1. MBB: UBC Okanagan (18%) over TRU, Saturday (box). Meaningless game for TRU? Perhaps. But a loss to a 4-18, last-place team in the midst of your best season ever and the week before your first CIS playoff game ever? Definitely. Sure, the WolfPack regulars sat a lot of this one out ... but I still don't think this is the result they wanted.
Crazy comebacks
The teams who should have lost, but didn't.
3. MBB: Concordia (2.7%) over UQAM, Thursday (play-by-play). February madness continues. Another brutal game like this for UQAM, who may have played themselves out of the RSEQ playoffs. Up 71-56 late in the third, then a 12-0 run later...well, you can guess what happened. Note that Concordia went 23 for 28 from the line, 13 of which came after that 71-56 point. So more than one made free throw per minute. That'll do.
2. MBB: Queen's (1.1%) over Toronto, Friday (play-by-play). Down 75-69 with two minutes to go, Queen's would score 10 points on 3 shots the rest of the way (yes, you read that correctly) and U of T would score 0.
1. MBB: Brock (0.4%) over Western, Wednesday (play-by-play). Again with the Mustangs!? Has anyone checked on Brad Campbell? This game and the last one are now the difference between their going to Lakehead and hosting Lakehead tonight. They had a 37-18 lead at the half here, holding Brock to a 5-point second quarter. But Dani Elgadi scored 11 in a row (!), part of his 31 on the night. They even had a six-point lead late before Brandon John made two shots at the end: it went 71-68, 71-70, then 72-71.
Biggest changes in SRS
Up: Calgary MBB (+5, 28 to 23). A good, but too-little-too-late weekend vs. Lethbridge, losing by 2 after being up entering the fourth and an overtime win by 13. Sounded like a good series, as friend of the blog Wayne Thomas has outlined (here and here).
Down: UPEI MBB (18 to 24). Remember, kids: friends don't let friends lose to Memorial.
Slowest game of the week: WBB Algoma at Carleton and Algoma at Ottawa, Friday and Saturday (65 possessions each).
The Thunderbirds of northern Ontario lost these games 72-31 and 88-52 to end the year as the only winless team in either men's or women's CIS basketball. We probably didn't need any more possessions in these games. Algoma scored 3 in the third vs. Carleton and 4 in the first vs. Ottawa.
Fastest game of the week: MBB SMU at Acadia, Monday (93 possessions per 40 minutes)
Monday as in last Monday, as in nine days ago. There were actually 104 possessions, but it was an overtime game. Remember games like these, with 73 missed shots, when people use rebound-per-game totals instead of rebound percentages to claim a team has rebounding strength. Also check out how these teams combined for 113 points in the second half alone. Then 21 more in five minutes of OT. A 106-101 final for SMU, and I think they only stopped at 106-101 because the arena staff had to go home.
Terrell Evans Watch
UVic won both of their final regular-season games, against what remains of the UBC Thunderbirds. Evans scored 40 in the weekend, including 26 on 10/13 shooting with 7 defensive rebounds in road game of the pair. He currently holds the highest PER among non-Ottawa-based players, fourth overall behind Terry Thomas, Tyson Hinz, and Phil Scrubb. He is outshooting every Raven except Victor Raso. Time to start a Terrell Evans MVP Watch? (Wayne goes with Jordan Baker, another good choice. But is he subtly unadaptable to Eastern life?)
Best games of the upcoming week (all times Eastern)
There are lots of them.
WBB: Brock at Laurier (Wednesday (tonight!), OUA West quarterfinal, 6:00pm). For some reason the OUA and CIS sites are calling this a Brock home game. It's not; Laurier's own schedule (and the fact that 15 > 11) confirms that. A Laurier win puts them in the Western game on Saturday; a Brock win, at Windsor. The best of the women's games in the OUA this week.
MBB: York at Laurentian (Wednesday, OUA East quarterfinal, 8:00pm). It's your last OUA East game not against Ottawa or Carleton, boys. Better make the best of it.
MBB: Lethbridge at UFV (Thursday, Friday, Saturday if necessary, CW quarterfinal, 10:00pm all days). These two teams played in this series two years ago and gave us this ending. (Don't tell anyone, but I think his foot was on the line.)
MBB: TRU at Saskatchewan (Friday, Saturday, Sunday if necessary, CW quarterfinal, 8:00pm all days). Adjacent in our team rankings, and both left outside the official Top 10, the Wolves and HuskyPack will provide us with good one. As mentioned, it's TRU's first playoff series.
WBB: TBD at Western (Saturday, OUA West semifinal, 1:00pm). Likely either McMaster or Laurier will be the opponent here, but Lakehead-Western, or Williams-Vaughan, would be off the hook as well. A great game to decide who gets to, well, lose to Windsor and then play for the third spot into nationals.
WBB: McGill at Concordia (Saturday, 2:00pm). Season finale for the top two teams in the Quebec circuit
WBB: TBD at Carleton (Saturday, OUA East semifinal, 5:30pm). Both Ottawa and Toronto would match up well; a double upset by the 5 and 6 seeds would make this a Ryerson-Carleton game, which wouldn't be nearly the same as its men's counterpart.
MBB: Acadia at Dalhousie (Saturday, 7:00pm). Not as lopsided as it seems, and the Tigers will have home court. Of course now that I've said that, Acadia will win by 35.
MBB: TBD at Ottawa (Saturday, OUA East semifinal, 8:00pm). A potential Ottawa-Ryerson game, a game between Nos. 2 and 6 in the country, that is only a conference quarterfinal shouldn't even be legal. That might just be the best game left on the entire CIS schedule, up to and including the Final 8.
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