- Carleton Ravens (29-2, OUA champion/host)
- Cape Breton Capers (27-3, AUS champion)
- UBC Thunderbirds (23-2, wild card)
- Windsor Lancers (21-7, OUA finalist)
- Saskatchewan Huskies (27-6, Canada West champion)
- Lakehead Thunderwolves (23-7, OUA third place)
- Calgary Dinos (21-6, Canada West finalist)
- UQAM Citadins (18-12, QUBL champion)
FRIDAY
- Calgary vs. Cape Breton, 12:30 p.m. — The focal point will be in the post — can CBU's Phil Nkrumah (whom the Cape Breton Post noted might be playing hurt) and Scott Jaspers-Fayer slow down Ross Bekkering and Robbie Sihota?
Calgary's been off two weeks, but doesn't have much depth. Cape Breton is deeper, but just had two tough games at the AUS Final 6. (Of course, if you're still tired the next Friday ...) Call it a jump ball.
Calgary has the same scenario it did last season of playing early in the day vs. the AUS champ. Throw this out to the group: Are the Jim Charters-coached Capers deeper and more athletic than Dalhousie was last season?
- Lakehead (6) vs. UBC (3), 2:30 p.m. — A great guard matchup with Greg Carter getting a crack at containing another league MVP, UBC's Josh Whyte. Meantime, UBC's chameleons have to deal with a bona fide big man, Lakehead's Yoosrie Salhia, a wide-bodied 6-foot-6.
UBC is the clear favourite. It's a matchup of the perennial heavyweight going up against the upstart GGODs, who have been nails in fourth quarters.
A Thunderwolves vs. Thunderbirds matchup ought to be fun for announcers who haven't seen either team in person all season.
- Saskatchewan (5) vs. Windsor (4), 6 p.m. (TSN2) — The fifth-seeded Huskies come in with a little more buzz after their run at the Canada West final four, and with the Showron Glover-Michael Linklater backcourt and Duncan Jones able to heat up off the bench, perhaps there's a bit of an Acadia 2008 vibe.
You would know who to pick if a Windsor-Saskatchewan matchup ever came to pass in football.
- UQAM (8) vs. Carleton (1), 8 p.m. (TSN2) — That tense three-point quarter-final win Carleton had over UQAM in Halifax four years ago is bound to get mentioned about 787 times this week.
UQAM plays up-tempo, and likes to create some crazy situations just to see what happens. Carleton has shown an ability to adjust to that over the course of 40 minutes. Look for them to defy Citadins lead guard Adil El Makssoud to try some beyond NBA range three-pointers.
Apologies in advance: At some point I will slip up and call les Citadins "Carabins." It's just a matter of when.
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteJust so you know, CHOQ FM will be there doing live FRENCH play by play for EVERY UQAM games (including consolation round). www.choq.fm/basket.html
See you in Ottawa!
I may be slow, or maybe this is a legit Q. I've seen mention of GGOD's several times now in regards to LU. Some please explain???
ReplyDelete@Anon: It's a bit of an in-joke. Refers to a feature Allan Maki wrote on Lakehead hoops for the Globe and Mail a couple of seasons back, which was headlined "A great group of dudes". We've been calling them GGODs ever since.
ReplyDeleteCalgary played Concordia last year in the only "close" game (beating them by 9) of what has to go down as the worse ever opening round of the CIS men's championships. It was UBC who beat DAL (by 24), Western over Ottawa (by 27) and the ultimate snorefest - Carleton beat SFX by 37.
ReplyDeleteCalgary could have easily lost their first game last year to the Stingers. If memory serves, the Stingers were in the lead at halftime but played a very poor second half.
Are the Capers deeper and more athletic than last year's Tigers? A thousand times yes. Dal was (and still is) essentially Simon Farine and whoever else decides to show up, while Cape Breton has three different guys -- Nkrumah, Paris Carter and Jimmy Dorsey -- who can take over a game. Throw in some extremely solid supporting players like Jasper-Fayer and Tremaine Fraser, and there's a reason why the led the country in offence.
ReplyDeleteSager...
ReplyDeleteYes, that UQAM-Carleton quarter final from FOUR YEARS AGO
has been mentioned about 700 times already....right, Alex?
You know, you really ought to let that one go, Mr. T.
The only player around from that game is Kevin McCleery, a wet behind the ears rookie then.
Kevin is now as everyone knows the best pure post player in the country.
What Alex doesn't mention very much about that game so long ago is that Aaron Doornekamp missed nationals because of a broken ankle.
THAT had to cramp Carleton's style just a bit.
Really, it was amazing Carleton won the tournament that year.
It was either Dave's best coaching job or Oz's most glorious final 8 performance....or both.
Cantankerous...the point was simply that anything can happen in the Nationals. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Both teams will meet again on Friday, that's a good story.
ReplyDeleteI know it was a first rounder, but still, Aaron Doornekamp wasn't there in the semis and in the final. Yet, the 1st round was the scarriest for Carleton (not in terms of opposition, but simply looking at how the game played out, and the final score).
And you are right, Oz was just great in the '06 tournament.
It's not a question of letting go Mr.C, we're only discussing here. Perhaps, you want to continue this chat on Friday at the Nationals?
@Cantankerous .... I was more making light of the general tendency to bring up not so recent matchups between schools ... like when people fill out NCAA brackets this week, no doubt they'll say, "Hey, this school pulled a first-round upset a few years ago" -- when it was actually when most of the current team was in kindergarten -- "I should take them."
ReplyDeleteWe do that in CIS, bring up past history that has no bearing on the current season. I recall a London, Ont., media outlet that kept bringing up one football coach's OUA playoff record prior to the Western-Queen's Yates Cup. How did that work out? :)