Hoser hoops heaven... Canada worlds-bound

Canada Basketball needed Friday night the way a man engulfed in flames could use a glass of water.

That's is a best stab at capturing the meaning of Canada earned a spot at the 2010 world basketball championship with an 80-76 win over the Dominican Republic at the qualifier in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As Doug Smith of the Toronto Star wrote, "The magnitude of the win cannot be overstated. With solid development programs at the under-19 and under-17 levels, Canada desperately needed to see some success at the senior level to give the teenagers something to aspire to."

There is hope, to borrow that overused one-word aphorism. It was furnished by Jermaine Anderson, Carl English, Levon Kendall, Andy Rautins, Jesse Young and a Carleton Raven, Aaron Doornekamp. None are household names with the rank-and-file Canadian sports fan, although Aaron might be pushing for the status of being Ernestown Secondary School's most famous alumnus after those two cooler-than-freon three-pointers he drained in the fourth quarter to keep the Dominicans at bay. Whatever is to come — and there is lots more to come — for Canada on the court, Friday felt like a catalytic event.

Please remember, if you are so inclined, which group of quote, unquote obscure Euro-ballers helped with this big step forward. Canada had only NBAer at this tournament, the Miami Heat forward Joel Anthony. The team was still celebrating when Leo Rautins told TrueHoop that he wants to have a few more NBA players next summer in Turkey. He's hoping Steve Nash will take time out from saving the world to lace up for his country one last time. The San Antonio Spurs forward Matt Bonner, an ex-Raptor who is married to a Toronto woman, is taking out citizenship. Bonner would be a good fit into the FIBA game, which prizes a big man who can shoot. Rautins is hopeful of getting Jamaal Magloire (don't hold your breath).

Meantime, as Smith alluded to, Canada has a lot of young talent coming up such as Junior Cadougan, Mangisto Arop, Kelly Olynyk, Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson. Some of the guys who were on the floor Friday will be pushed out in the years to come, such is the nature of sports.

Perhaps the San Juan crew will stand out in time the way Blue Jays fans remember Doug Ault and Bob Bailor. They got it started.

It is understandable if people do not consider Canada earning its first world berth since 2002 as a big deal. The only Team Canada most people across this great country care about, let's be honest, is the one with skates and sticks which will hit the ice in Vancouver next February at the Olympics. That is fine. However, some do believe being a proud Canadian and having a serious basketball jones can overlap, no matter what is implied by Molson's ads.

Maybe there is no deeper meaning to that beyond just loving basketball. Cheering for Canada on the hardwood, with the U.S. having such a larger player pool and so many resources devoted to hoops, is a lesson in being an underdog. It also seems to evoke the doubt Canadians are always going to face. That's why it's awesome, speaking as someone from the same corner of the world, to see that Doornekamp played a significant role in the final minutes with those two threes. He's had doubters all along, being from Odessa, having played at a smaller high school, making the national team from a CIS school, and he has come out shining.


It is almost seems like living in the past to play up that Aaron is an ESS grad, but then again there are not many Eagles even compared to other Kingston-area high schools, so attention must be paid. Imagine some young baller, maybe in Toronto, or Vancouver, who will grow up to represent his country. He might never hear of places such as Odessa, or Patrick's Cove, N.L., Carl English's hometown, but a small debt will be owed to those places. And that's pretty cool.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

The Frontenacs performance in their first two preseason can best be described by the wise words of Kanye (or Daft Punk, whatever floats your boat) the team looks "harder, better, faster and stronger" than last year. A 5-2 win over the Ottawa 67's followed up by a 4-2 win over the Bellville Bulls are both encouraging signs.

Remember this is a team that was winless in eight preseason games last season, on the road to a disastrous season. Early on for the Frontenacs things are looking much better. It is a very different team than took to the ice last summer not only has the work rate seemed to have improved but also the technical skill level.

Doug Gilmour has a team of players who get the system and are seemingly intelligent players which was certainly missing last season. As the Detroit Lions have proved preseason results can be very misleading and the Frontenacs success may just be fueling the false hope but something feels different this season.

- Offseason acquisition Tyler Beskorowany seems to be the man for the job between the posts. Mavric Parks looked very under confident against Bellville and had several mistakes that went unpunished. We've yet to see John Cullen this preseason, who was solid but unremarkable last year with the Frontenacs. Beskorowany was commanding against Ottawa and looked up for the number one role.

- Colt Kennedy has always been a hardworking effective player, but tonight against Bellville he was the best player on the ice for Kingston. He scored the winner, was forcing turnovers inside the Bellville blue line, and creating chances in the absence of the big name forwards.

- Draft pick Alan Quine hasn't been hugely influential in the two preseason games, but he is certainly not out of his depth in the OHL. He has been forechecking well and working hard, he may not be a great goal scorer, but he will certainly carve out a fair amount of chances for Kingston this year.

- Although the Frontenacs undoubtedly have some very talented players on the team it has never been a problem of them not being able to produce it is the guys below them not chipping in which has hurt the Fronts. Against Bellville the Fronts proved that they can score even with out Ethan Werek, Nathan Moon, Brian Lashoff and Taylor Doherty in the lineup.

- The Frontenac powerplay in both games looked like a powerplay. The Frontenacs were maintaining possession of the puck for most of the time that they had a man advantage, they were passing it around inside the opposition blue line and creating chances. With several lines getting a shot on the powerplay, all of them looked exponentially better than last season.

- Frontenac giveways inside their own zone are as inevitable as Larry Mavety staying on with the Frontenacs for another year, but the number of mindless giveaways does seem to have decreased.

- The Frontenacs seem to be getting into good positions much more often than last season. This may be down to having more fast skaters on the team who can beat their man or just playing against weakened opposition. Either way it is another encouraging sign.

Is all of this praise an overreaction to two meaningless exhibition games? Probably, but lets enjoy it while we can.

DanyWatch Day 88: Alfredsson doomed to have Heatley in the room

Finish the sentence: Daniel Alfredsson would prefer the Ottawa Senators trade Dany Heatley, lest he actually have to exercise leadership when the going gets tough.

Ask Scott Niedermayer what Alfredsson did the last time the Senators were in an inescapable jam. It is understandable why Alfredsson's well-after-the-fact comment, "Obviously, it would be best scenario for everyone," is going to get a fair bit of play in the city. He is the captain, the bland, pale, in-bed-by-11 personification of Ottawa. The sportswriters in the city worship him.

Not that this is coming from someone who has any idea about how the group dynamic of a NHL dressing room, but why say this with training camp opening a week from Saturday? Alfredsson kind of answered his own question with the second part of quote, "But if it was that easy, I think something would have already been done," comes off like the last thing he wants at this point in his career is have to deal with a schism (real or Schefterian) between him and the younger top-end forwards, Heatley and Jason Spezza.

Not that this is coming from someone with a screw's clue of how the group dynamic works in a NHL dressing room. Effective leadership involves having an optimistic face and always having contingencies for worst case scenarios. The Senators are six kinds of stuck. It is self-evident that Huey Lewis' Happy To Be Stuck With You should replace as Glenn Frey's The Heat Is On as the the gadawful '80s song which is played at Scotiabank Place after Heatley scores.

No one can really defend Heatley, but given his ability, he is at least entitled to some consideration. He is supposedly thin-skinned, so how

Mats Sundin, during his tenure in Toronto, would have got walloped if he had waited until a week before training camp to suggest the Leafs trade a disgruntled elite player (this is obviously hypothetical, presuming you could be unhappy playing in Toronto and presuming the Leafs had two elite players at once).

Point being, this might be the season where the halo gets torn off Alfredsson's head. The captain goes down with the sinking ship.

(Sorry, I know I have been irregular posting, but it had to be said.)

About Ottawa's bid to join an imploding soccer league...

(Not to mention that empty ballpark.)

The mud fight between USL team owners and the league's new corporate overlord will chart the course which determines whether pro soccer comes to Ottawa.

There is more than a cute little juxtaposition involved with Jeff Hunt and the Lansdowne Live gang in Ottawa applying for a franchise in the United Soccer Leagues First Division on the day after several of the league's owners all but declared civil war on USL-1's corporate ownership (and on the day before city council holds a huge meeting to discuss Lansdowne Live's proposal for the derelict stadium).

You could read into that the Ottawa is trying to get into a league several current owners are trying to get out of, but that would just be negative and bitchy. Also worth noting high up is that deep-down, the gut feeling is Hunt wants a USL team in Ottawa and it's not a smoke screen.

First, the mud fight: Several owners, including those of the Montreal and Vancouver teams, have drawn a line in the stand about their desire for "a team-owner controlled league" after Nike sold its controlling stake last week. To put it mildly, it's an interesting variable to throw into the equation. Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo is also apparently interested in getting the Trois-Rivières Attak into USL-1 if his team leaves the league for MLS.

It wouldn't necessarily hurt the Hunt bid, which is in partnership with John Pugh's grass-roots Ottawa Fury. It will affect it if it turns out the map of pro soccer in "northern North America" is about to get redrawn. It also seemed to be an underplayed element in the initial wave of hometown coverage from Ottawa Business Journal, CBC.ca and Sun Media.

This is not a commentary on the Ottawa bid or Lansdowne Live's motives. It is definitely politic to create the impression with an ever-skeptical public and city council that the stadium is going to be used for more than a CFL team and retail. Hunt's release mentions having the CFL, pro soccer and two university football teams all sharing the stadium, which sounds very promising, but also very busy.

It is a positive to have tapped into Pugh's sweat equity and expertise (although it could have been done 10 months ago). At least Hunt, et al., got the right idea eventually. Your guess is as good as any why this apparently never occurred, far as was reported, to Senators owner Eugene Melnyk.

Meantime, please keep in mind Ottawa still has another stadium dilemma with the ballpark on Coventry Rd., which is going unused. One does idly wonder if Hunt is playing coy and plotting perhaps putting a soccer team at that stadium. That way, they have a hand in control of two venues and keep someone else from developing it as a concert venue.

Triple-A baseball stadiums in Portland, Oregon and San Juan, Puerto Rico, have proven adequate for pro soccer (imagine the first-base line as one sideline, with the third-baseline as one end line), with temporary bleachers out in deep left field). That is a valuable asset the city of Ottawa is not using. The Coventry Rd. stadium could also be used by the W-League Fury and the various youth teams. Far-fetched, I know. Maybe the other site ends up as condos.

Baseball is still in the picture, of course, but the goal is to get a stable tenant using that stadium. If you're a taxpayer, the sport can be named later.

Meantime, good on Hunt and Pugh et al. One would hope the USL's issues don't undermine their goal of attracting a pro soccer team, in any reputable league.

Brett plays dirty, then how come our conscience is so clean?

The English language really does not have a word to express the state of "laughing while also being mortified," which pretty much describes the reaction to Brett Favre bringing back the long-outlawed crackback block. The general reaction (not like everyone did not wonder) is questioning what the fallout would be if Michael Vick pulled such a stunt.



Either way, Favre might be a self-aggrandizing spotlight-hogger who also plays dirty, but since he is on the Vikings now, he is my self-aggrandizing spotlight-hogger who also plays dirty. It is an easier transition since the high-minded Vikings fan never really hated Favre, but understood and respected his role in the melodrama. That is the nature of it with a bitter sports rivalry: After a while, you come to realize the people on the other side are not evil and wrong, but they just happen to be aligned with something which is evil and wrong, like that media darling franchise in Green Bay which was grandfathered in to the modern NFL.

Who knows, perhaps ol' Brett was doing a homage to North Dallas Forty. The 30th anniversary of its release passed several weeks ago and this was his first extended game action since then.

(Sorry for the irregular posting, but the aim was to show people that Favre signing with the Vikes had not led to some kind of mental breakdown, although that could change if the rumours about trading Tarvaris Jackson are true. Besides, cisblog.ca has been taking up a lot of time.)