Morning rounds ...

Football

• Montreal Alouettes middle linebacker Shea Emry (UBC) is getting a reputation as one of the CFL's hardest hitters. Apparently it caught the ire of Winnipeg Blue Bombers coach Mike Kelly, although it's fair to wonder if Kelly was just amazed to see a defender making a tackle. His own don't do that too often. (Montreal Gazette)
  
  
• The U of S Huskies expect tailback Tyler O'Gorman back from injury this week. (Star-Phoenix, Huskies Football Outsider)
  
  
• Wideout Seydou Junior Haïdara is having an impact at Laval in his first season, plus he's a candidate for the all-name team. (Le Soleil)
  
  
• McGill athletic director Drew Love and football coach Sonny Wolfe get some praise for "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" (figurative translation) two years ago to rebuild the Redmen.
  
  For those who read French, Love has some choice quotes about the challenge of recruiting with McGill's admission standards. It is never going to be easy, but at least they're going for it, the way the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision's resident eggheads such as Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Stanford do while playing in major conferences.
  
  Granted, then there's schools such as Rice and Tulsa, which are too small and academic for the Big 12, but get to have their moments in Conference USA. We'll never get that kind of alignment in Canada, though. (La Presse)
  
  
• Always OUA is airing grievances over Laurier being ahead of Guelph in the CIS/UFRC Top 10.
  

Basketball

• Mark Wacyk turns his focus to the wide-open OUA West (the WOW division) and the Waterloo Warriors, who might be flying a wee bit under the radar but probably have more experience than most of their reials. Whichever team(s) the OUA West sends to the Final 8 will be stress-tested.
  
  Waterloo has a solid big, 6-foot-9 Matt Hayes, but apparently 7-footer Owen Coutts has opted to focus on academics. There's some "Two Towers" joke in there. (cishoops.ca)
  
  
• The Western Washington University student paper examines Simon Fraser's move to the NCAA.

Hockey

• Brock's Mark Yetman is "as good as any first-year goalie coming into the CIS," in the iew of Badgers coach Murray Nystrom.
  
  Another notable is that the new two-division alignment in the OUA has created some excitement, well, mainly because it is new. (Brock Press)
  
  
• Former Sam Bloom (McGill) has been assigned to the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones, who are an affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens. That team is famous for being good before the NHL had an entry draft, he added, like a true Leafs fan (pot, meet kettle). (press release)
  
  
• Ryerson's women's team is scheduled to join the OUA in 2010, but in here and now is struggling to find enough players for its city league. (The Eyeopener)