Sporting Madness

The top-ranked UBC Thunderbirds men's basketball squad rebounded well from their Thursday loss to No. 7 SFU, finishing with a 77-68 victory in today's rematch against the Clan. The two teams were pretty close throughout, with SFU leading 35-30 at the half, but UBC turned it up a notch in the third quarter. They outscored SFU 25-15 in the frame and finished strong down the stretch. UBC's shooting improved significantly after the half, boosting their field goal percentage from 42.3 per cent in the first half to 46.7 per cent after the break. They also got stingier on defence, and SFU's shots stopped falling; the Clan shot 40.6 per cent in the first half, but only hit 30.4 per cent of their field goals in the final quarters. Part of that came from the Thunderbirds' transition to a higher-tempo game; SFU didn't have anyone who could run with Josh Whyte , Blaine LaBranche and Nathan Yu . Whyte finished with 16 points, while LaBranche had 21 and Yu chipped in seven...

We'll get rolling at 3 p.m Pacific. My game preview is here . Come on in and join the fun! UBC - SFU Men's Basketball

It's a special day for Simon Fraser University's basketball teams. They're hosting the archrival UBC Thunderbirds in a pair of rather important games. On the women's side, the No. 1 Clan are coming off thumpings of the Winnipeg Wesmen and Manitoba Bisons last weekend. They're looking to maintain their perfect 13-0 record in conference play, but they'll face a tough opponent in 10-4 UBC, as the Thunderbirds are tied for second in the Canada West Pacific division. It's also the last home league game for their seniors, including popular blogger Kate Hole , and the team's also raising funds for breast cancer research. On the men's side, the 12-2 Clan ( ranked No. 7 ) are flying high after knocking off No. 1 UBC 82-79 Wednesday Thursday (thanks, Peter !). That was the 13-1 Thunderbirds' first conference loss. They'll be out for revenge in today's rematch. The other interesting subplot to these games is that they're the final regul...

This one's for all the marbles! It's the national championship game, live from Scotiabank Place. The top-ranked Carleton Ravens are taking on the third-seeded UBC Thunderbirds. Join in the live blog below! Carleton - UBC live blog

Live from Scotiabank Place, it's the consolation final of the Final 8! The Concordia Stingers are taking on the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Join in the live blog below! Ottawa - Concordia live blog

The final game of the day sees the top-seeded Carleton Ravens take on the wild-card St. Francis Xavier X-Men. Join the live blog below! Carleton - St. F.X. live blog

It's the Battle of Ontario, CIS hoops-style! The Western Mustangs take on the Ottawa Gee-Gees at 6 p.m. tonight, live on The Score. The winner will play whoever comes out of tonight's late game between Carleton and St. FX. Join in the live blog below starting at 6! Western - Ottawa live blog

Join in the live blog below! UBC - Dalhousie live blog

And here's the promised live blog of Calgary-Concordia Final 8 men's basketball! Sorry it took so long; had to fight a vast horde of technical gremlins. Join me and the other CIS Blog guys below. Calgary-Concordia live blog

I'm off to Ottawa later this morning for the men's basketball nationals, the Final 8 . It should be a great tournament. Four of the five of us from The CIS Blog are going to be in attendance and will be providing wall-to-wall coverage there, but I'm also planning to do some stuff at this site. In particular, I'll be involved in the live-blogging of all the Friday and Sunday games, and thanks to the magic of CoverItLive , you should be able to access those live blogs here, through Out of Left Field or through The CIS Blog . I have to return to Kingston for some Journal meetings on Saturday, so I won't likely be in on those live blogs (I think the guys are still planning to do them), but you can access those at The CIS Blog. Here's tomorrow's slate of games: #2 Calgary vs. #7 Concordia: 12:30 p.m. Eastern ( SSN Canada ) #3 UBC vs. #6 Dalhousie: 2:30 p.m. Eastern ( SSN Canada ) #4 Western vs. #5 Ottawa: 6:00 p.m. Eastern (Live on The Score ), also webcast...

I learned this morning that football tight end Scott Stinson (famed not only for his size and great receiving numbers, but also for being one of the few athletes to crack the front page of the Journal , even in less than ideal circumstances) has officially joined the men's basketball team. There had been some rumours floating around about this earlier, but it's confirmed now: he's on the official roster and may play as early as their weekend games against Brock and Guelph. This might work out well for the team. One of the big problems so far has been their lack of depth in the frontcourt positions; in fact, as I pointed out in my story on last weekend's games, a lot of their success came when they went to a three-guard lineup. Especially with Jon Ogden not playing (he played in the pre-season, but isn't with the team at the moment), there aren't a lot of frontcourt options on this team, and Stinson's addition should significantly help with that. These G...

We were pretty pressed for space in this week's Journal , so I had to cut this piece on the men's basketball team's opening weekend games down substantially for the paper. I figured I'd post it here in its entirety for anyone interested in more details on the team and their opening games. For more Gaels' hoops coverage, check out my profile of Mitch Leger in today's paper: I'll have another posts on the team up here shortly. Here's the full story: Basketball opens with a bang By Andrew Bucholtz Sports Editor The men’s basketball team’s started the season with a bang Friday. They earned a 72-67 victory against the Waterloo Warriors, a team that was 6-16 last season but had defeated the Gaels 92-62 in the preseason. Point guard Baris Ondul poured in 19 points against Waterloo and added six assists and three rebounds. Ondul said the team was out for revenge after their ignominious loss to the Warriors in the pre-season. “We were motivated for redemption,...

I learned just this afternoon that Teddi Firmi , the star point guard for the Queen's women's basketball team and last year's OUA East Defensive Player of the Year ["Women's teams exit early," myself, Queen's Journal , February 29, 2008], has decided to quit basketball and join the women's rugby team. She'll be playing her first match with them tomorrow on the road against the McMaster Marauders. This is a big loss for the basketball team. Firmi was their starting point guard last year, and demonstrated a tremendous ability to control the flow of the game and find the open player. She could score as well, but her greatest talent was on defence, where she was an almost-unparalled stopper. The team has a lot of promising young players, though, so it will be interesting to see if any of them can step up and fill her shoes. It's going to be a very different women's hoops squad this year, as they've lost their best defensive player in Firmi...

Breaking down Sunday night's basketball game between the Gaels and the University at Buffalo Bulls (who have a surprisingly close name to that other Buffalo team invading Canada for pre-season games)... The score: 88-61, Buffalo. How I saw it: In person. The Good: Mitch Leger: Leger had his fourth consecutive game with over 20 points, racking up 23 points (on 10 of 15 shooting from the field) and nine rebounds (two offensive) in 28 minutes of action. He scored nine of Queen's first 11 points, but his effectiveness went down after Buffalo started to double-team him. I talked with Buffalo head coach Reggie Witherspoon afterwards, and he said he didn't have much information on individual Queen's players before the match, so they weren't particularly prepared for Leger. Once he started lighting them up, though, Buffalo made the adjustment to a double-team on Leger in the post and challenged the Gaels' other shooters to beat them. Leger was still somewhat effect...

Breaking down tonight's men exhibition basketball match between Queen's and the Anderson University Ravens , a Division I NCAA school from Anderson, Indiana... The score: 91-72, Anderson. How I saw it: In person, at Bartlett Gym on the Queen's campus. The Good: - Mitch Leger: Leger starred for Queen's in their first exhibition match against Northeastern University on Monday night, pouring in 20 points and adding five rebounds in a close 69-59 defeat to a strong Huskies' squad. He delivered an even better performance tonight, notching 28 points (12-19 from the field, four of eight from the line) and ten rebounds (five offensive, five defensive). The 6'7'' Leger looks to be in strong form again this season, and he'll be a key component of this year's Gaels' team. He was named Player of the Game for his efforts. - Rob Shaw: The Gaels' veteran big man was in fine form, grabbing seven rebounds (four on the offensive glass) and notching six...