CIS athletes can feel disrespected at times. They are always compared to their peers to the south. Normally, they feel forgotten because of their lack of exposure. Rarely do games outside the OUA get shown nationally — and generally the coverage is suspect, usually just a few seconds on SportsCentre during championship weekends.
But here in AUS we feel disrespected in all sports.
We are usually ranked low, the league's talent is constantly questioned and our level of competition is regularly seen as weak. This happened again this week as the AUS champion, Acadia Axemen, got ‘rewarded’ with the number 8 seed and the chance to face the super-giant killing pummelling basketball robots from Carleton. Acadia coach Steve Baur was on the Axemen staff in '08 when they unseated the hometown Ravens in a double-overtime, semifinal thriller, but the likelihood of lightning striking twice this weekend is undoubtedly low.
The other AUS representative, sixth-ranked St. Francis Xavier, should be able to 'upset' RSEQ champion Concordia, as the X-Men are a talented squad and the Stingers are seen as a weaker team than the typical 3 seed.
Both teams need to have a strong showing to disprove the notion that they belong to a weak conference. If Acadia can keep it close on Friday and X goes on a run this weekend, AUS could make the argument that they were seeded incorrectly. Despite the controversy the conference has wisely taken the high-road but that can only last for so long; they need their athletes to do the talking now.
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Some predictions:
Quarterfinals
Lakehead over Fraser Valley
Carleton over Acadia
Alberta over Ryerson
St.FX over Concordia
Semifinals
Lakehead over Carleton
X over Alberta
Finals
Lakehead over X
Legendary Montreal Canadiens coach Toe Blake once said of predictions “Predictions are made for and by gypsies” – which tribe are you a part of
ReplyDeleteI never thought AUS was a weak basketball conference. And it's a damn good hockey conference, both men's and women's.
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