Sunday, February 01, 2009

CIS Corner: Moore ado about crazy game-ender; OFC returns, right on Ravens' turn

Notes on our athletes/teams of interest from The 613 ...


MEN'S HOOPS
  • Ravens: One big takeaway from Carleton's walkovers (104-82 over York, 107-56 over Laurentian) was that second-year wing Elliott Thompson scored in double figures in both games, including 17 points vs. York with five three-pointers.

    Thompson made a big three to halt an Ottawa run in the Ravens' win on Wednesday. It's nice to have a shooter who can come in off the bench.

    Frosh forward Kyle Smendziuk also had 12 points vs. Laurentian, a nice reward after he contributed some defence and rebounding in eight first-half minutes vs. Ottawa. It probably saved his more senior teammates a couple fouls.

  • Gee-Gees: It was no shock to see that Josh Wright has moved into Ottawa's starting lineup after he ran the point for long stretches of the second half on Wednesday. He and Josh Gibson-Bascombe combined for 51 points (26 for JGB, 25 for JW) vs. York, as Ottawa had a season high in points in the 111-76 win.

    They have shown some signs of working the two-man game, with a lot of give-and-gos, with JGB making the backdoor cut and getting a bounce pass. It's tough to stop, unless a team wants to foul all night.

WOMEN'S HOOPS
More on Moore


Can't we just marvel at a crazy game-ending play without getting sucked into a philosophical debate?

The YouTubeage of Queen's Brittany Moore's ultimate uncontested layup vs. Carleton on Jan. 24 has surfaced, via gogaelsgo.com.



It was argued on on Dale Stevens' Canadian University Basketball Discussion List that the referees should have informed the teams a mistake was about to be made. No, they shouldn't have, because that's not the rule. University-level coaches and players are skilled and smart enough that they shouldn't expect any bailouts. Anyway, here's the argument:
"The question therefore arises if the referees realizing a mistake is about to be made should have blown a whistle and indicated it was time for Carleton and/or Queen's to get in place (if they wished to) for the third and final foul shot.
The reader mentioned a long-time official who "often gently called a player's attention to something that he could have called before starting to call it. In effect he gave a player a chance to alter his/her ways before enforcing an infraction."

It is true that referees will often explain a rule to coaches and players to tell them what they're doing wrong. You see it in rugby, especially.

The rule has changed, and everyone should stay on top of that. After that game, Carleton coach Taffe Charles put it on himself, because he realized he and his team erred by not being aware of the situation.

For those who need a refresher, Andrew covered this last Saturday. Each team went to the bench — Carleton was out of timeouts — while Moore took three free throws with Queen's down by two points. The Ravens didn't realize when Moore was on her final shot, and when she missed (after splitting the first two), she laid in the rebound for the winning basket.

HOCKEY
  • Golden Gaels: To put Queen's offensive struggles in perspective, they've scored 47 goals all season. The OUA's co-scoring leaders each have 46 points, yet Queen's is actually in a playoff chase.

    They're within three points of Ottawa with four games remaining. The Gee-Gees got a little more breathing room with their 5-4 shootout loss at Concordia. (Keven Gagne had a hat trick, but was stymied in the shootout.)

    Queen's got 52 saves from ex-67 Brady Morrison in a 5-4 shootout win over Toronto on Saturday. (David Chubb got the only goal of the shootout.)

    The Gaels' remaining schedule includes a makeup game at Carleton and three games vs. also-rans Ryerson and RMC. If Queen's beats Carleton, suddenly it's on.

    Ottawa's remaining games include Toronto, Carleton, McGill and Ryerson.

    Carleton's magic number for clinching a playoff berth is two (Ravens wins and/or Queen's losses). Their remaining schedule is Queen's, at Concordia, at Trois-Rivieres, Ottawa and at McGill.

FOOTBALL

Ravens:
The indispensable Capital Region Football Blog notes the Ottawa Sooners have been accepted into the Ontario Football Conference.

This will be good for football in Ottawa, and if it leads to having two CIS teams in the nation's capital again, so much the better. It's funny, if you read Ottawa Sun articles from early in 1999 when Carleton discontinued football (the 10th anniversary is in less than five weeks), there was a lot of doom and gloom about how it would set the university back by decades. Chris Stevenson was the lone one to point out that on March 4, 1999, the day Carleton pulled the plug on football, the men's basketball Ravens won a playoff game. It was if a torch was passed.

The focus should be on the Sooners and what having a program in the OFC will do for the football talent pool in this area. Good for their organization, under president Jeff Balys, and the organization for pulling this off. There is already an event notification on Facebook for the Aug. 28 season opener vs. the Burlington Braves.

Related:
Sooners accomplish their goal! (Capital Region Football Blog)

2 comments:

Tyler King said...

Didja notice she almost made the third throw? That would've been embarrassing.

Anonymous said...

Could we just put this whole damn incident to bed already?
Sheesh.
In the meantime, Carleton squandered another lead and lost to an inferior York team at home,
That's their 4th loss at home and yet another game they should have won but did not.
This team has to learn how to put away opponents when they have the chance, otherwise, their playoff run might be brief and disappointing.