Sunday, October 14, 2007

CIS CORNER: PILING UP THE POINTS

News 'n' notes pertaining to university sports of interest across The 613:

HOOPS

  • A wait-and-see approach -- as in, wait and see what the scores are like in January and February when teams are nursing injuries, winter colds and academic workloads -- seems like the best approach to take with the switch to FIBA rules and the 24-second shot clock.

    Brandon, Calgary, Cape Breton and McGill each hit a hundred during their pre-season tournament wins on Saturday; Windsor put up 98 and lost. Friday, Saint Mary's and Saskatchewan each scored 100 and McGill put up 99.
  • Classic Carleton Ravens: Daron Leonard had nights last season when barely saw the floor. This weekend, he scored in double figures in all three games as the Ravens won their home House-Laughton tournament, beating UQAM (91-78), Guelph (72-69) and Dalhousie (96-69). Teams just never know where the points will come from with Carleton.

    Well, they do know about Aaron Doornekamp, who put up 25 vs. Dal.
  • It's very early yet, but Capital Sports, which is running the show for the CIS Final 8 men's basketball championship next March at Scotiabank Place, must be wondering about what a coup it would be if teams from Kingston and Montréal qualify for the national championship.

    Neither Queen's or McGill is favoured to do so, but both will be in the mix in their respective divisions, and they both have plenty of alumni located in Ottawa and surrounding environs. In the Gaels' case, OUA East counterpart Carleton is already in as the host team.

    Queen's and McGill have an exhibition game next Saturday in Kingston, which should furnish a better idea of where the teams stand. McGill upset Windsor 101-98 in Montreal on Saturday thanks largely to a 33-point, 14-rebound effort by Sean Anthony.

    For Queen's part, the Gaels beat New Brunswick 73-42 and routed a NAIA school, Paul Smith's College from Albany, N.Y., 92-39. Baris Ondul was the Gaels' top scorer both nights. Rookie Travis Mitchell of Navan had 11 points vs. New Brunswick; his brother Simon had a team-high eight rebounds.
  • The Carleton Ravens men's and women's basketball teams will be covered over the web by CKCU 93.1, the community/campus radio station. Howard Bloom of Sports Business News fame, who's a proud Carleton alum, will be handling most of the play-by-play and was no doubt integral in hooking this up, just as he was with the webcast of the CIS Final 8. Here's hoping the broadcasts get positive feedback; online broadcasting is the way to go for the CIS, which is kind of nichey.

    At this writing, the ckcuonline.com site looks to still be under construction, so check out ckcufm.com if you're interested in tuning in.

MEN'S HOCKEY

  • Ex-Ottawa 67's goalie Brady Morrison had 34 saves in his CIS debut, backing Queen's to a 2-1 overtime win over York on Saturday and a four-point weekend. Brady Olsen scored the overtime winner for the Gaels, who also pulled out a shootout victory in UOIT's home opener on Friday. This is pretty much what to expect from the Gaels: They'll either win by a little or lose by a little.
  • Riley Whitlock is 2-for-2 as the Ottawa Gee-Gees' starting goalie after Saturday's 3-2 shootout victory over Trois-Rivières. For the second weekend in a row, the Gee-Gees won the second game of a home-and-home after losing the first. Ottawa survived a penalty kill in overtime just to get to the shootout. Rob Jarvis assisted on both regulation time goals.
  • Andrew Gibbons, one of the Ravens' top hockey recruits who was injured on the first shift of last Friday's season opener vs. the Ottawa Gee-Gees, is expected to miss two weeks (including this weekend) with a concussion and a stinger in his lower back.

    The Ravens got a single point in a 5-4 loss at home to Concordia on Friday. Andrew Self had two goals and an assist.
  • Small world: Jordan Watt, the goaltending lawyer who finished up his CIS career with the Gee-Gees last season, had a tryout with the ECHL's Victoria Salmon Kings in his native British Columbia. Watt was released; one of the players who was let go the same day was forward Tim Plett, who played for the Manitoba junior league's Portage Terriers during my two years covering that team. Plett, 23, a three-year vet of lower-level pro leagues, will hopefully find a place somewhere.

WOMEN'S HOCKEY

  • Let's assume Jessika Audet, who made 33 saves in the Gee-Gees' season-opening 1-0 squeaker over the Concordia Stingers on Friday, is not the same Jessika Audet who was the goalie on Con U's 1998-99 national championship team. That's an awful big coincidence, though. Grad student?
  • The worries about Queen's being goal-starved seem to be spot on. The Gaels scored just once in both games this weekend, but did tie Western 1-1.

A recap of Week 7 of the football season is over at The CIS Blog.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jessica Audet. Could be the same one that played for Concordia. She is listed as being in her 4th year of eligibility with a hometown of Charlesbourg , Quebec. Retuned to school to get a grad degree? Talked out of hockey retirement?

Anonymous said...

I don't even know the guy, but hopefully for his sake Tim Plett doesn't get picked up anywhere. If you are 23 and just got cut from an ECHL team, that is a sign from the Hockey Gods that it is time to get on with real life. If you want to know what happens to guys who hang on forever in the lower rungs of the minors, pick up, "Zamboni Rodeo".

Anonymous said...

I would be it is the same one. I would be very surprised to see two Jessika Audet floating around. At least not with that particular spelling. Her course is listed as a Masters in Occupational Therapy.

sager said...

Good catch... it comes up both spellings in Google!

Anonymous said...

The proper spelling is in fact Jessika Audet. And yes it is the same Jessika who played at Concordia so many years ago.