The Carleton Ravens and Ottawa Gee-Gees playing their OUA East basketball semi-finals at the same time on Saturday night speaks to what a lot people like about Canadian university sports.
Sure, it would be nice to hit both fronts of Ottawa-Toronto Times Two (Ott-Tor x2, for short). The York Lions are returning to the scene of the crime -- they dropped a 61-point half at the Ravens' Nest four weeks back -- and are looking to deny Carleton Ravens star Oz Jeanty his goal of winning a fifth national championship. Meantime, while the Ravens try to regroup for their drive for five, across the Rideau Canal coach Dave DeAveiro's Gee-Gees seem like a better horse to bet on (pardon the pun) as far as the Final 8 is concerned. However, first the Gee-Gees, with their fifth-year stars Jermaine Campbell, Alex McLeod and Curtis Shakespeare, have to deal with the Toronto Varsity Blues, whom they went down to the buzzer with in both regular-season matches.
It's not like the CIS doesn't bend to TV's whims. John Bower, who handles sports information for the U of O, says the Toronto-Ottawa game would have been changed to Sunday if Rogers Community 22 (scheduled to air the York-Carleton semi on tape delay beginning at 9:30 p.m.) could have been able to tape and air both games, but the broadcaster was only budgeted to show one. (TV commitments are between the OUA and Rogers.)
Bower stresses that's "the only way" the tip-off would have been moved. Both Gee-Gees hockey teams are at home this weekend -- the men have a do-or-die playoff game vs. Trois-Rivieres tonight at 7 and the nationally ranked women's team has its regular-season finale Saturday at 2 p.m. "We try not to have our games conflict whenever possible," he says.
Not only that, but it's Reading Week at the U of O, and Bower points out that "our students are coming back to campus expecting there's going to be a basketball game at 8 o'clock on Saturday night. There would be no way to inform them (of a time change) unless they checked our website."
Bower estimates a Gee-Gees hoops crowd is about a 50-50 mix of students and the general public. That speaks to what the CIS is all about -- not to stereotype the way it's done in the States, but up here the games are played by students and they're played for the students and the surrounding community. How can that be a bad thing?
If you attend a CIS game, you'll always see these little trappings that remind you that these teams and players are very much part of a community. For instance, co-blogger Neil Acharya and myself were the radio guys for the Queen's hockey team once upon a time, and a familiar sight when we called games from Jock Harty Arena was seeing people in running gear drift in early in the third period, waiting for the game to end so they could use the track that went around the top of the rink.
That's something you only get in the CIS. It reminds you that there's very much a community spirit, not the feeling you get in the States of a NBA franchise to be named later. It's the right
YORK-CARLETON
Quick "banalysis" here: York's a powderkeg that could blow either way and have this strange relationship with the 3-ball -- the Lions are in love with shooting it (they went 15-for-32 vs. Queen's), but don't defend it terribly well. The Ravens probably need Jeanty to frustrate York's backcourt of Tut Ruach and Rohan Steen early, maybe draw some loose-ball and offensive fouls. Needless to say, they can't let York's 6-foot-10 Jordan Foebel plant himself under the basket. Hitting from the baseline and the elbow, 8-10 ft. out, early on will draw him out.
U of T-U of O
The higher the score, the better off the Gee-Gees are -- some early three-point shooting, maybe from emerging backups such as Willy Manigat and Donnie Gibson could help. Toronto's a lot more used to playing grind-out games, down in the 50s, and coach Mike Katz' team is very good -- 16-7 in OUA play this year, with five of the losses by three points or less. It's not that remote that both Toronto teams could win here this weekend.
WHERE YOU AT?
I seem to be bad news for anyone in a scarlet-and-black or Tricolour uniform. Dating back to '02, Queen's has lost the last seven football games I attended. This year, Carleton's basketball team is 1-3 when I'm in attendance and 26-0 the rest of the time. Various Gee-Gees teams are 5-0, so that seals it: We're at Montpetit Hall and the good lord and the Blogger software willing, there will be a liveblog starting at 8.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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