SAVING OTTAWA SPORTS: GOOD WEEKEND FOR THE RAVENS AND GEE-GEES

Was this weekend an anomaly, or a sign that Ottawa might become one of the better markets in Canada for university sports?

Can't speak for every major city in Canada, although Halifax and London, Ont., probably set the standard as good-sized communities where the general public takes an interest in its CIS teams. It was a holiday weekend, and a lot of students are probably not on campus yet, but the Ottawa Gee-Gees and Carleton Ravens both had excellent turnouts for their pre-season games against visiting NCAA schools, and came in for some high praise from legendary Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who told the Ottawa Sun, "Carleton could play in the Big East." Maybe Pitino was employing the politician's trick of buttering up your hosts, but never mind.

Meantime, the football Gee-Gees had a respectable 3,464 fans out for their season-opening win over Western. That may not sound like much, but consider that it was the Sunday night of a holiday weekend, and the weather was terrible. There was a time six, seven years ago when Ottawa could barely get 1,500 fans out for a football game when it had the No. 1 team in Canada (speaking as someone who has broadcast a couple Queen's-U of Ottawa games back in the day).

So good on both schools for getting the students out to the games more than they did in the past. Of course, this is a famously fair-weather town, and it doesn't hurt that both schools have winning hoops program, along with the fact they had American visitors.

Carleton and Ottawa both scored one-point wins over the La Salle Explorers, with the Ravens winning in overtime last night, thanks in no small part to Aaron Doornekamp hitting a tying three-pointer with 1.4 seconds left in regulation, then hitting another in overtime. (Believe or not, those were the only threes he tried all night.) Throw in a 27-point, eight-assist night from Osvaldo Jeanty and Jean-Emmanuel Jean-Marie's 20 points and nine rebounds, and it added up to a Carleton win. For its part yesterday, Ottawa kept within 10 points of Louisville.

Meantime, the football Gee-Gees, they easily handled Western 17-3 on a cold, rainy night, with tailback Davie Masson sloshing for 123 yards and Josh Sacobie putting up 204 in the air with the game's only two TDs, one of which went to Kingston native Matt Edgeworth (a one-time minor hockey teammate of Shawn Sager, official brother of Out of Left Field). Ottawa plays all the contenders early -- Laurier and McMaster the next two weeks.

As for Western, don't ask. Their star QB Michael Faulds had a brutal stat line (19 of 40, 139 yards, two picks, no completions over 20 yards), and their pre-season Hec Crighton Trophy candidate, Randy McAuley, got banged up and gained minus-1 yard on two carries. Oh, and the defence was on the field for almost 36 minutes.

Relax, Western fans. You get to play York at home on Saturday, and the Mighty Mustangs will probably put up an easy 45 points and everyone will be convinced again that there's a legitimate Yates Cup contender in London.

(Note: Western scored 49 points in its next game.)

So yes, there's no CFL team and baseball is good as gone (at least the Triple-A version), but the local universities are putting on a show for people who want to watch sports other than hockey. (Yes, there are a few of us in Canada.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.