western 1 London, Ont. King's College
Forward Sean Ringrose Alberta 1 Edmonton, Alta. Physical Education & Recreation
Forward Thomas Kiriakou Guelph 1 Richmond Hill, Ont. B.A. - History
Forward Jared Gomes UPEI 1 Brampton, Ont. BBA

Everyone I talked to last night thought it was a much better banquet and awards presentation than last year. Food was the standard, but delicious, safe banquet fare of soup-salad-chicken-vegetables, although the emcee tried twice to joke that Alberta would have preferred beef. The evening's proceedings were snappier than last year with lots of loud music and graphics, although the local emcee didn't get off one joke that worked.

It was nice to see the deserved award winners have the opportunity to give their thank yous this year - though most stuck with the "thanks to my teammates, coach and congrats to the other nominees" script. Dr. Randy Gregg award winner Tyler Metcalfe of Alberta did make the point to his peers that any contribution that a hockey player can make to his community, so matter how small, is valuable and coach of the year Gardiner MacDougall joked that the award is obviously a regular season award and pointed out to fellow nominee Mike Sirant of Manitoba that he saved him the fate of recent coaching award winners -- dropping their first game at the University Cup.

More to follow later ...

Related:
UNB’s Tremblay named player of the year (CIS)
Tremblay wins Sullivan Trophy (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

The Western Mustangs have turned to a Noble man to regain their OUA football crown.

Former Laurier quarterback Ian Noble, who sat out last season, is transferring to Western to try and fill a pretty important spot on Greg Marshall's depth chart. As The Cord noted:

"Noble maintains that he has stayed healthy and in good shape. He will also be training extremely hard to earn what he hopes will be a starting position with the Mustangs, who find themselves thin at quarterback after the graduation of Michael Faulds, who claimed the CIS record for career passing yards last season.

" 'I will have to earn my spot on the team,' said Noble. '[Western] has many talented quarterbacks, but my advantage comes with being more experienced.'

"The only quarterback currently on the Mustangs’ roster who has any experience is second-year Donnie Marshall – the son of head coach Greg Marshall – who has only played sparingly, backing up Faulds for the past two seasons."

Ironically, this comes with the Battle of the 401 is on hold for a season, since Laurier and Western miss each other in the OUA's regular-season scheduling rotation. No doubt this adds a little drama. Noble at the very least has experience being the No. 1 QB for a nationally ranked team and he played well in the 2008 OUA semifinal vs. the 'Stangs.

Related:
Former Hawks QB to play for Western (Tieja MacLaughlin, The Cord)

So my day started waaay too early this morning (4:30 AM ADT at the Fredericton airport ...) but the flights have been good and it is sunny and cool out here in Thunder Bay. They had the opening press conference at 11:00, not noon as I somehow thought (based on last year) so I was late ... Oh well.

I was on the same connecting flight from Toronto as the Sportsnet guys -- Rob Faulds will be doing the play by play this year for the TV games and Sam Cosentino will be doing colour. Like last year, it is refreshing to see the TV guys arrive in time to watch all the games and do their homework.

Looks like there are lots of media wanting to get face time with SMU's Mike Danton, as expected. Coach Trevor Steinburg brought captain Marc Rancourt and Scott Brophy to the opening press conference, but they were getting almost ignored as many are asking about Danton's schedule and when they can interview him. Steinburg tells them when the team practice time is ...

Of course SSN is doing webcasts of all the games, but is there demand out there for LiveCasts for all of the games to complement the webcasts? I'm here, as is Evan Daum who could pitch in for the non-Alberta games. Neate or Andrew will have to give me some setup tips ...

Apparently there won't be a keynote speaker at tonight's award banquet ... which is probably just as well considering the snafus they had last year.

According to the local paper, over 2500 tournament passes have been sold, which is an improvement over last year. This year they've added two-game day passes for the walk-up crowd priced at $39.99 which should suit those Thunderwolves fans who only want to watch the LU games.

It is as if TSN2 needed every last viewer, that must be why it blocked SSN Canada. As Chris Zelkovich notes:

"As for the CIS, as good a tournament as it is, Sunday's final attracted an average of 35,000 on TSN2 -- a 40 per cent increase over what The Score drew last year."

Some would say, focus on the positive. However, about half of that 40% increase comes from the new rating metric (Personal People Meters, or PPM) which came into effect last year. Ratings for everything are up by a minimum 20% across the board.

The 2008 Acadia-Carleton semi-final also had a peak audience of 93,000 under the old ratings metric. Point being, 35,000 viewers for a national final, which granted, lacked an Ontario team to make the country's population centre care, is not where the bar should be set for this event. It is to be expected when there is poor promotion and the TV coverage of the tournament is hijacked by puckheads who don't understand the first thing about basketball. That said, by most accounts, Rod Black and Leo Rautins were superb on the call of the tournament. Black is still bringing it sinc the Olympics ended.

By the way, does anyone else get tired of the national media dropping in (that's the meaning of "drive-by media") and proclaiming some CIS championship result an upset when it wasn't an upset? Alberta beating McGill in the women's hockey final was not an upset. The Pandas shut out their first two opponents at nationals, too. Saskatchewan over Carleton in men's hoops was not an upset, seeing how Ravens coach Dave Smart called the Huskies "the best team here" prior to the game. The same went for seventh-seeded Calgary beating No. 2 Cape Breton in the first round. The Dinos and Capers were given near-identical odds of winning the Final 8. Some even called Queen's beating Calgary in the Vanier Cup an upset, when most people who pay attention (i.e., all the bloggers) just saw a very even matchup, with the eastern team winning a game played in an eastern city.

Only speaking for one person here, but I feel a lot of guilt; we must not be doing our job very well.

Calgary defensive back recruit Rhys Coppens' death is a news story more than a sports story, and we'll treat it as such:

"Yes he was a great athlete but he was more than that. For these kids he was a great teammate. They're very saddened to hear what happened ... But this isn't about football. This is about a family who has lost a son, and our condolences go out to them." — Blake Nill, Calgary coach

Related:
Victim had bright football career (Ben Gelinas, Edmonton Journal)

A new name has surfaced in Guelph's coaching search, reports Greg Layson.

Guelph said it wanted to do something big with hiring its head football coach — and it might be about to pull off something Stu-pendous.

The latest candidate to be interviewed for the position Kyle Walters left three weeks ago is Guelph receivers coach Stu Lang, of 1970s and '80s Edmonton Eskimos five-time Grey Cup-winning champion fame.

It does not hurt to be out front on this hiring process, since something getting out in the media seldom stops a good person, such as Guelph AD Tom Kendall, from going ahead with a good decision.

A Stu Lang hire works for Guelph since money is no object for Lang — and depending, might not be one for the university. Lang was a heavy hitter in his family company, CCL Label International (which in recent years has had annual sales topping $1 billion). He was its president at the time of his retirement. He was able to retire relatively young and buy his wife, Kim, a horse farm in Puslinch, near Guelph, before offering his services to the Gryphons last season.

In other words, Lang and his family is more than likely financially sound and could coach it for love, not money — in fact, he offered his services to Walters. This helps Guelph get around only being able to max out at $84,000 per year — or even the mid-range salary of $65,000 per year — for a head coach. It might also free up funds for Guelph to hire a defensive coordinator, and perhaps cover the salary for an offensive coordinator.

Lang played at Queen's for the legendary Frank Tindall. At least two of his former teammates from those legendary Eskimos teams have coached CIS teams. Tom Wilkinson, the quarterback, coached Alberta and long-time centre Bob Howes coached Queen's in the 1990s.

Kendall confirmed Lang applied and was interviewed. Kendall also said he hopes to have a hire made by the end of this week. Spring camp is to begin in to two weeks and Kendall said he most definitely hopes to have a head coach in place by then.

Two other confirmed interviewees are former Mount Allison coach Steve LaLonde and former Laurier linebacker and special teams coordinator Kevin MacNeill. Queen's defensive coordinator Pat Tracey, who played and coached for the Gryphons, said "no comment" when asked if he had interviewed.

It is possible the men's Final 8 might stay in Halifax for a good long time, especially if Atlantic University Sport is willing to make certain financial guarantees.

There is a sentiment it is time to take the tournament around the country. No other major team sport has a fixed venue. Let's pretend hypotheticals such as having a basketball floor and being willing to pay the piper (the event is a big cash cow, since basketball has a lower overhead than football) are addressed. What cities and schools offer a combo of good support, a solid team and an appropriate mid-sized venue. Off the top of one's head:

Saskatchewan (Credit Union Centre, Saskatoon): The new national champions play in a province which will support just about anything sporting, and Saskatoon offers a modern but not overly large venue with flexible seating capacity which can go up to 11,000. The city already did a good job with the 2006 Vanier Cup.
UBC (Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, Vancouver): This hinges on what direction the UBC athletics program takes (NCAA?), but it did not get a 6,800-seat hockey arena on campus for the sake of the status quo. It would only be fair, too, to let Alberta and B.C. teams have a chance to play closer to home after travelling 2-4 time zones for more than a quarter-century and counting.
Windsor (WFCU Centre): One does wonder how push there will be to direct semi-major sporting fare toward the City of Roses, since neighbouring Detroit got a Super Bowl and NCAA Final Four in a short span.

Windsor is a finalist to have the OHL's Spitfires host the 2011 Memorial Cup at the 7,000-seat WFCU Centre, which would be a good size for the Final 8. The question is whether the university and the city's business core have deep enough pockets. Windsor is the school which has the longest-tenured OUA football coach since it cannot afford to reassign him until his contract expires.

The St. Denis Centre would also make a good site for the women's Final 8. It is worth noting since (a) there is no host site for the 2012 women's Final 8 and (b) coach Chantal Vallée's Lancers are defending champion among schools staying in CIS.

Both Windsor and Saskatoon, among others, would have to trouble-shoot displacing a major junior hockey team for a week either at the end of its regular season or start of its playoffs. People saying the three Ottawa Final 8s should have been at Urbandale Centre might have wanted to keep that in mind. (Then again, it's less of an issue if it's held earlier so not to coincide with the NCAAs.)
McMaster (Copps Coliseum, Hamilton): Marauders men's coach Joe Raso, in wake of the women's tourney in the Hammer two weeks ago, resurrected a long-standing idea about hosting the men's tourney. Hamilton has a fairly knowledge, passionate fanbase, so there's a lot to like about the idea. Copps (17,383 for hockey) might be a little large and is also one of the older buildings on this list.
Western (John Labatt Centre, London): The JLC (9,100 for hockey) hosts NBA exhibition games (Global Spectrum, which manages the arena, has some tie to the Philadelphia 76ers), so setting up for b-ball would not be an issue.

Besides, it would be a good show that Western is a good sports school for all seasons and has evolved well past "the three seasons: football, football recruiting and spring football" phase. Mustangs athletic director Thérèse Quigley is not averse to being big and bold.

A couple of reaches:

Ryerson (the renovated Maple Leaf Gardens): A fan who might be moving to Toronto soon can dream, can't he?
Laval (new Quebec City arena): Football fans should not be the only ones to experience a CIS championship hosted by Laval.

The sticking point is that Laval is out in suburban Ste-Foy and presumably any arena built in hope of resurrecting Les Nordiques would be far from campus.
Queen's (K-Rock Centre, Kingston): Only in here to point out another Kingston Frontenacs owner Doug Springer will never let another team host a national championship at the K-Rock Centre, his petty fiefdom that he doesn't actually own or operate. You have to keep dates available for that huge playoff run (all the way to the second round!) that he's been promising Kingston since 1998, don't you know.

In no way is this a suggestion Springer and his Frontenacs (halfway to being swept in the first round) is actively trying to sandbag another Kingston team's bid to land a national tournament ... in no way whatsoever.

The new Queen's Centre, meantime, would be ideal for the women's Final 8 or a men's regional, should need for the latter ever arise.

Feel free to suggest others. Mentioning the Halifax Metro Centre is kind of obvious since it is next season's site already.

It was noted over the weekend Doug Smith, the lead basketball writer from the Toronto Star, was at the CIS Final 8, which is a coup. He talked in pretty glowing terms about the Canadian game:

"There is no doubt the depth of talent is increasing every year and spreading from coast to coast. Gone are the days when the University of Victoria takes seven titles in seven seasons, or when the Carleton Ravens could claim six in seven years. There is a level of parity in the game now perhaps unprecedented.

" ... There may not have been a legitimate senior national team prospect among the eight teams here but that doesn't mean in a deepening talent pool there won't be.

" 'We've had some talks here this weekend with the CIS coaches and we want it to continue to grow," said (Canadian national) men's team coach Leo Rautins.

" 'Obviously, the best thing for Canada Basketball is the CIS gets bigger, deeper, stronger; because of the fact we don't have a pro league in this country, the CIS becomes that kind of model."

Smith noted it didn't matter there were about 5,000 people at Scotiabank Place for the final, the passion was evident. He also noted on his blog:

"I also think we need to write more about these kids and the programs and the teams. A one-off appearance was a good thing, I have to do a better job next season of doing more, there are lots of good stories out there that need to be told. Not game stories, per se, but stories about the people who play the game and the issues they face.

"The thing I hear often when I suggest things like that – and this is from readers as much as it is from people in our industry – is that people don’t care.

"Well, how do we know?

"Do they not care because we don’t tell them? If we gave them more stories, would they care? It’s a chicken and egg thing in some regards and maybe it’s time we take the initiative and simply do it and see how everyone reacts."

Related:
Huskies have reason to howl; Saskatchewan's first men's basketball title comes amid period of great growth for CIS (Doug Smith, Toronto Star)
Lots of CIS stuff because it was a fun weekend (Doug Smith's Toronto Raptors Blog)

Very sad news: Rhys Coppens, a 20-year-old defensive back who was planning to play for Calgary this fall, was killed in Fernie, B.C., last weekend.

Update: The Edmonton Sun reports Coppens "was found in an alley outside a bar in Fernie, B.C. around 2:25 a.m. Sunday ... He was suffering from a number of severe injuries, police said."

Words fail at saying how awful for family and friends to have to lay someone so young and who had such potential to rest. Coppens was a terror in the secondary and on special teams for Alberta when he started in '07 as a 17-year-old straight from St. Francis Xavier in Edmonton. He moved to the CJFL's Vancouver Island Raiders, but was ready to give CIS another go with coach Blake Nill's Dinos.

Condolences to all those who knew him.

A couple notes now several hours after the championship game:

Saskatchewan guard Michael Linklater, who is an aboriginal Canadian, had a neat take when asked what it meant knowing he could walk down the street as a national champion. "I treat every game I play like a championship game so it doesn't feel that different ... what this really means to me is how big it is for aboriginal youth. They can look at me being an all-star and know what aboriginal youth can achieve. There have been many to come before me like Charlton Weaslehead (who starred at Brandon a decade ago), they paved the way for me."
Huskies Football Outsider has an amazing picture of Linklater and Showron Glover kissing the W.P. McGee Trophy.
Glover's folks were prescient when they gave him a name that begins with "Show." Everyone who was on press row might need plastic surgery to remove their smiles after hearing his interview. There is someone who deserves the world, you know?
Glover is the latest to pull off "the Brannagan," leading his team to the national title after being passed over as a player-of-the-year nominee.
Could UBC defer joining the NCAA until swingman Kamar Burke has played out his career? He's that needed in Canada.
About that ... UBC said 11 months ago it was deferring its decision on going D-2 to "at least 2010." University president Stephen J. Toope, who knows, could make his decision sooner rather than later.

That would set off a chain reaction. For starters, CIS and Canada West might have to expedite UBC Okanagan's membership application so it can have six football teams in the West.
No doubt you heard: CBS' Gus Johnson, during the Syracuse-Gonzaga NCAA second-round game, said, "Leo Rautins, (Orange guard) Andy Rautins' father isn't here in Buffalo because he's in Canada broadcasting the Canadian national team's games."

Scratch the obvious slip-ups. Why, pray tell, would our national team have a game scheduled when the NBA, NCAA tournament and most foreign pro leagues are going strong?
It was also a treat to see Saskatchewan Troy Gottselig (the Final 8 MVP) play in person.

The limited media exposure of CIS hoops, especially among schools not with Streaming Sports Network Canada (dropping a hint to Huskie Athletics!) means sometimes players are a jersey number, height, weight, hometown and statline. It's very akin to the NCAA basketball culture of 1978-79 that Seth Davis described in When March Went Mad (there was a passage about how one Indiana State player's buddies didn't even realize Larry Bird was white until they saw him on TV).

Gottselig just had that well-rounded big man's game, able to hit the three and finish inside.
There is a lot more right about the Thunderbirds than wrong, and a lot of admiration for coach Kevin Hanson having reached successive finals while playing three time zones from home. That being said, forward Kyle Watson sprinting down the tunnel after being ejected for his second unsportsmanlike foul ("I need to take a walk," he said) was just bizarre, even if was his last game.

FIBA's unsportsmanlike foul, which is applied if a player fouls from behind on an opponent who has a clear path to the basket, doesn't fit with our North American understanding. People hear "flagrant foul" and think it's a hard foul.

On Watson's first, he was diving for the ball as Showron Glover peeled away after a steal. It was physically harmless, but the refs were going by the book, I guess. Meantime, UBC's Graham Bath got thrown to the floor a couple times and it's just an off-the-ball foul.
Peter James of Canwest News Service tweeted that UBC players did not shake hands with Carleton athletic director Jennifer Brenning. A guy from a respectable media chain is not going to say that rashly.

Special thanks to Bengt Neathery, Matt Copeland, Mark Masters, Chris Messina and Joe Scanlon for doing a great job for Streaming Sports Network Canada. Also good to see Chris Kallan there doing a bang-up job blogging for the CIS website.
Bengt, who is a good friend (full disclosure), made a personal apology for the loss of the French-language videocast on SSN, even it TSN nixed the deal.
"It basically happened after my interview with one of the leading newspapers. It apparently made (TSN president) Phil King's attention, and he was not happy.

"TSN is a business and I can't blame them for protecting their rights and wanting to expand TSN2. I only wish everyone could remember that these are unpaid athletes who for many, this could be their last games. I think they deserve as much exposure as possible, if at least to expand the interest for future programs."
The two most-commented upon posts here in the last week were not about the games (would that they were). They were about the award selections and the tape-delay for the second semi-final, and people weren't happy.
It was a lot of fun to cover the tournament in Ottawa these past three years in print, on SSN and on the blog. Downtown Halifax, though, is a lot of fun, speaking as a University of King's College alumnus (yes, degrees from Queen's and King's, stop laughing).

The regret is not knowing how much great momentum for CIS men's basketball coming out of the Acadia-Carleton classic was lost due to institutional inertia.

It's UBC vs. Saskatchewan for the men's basketball championship, live from Scotiabank Place. Join us in the liveblog!

We'll be liveblogging the consolation final between Windsor and Cape Breton...in a way. It's on SSN Canada here, so if you're at your computer, we'll assume you have that on, and this will serve more as supplementary coverage.

A couple tidbits over a late breakfast and the Syracuse-Gonzaga game. Thanks to CBS for pointing out a lot of Canadians go to sports events in Buffalo.

It is worth noting now: Our panel did six possible brackets, and four had Saskatchewan as the No. 2 seed and the other two had the Huskies third. No one put UBC higher.
TSN2 might have to make the whole crowd move to one side of Scotiabank Place for the Saskatchewan-UBC final. The attendance has been that sparse and now the host team has bounced.

There's never any one reason or excuse for a lukewarm turnout. Here's a few in random order:
1. The ripple of recession. Spending habits are always behind the economy.
  
  The economy has affected press row, so no reason that wouldn't be different up in the stands. There are the local sportswriters such as Wayne Kondro of the Ottawa Citizen and Dan Plouffe of the Orleans Star, but the only out-of-town print reporter I've seen is the Toronto Star's Doug Smith (and it's great the lead NBA writer at Canada's largest newspaper came!).
  
  Only about 60% of CIS men's basketball coaches came; typically it's about 90%. UQAM was the lone team followed by a hometown radio crew (our friend Alex Tourigny from CHOQ-FM).
2. Blame Canada. This is more of a hypothetical thanks to our version of NCAA (some have joked CIS could be called the National Curmudgeons Against Athletes) won't allow scholarships. I'll say it: Do you think there would be 6,000 people at our national championship if some or all of the six Canadians playing in the Gonzaga-Syracuse game were all playing in CIS?
3. Timing. Why go out if you can watch the NCAA Tournament on TV? It's also March break.
4. Location, location, location. In Ottawa, you're breaking the fourth wall if you mention Scotiabank Place is so far from things such as the city centre, the nightlife, and after 4 p.m., people.
  
  It is that much of a sore spot for the movers and shakers with the Senators and Capital Sports. The remoteness of SBP rears it head when there is less than 100% motivation for bandwagon fans. That has been the case this season with the Sennies (tied for sixth in the NHL's Eastern Conference). Carleton wasn't trying to extend a string of titles or get it back, and the Ottawa Gee-Gees missed the tourney.
5. Marketing. It always comes back to that, does it not?
6. Luck of the draw. One selling point for Ottawa was noting how many teams were within a reasonable driving distance. This season, the Gee-Gees missed the tournament. Lakehead and Windsor came from the OUA West, a far cry from having Brock and Western in 2008. The Quebec rep, UQAM, didn't seem to have a huge student section.
7. Typical Ottawa. Go ahead, say it.
Saskatchewan flat out deserved its 86-82 semifinal win over Carleton, executing Greg Jockims' game plan (make threes on offense, take the three-ball away from the Ravens, battle them to a draw on the boards) almost perfectly.
This is one Ontarian who is issuing a mea culpa to the Huskies, win or lose vs. UBC. The lead-horse phenomenon tends to kick in and for much of the season, that was the T-Birds.
The rub is it's close on Saturday if Carleton shoots 25% from three-point land. They were 1-for-16 from three, not counting a 30-some-footer Mike Kenny threw in at the buzzer.
The Huskies' Showron Glover is playing for a national title and his NCAA namesake Sherron Collins of Kansas is not. It was a rough Saturday for top seeds with ornithological nicknames, since the Jayhawks and Ravens each lost. (And yes, there is an Ottawa, Kansas.)
Canada West will have its first W.P. McGee Trophy since 2002 (the last time the Ravens were not in the tournament).
It was also the first time since 2000, Dave Smart's first season at the helm, that Carleton had a season-ending loss that was more than a one-possession game. They lost by two to Acadia in '08, by two to York in '02 and by a point on a buzzer shot vs. McMaster in '01.
Smart, the one who did call the Huskies "the best team here," was sanguine after his team's loss. "I went through the handshake line and I turned around and all 13 guys were picking up the (used) cups and putting them in the garbage. Maybe that's part of my problem, I need to recruit more pricks."

Smart always says it's about the character of the people associated with his Ravens, their willingness to be brutally honest with themselves. Championships and praise all just an off-shoot. Go ahead, be a cynic, but it's true. Carleton likely won't win five in a row again, but they will not quit, ever. A lot of teams would have when they were down 15 with 14 minutes left in the game.

Enjoy the game, friends.

To someone not paying full (or any) attention, this year's and last year's semifinals were quite similar: you had UBC beating Calgary and a Carleton buzzer-beater to end the second game.

But, of course, Mike Kenny's three-pointer at the end of today's fourth quarter merely brought the Ravens from within seven to within four as they lost 86-82. And the UBC-Calgary game, last year almost as good as the later Carleton-Western thriller, had a sloppy 2010 edition and featured a 12-point lead for the Thunderbirds with seven to go in the fourth.

Neate Sager, while filing copy on deadline, remarked that it was the most ironic three-point shot ever, given the number of times we had to get out our umbrellas when Saskatchewan's Michael Linklater launched a shot from downtown.

Linklater was the story tonight, and one of the more impressive of the tourney; plug his name into a news search and see what you get. (I can't do his story justice here.)

The crowd was also much less impressive than last year: not a surprise when the opposing fans have to come from Saskatoon rather than London.

Another obvious difference is in the reactions of the winning bench: Carleton's players exploded and fell around Stu Turnbull last year; tonight, without the drama, the Huskie bench merely walked out to greet the rest and everyone shook hands.

SSN did a long post-game show last year and everyone was all hyped up for hours afterwards because of the exciting pair of games. This year? The arena began to empty before Saskatchewan had even won, and was deserted five minutes after the final buzzer.

The Score also carried both games live last year; this year, a smaller subset of people saw the first game on TSN2 and a much smaller subset (read: zero) saw the second one live. (In fact, you might be able to catch the second half if you turn TSN2 on now.)

That doesn't mean these games today weren't exciting, of course; just that we had a lot to live up to as fans, as press-row inhabiters, and as TV viewers. Having these Saskatchewan Huskies in the final tomorrow, at a time when they seem to be playing better than anyone? I'll take it.

There's also an argument to be made how some people are, shall we say, mistaken by assuming the same teams will win every year: so far in 2009-2010, Carleton lost in men's basketball, UNB lost in men's hockey, McGill lost in women's hockey, and Laval lost in football. All #1 or close to it; all pretty much expected to win it all without difficulty.

The only team that everyone knew would win, and did win, were the Simon Fraser Clan in women's basketball, and they're gone, off to NCAA D-2.

So next year, not one defending champion in any of those five sports will be the one that was expected. You can call it parity, you can call it an off-night from the top-ranked teams, and you can say it's nothing compared to March Madness, but if you aren't following at least one of these sports...well, you're just missing out, aren't you?

Good night again, from Scotiabank Place.

What is better than one liveblog? Two liveblogs. Rob Pettapiece is running the point for the Saskatchewan-Carleton semi-final.

Our cisblog.ca crew will be on hand to commentate on all things Calgary-UBC in the first semifinal (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT, TSN2).

Also, follow the outofleftfield Twitter. The one way this will work, since I am doing colour commentary with Mark Masters on SSN Canada and covering for the Ottawa Sun, is to sync the Twitter feed and liveblog.

Mike Aylward offers some thoughts from the middle of nowhere on the broadcasting and webcasting situation for CIS, some answers from CIS on the shift from The Score to TSN, and a plea for both networks showing the men's basketball and hockey championships this month.

Those of us who follow Canadian university sports know that there is still a hill to climb for CIS in terms of national television exposure.

When CIS announced its deal with TSN last fall, I personally was of two minds. First I thought it was too bad that The Score wasn't doing hoops and the football bowl games as they did a fantastic job. However, I realized TSN has the biggest broadcast footprint and that having them doing the championships would probably mean bigger viewer numbers. Also, The Score was committed to NCAA March Madness this year so they were out for the men's hoops nationals.

I had asked Peter Metuzals, director of marketing for CIS, some questions on the new deal back in October but held this final piece on CIS broadcasting until now so as to see what the TSN broadcasting would look like. My questions are below:

Why did you choose TSN for this deal? Because of bigger footprint; did they offer more money; better financial ad deal?
Was The Score still bidding for the rights to any of these sports for these two years?
If The Score was in the mix, did awarding the rights to TSN adversely affect possible future broadcasting on The Score?
Was Rogers Sportsnet showing any interest?

Here are Peter's answers, from October:

Actually all the networks were bidding for the rights to host our Championships, although it is not as appealing as it might suggest. We needed a broadcaster for Men's Basketball which The Score was not able to do, due to their obligation to the NCAA Tournament. TSN was interested in Basketball as well as the football properties.

"The partnership with TSN is in the best interests of the CIS over the long term. Why? Simply because TSN is able to attract more viewers, has access to more viewers, and will therefore allow CIS to generate more revenue. The potential to reach a larger audience, even the potential of a larger audience, will have a financial impact on the CIS. Think of Grey Cup, well that is where we intend to take the Vanier Cup."

"The Score was certainly in our discussions, but since it was impossible for them to broadcast the 2010 Men's Championship we had very little choice but to move to TSN. Once you look closely at the long term, and you look closely at who your partners are, what other events they broadcast and what they are able to bring to the table, you would then need to feel comfortable in the direction we are headed."

"I have said all along, one of the key components of success is more television visibility. Regular games on a consistent and regular time slot. Once we have that, we need some more. Understand that the CIS does not have jurisdiction over regular season play. Should we pay to broadcast regular season games? Maybe, but then we need to ensure we show the best games, at the best broadcast times in the best venues. National coverage will help all member schools enhanced their level of visibility, it will further promote who we are and what Canadian schools can do."

"As well, think of this, what we are also doing is creating increased value for our properties and our brand. Every move we make, we must consider the value of the CIS brand and how we can improve it and and how we get information out. I will suggest we have a taken an other big step forward."

Peter's answers and the CIS reasoning on making the deal with TSN made sense but now we have to grade the results so far.

With football, there were some technical glitches but the bowl games, all in all, were done fairly well. I do think with women's basketball more games could have been shown by TSN and that the final game could have been on TSN and not TSN2.

As for the men's basketball championships beginning Friday in Ottawa, the news is positive today: SSN's ability to webcast all championship-side games live in French, with English audio available, will allow those without TSN2 the chance to watch this year's tourney.

How about taking a chance and moving the semis or at least Sunday's final to the TSN main network? I believe the viewers will be there. (For those of you interested in looking at CIS TV and webcast viewing numbers over the past few years, go check out the CIS AGM Report [pdf], starting around page 17.)

Regardless, one thing the CIS must do with whomever it makes TV contracts with is to ensure that all games are vidcast live as well, whether by the broadcaster or by a vidcaster like SSN, in Canada as well an internationally. Alumni are all over the world and no website national restrictions should be imposed by the broadcaster.

Finally, my plea to TSN (for men's hoops) and Rogers Sportsnet (for men's hockey) is the following:

Cover these games as if these leagues are real leagues; don't be apologists for the fact that these players aren't in the NCAA or in pro hockey. This is one thing The Score was great at and TSN and Rogers can learn from. For example, during last year's hockey nationals the announcers did a good job. However, they were constantly referring to the major junior teams the players had played for, and to make matters worse, Rogers would show fourth- or fifth-year players' CHL stats on the screen and not their much more relevant CIS stats!

Here's hoping for two great tournaments and a lot of excellent broadcasts and hopefully a lot more national broadcasts next year on the big sports networks and regional cable networks.

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