Carleton is an unanimous No. 1 in the inaugural cishoops.ca media poll, just as the Ravens are in the coaches' poll; the next three spots are consistent with Brandon, Calgary and Acadia.
However, if only we could apply this retroactively, like to this time last year, when there was a lot more who's-No. 1? debate. Carleton had the best RPI but had suffered consecutive losses to Ottawa and York. Brandon, Concordia and Acadia had legit claims to being No. 1.
That's where you can see the value in doing this. You can never have too many opinions on an underpublicized sport.
Coach Dave DeAveiro's Ottawa Gee-Gees are No. 6 in both polls. The U of T Varsity Blues, whom they host in a return game on Saturday, are No. 5 according to the media (is that a function of Toronto-centricism?) and No. 7 in the view of the coaches (an example of Toronto-bashing?).
No. 4 Calgary got my second-place vote. I was ready to drop Acadia down a few slots and slot U of T and Ottawa into the 4-5 slots until the Axemen thumped St. FX by 29 points on Sunday (while shooting just 50% from the foul line). That development and a desire to never be accused of central-Canadian bias put the kibosh on that notion. Since the U of T and Ottawa play each each other this weekend -- and Ottawa has a tough road game at Queen's tonight -- we'll know more about those teams by next Monday. Then one of them might be fit for the top four.
In case anyone missed it, Halifax wants the Final 8 back for 2011.
(UPDATE: cishoops.ca has the full report on the Gee-Gees hanging on to beat Queen's 74-70 last night. Simon Mitchell was big again with 21 points (remember, he went off for 20 on Friday vs. Carleton), but ultimately this was about Josh Gibson-Bascombe, who had 20 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
Their Gaels' four OUA East losses have been by a combined 34 points. They ultimately did a couple things they couldn't do and still expect to win, like being down 18 right off the hop. Tremendous effort, heads held high, all that.)
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Yeah, interesting hoops games tonight: I put a post up with more details, but you got the key point already (namely, you can't afford to trail by 18 early on). It was also interesting to see Mitch Leger sitting on the bench for the last 10 minutes or so: hopefully it's not an injury, but if not, it was certainly an unconventional coaching decision. Also, the Gee-Gees' women won their second game of the year earlier in the night, upsetting the Gaels 68-63... that one surprised me quite a bit more than the men's loss (though as you pointed out, it really could have gone either way).
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