Carleton women's soccer program suspended over hazing incident

It's quite the day for disciplinary stories. The Ottawa Citizen is reporting that Carleton has suspended their women's soccer team over a hazing incident. The team will not play against U of T and Ryerson this weekend, presumably forfeiting those games, and will not take the field again until the university's ongoing investigation is finished.

This could be a big scandal. There may be hazing incidents I'm unaware of, but the last time I can remember an entire team being suspended was in 2005 when McGill forfeited its football season. Queen's Journal sports editors of the time James Bradshaw and Dan Robson ran an excellent piece on the matter, looking at the wider issue of hazing. Of course, that also wound up being the year featuring the Windsor Spitfires' hazing scandal and the fight between Steve Downie and Akim Aliu. The two incidents, coming so close together, turned into a big national story and put a spotlight on hazing in sports. Over time, that spotlight's dimmed, but this story may renew it.

However, don't assume that the Carleton team did anything differently than most sports teams. The issue is that "hazing" is often very loosely defined, and there's a fine line between the rookie rituals that most sports teams have and what may constitute "hazing". These also go beyond just sports or particular universities; see this feature by Monica Heisey on the practices that have taken place during Queen's orientation
week over the years for an example.

It's tough to draw a line in the sand against hazing. For one thing, most sports teams are very tight-knit groups, so it's difficult for an outsider to get accurate information on what really goes on. For another, the general issue that seems to be at play in defining hazing versus rookie rituals is if players consent to the activities, but it must be tough for a rookie trying to gain acceptance with a team to resist peer pressure. Finally, it seems that most of the responses to hazing incidents that become publicized involve suspending the team; how many athletes would want to throw away a year of their career (and the careers of their friends) by going to athletic officials or the media just because they felt uncomfortable about something?

The future of the Carleton women's soccer program is rather cloudy at the moment, but it's impossible to predict exactly what will happen on the basis of the extremely limited information released so far. The competitive effects for the rest of the OUA could be interesting, though. The Ravens have played five games so far, winning twice, losing twice and drawing once. They sit fourth in the OUA East with seven points. Their victories came against Ryerson and RMC, and their draw came against Nipissing. If the Carleton program is suspended for the rest of the season, as seems likely, it will be interesting to see if those results are nullified. From a competitive standpoint, that would seem to be the fair thing to do, as every other team will likely gain full points from Carleton's forfeits. However, it's not as if Carleton fradulently gained those victories or was using an ineligible player (the usual reason for forfeits); their suspension is from their own university, not the OUA. Regardless of what's decided, it will be an interesting situation to follow.

[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]

Final 8: Carleton - UBC live blog

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!

Final 8: Carleton - St. FX 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!

Capital Hoops Classic live blog

Just a quick post to let all CIS hoops fans know that Neate will be live-blogging tonight's Capital Hoops Classic [universitysport.ca] over at The CIS Blog, featuring the No. 1 Carleton Ravens and the No. 2 Ottawa Gee-Gees on the men's side and both schools' 10-5 women's teams in the opener. I saw both schools' men's and women's teams play Queen's last weekend, and I was rather impressed with all of them (plus, that Queen's - Carleton women's game had the craziest ending I've ever seen). Thus, we should be in for two very good games tonight. For supplementary coverage to go with the live blog, you can watch webcasts of both games at Streaming Sports Network Canada's site or watch them on TV on The Score.

The GBU: Queen's vs Buffalo (hoops)

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 effective while double-teamed, but he picked up two quick fouls and had to ride the pine for a while. He still had a decent second half, but only put up eight points to the 15 he got in the first and earned himself two technicals and an ejection. Leger was vital to Queen's play: while he was on the floor, they were keeping it close, but Buffalo went on a run whenever he left.

Dan Bannister: The second-year guard had a pretty good game for the Gaels, suggesting that he might provide some of the secondary scoring this team certainly needs. He put up 16 points on seven-of-12 shooting, and made two of his three three-point shots. However, this comes with a qualification: see The Ugly below.

(By the way, people really should get together on how to spell his name. The roster I was given has it as Bannister, but the stat sheet has Banister, which is also how he's listed on queensbasketball.net. His Facebook page has the two N version, so that's what I'm using until further notice, but it's stuff like this that leads to stat mixups: I remember looking at one OUA box score last year that featured Dan Banister, Dan Bannister and Daniel Bannister, with all three having different stats.)

Baris Ondul: Perhaps Baris is reading this blog. After I mentioned his horrible three-point shooting performance against Anderson, he came back with a tremendous performance against Buffalo. This time around, he was mostly taking good shots, and made four out of his nine field goal attemps (including three of his five three-point attempts). He also distributed the ball effectively, racking up five assists and only turning it over once.

Tim Boyle: Boyle didn't put up an impressive stat line (three points on one-of-three shooting and three rebounds), but he did a great job in his defensive stopper role. He also played with a ton of heart: it was quite something to see the 6'3'' Boyle battling in the post against Buffalo's 6'8'' or 6'9'' guys, and often coming up with the rebound himself or tipping it to a teammate.

Rob Shaw: I'm somewhat conflicted on this one, as Shaw didn't make a single one of his five shots from the field. Four of those were three-point attempts, and the majority of them were poor decisions. However, Shaw proved an excellent playmaker and racked up eight assists to just one turnover: highly unusual stats for a big man, but still effective. He also added two blocks and five rebounds. I would have preferred to see him use his size more to drive the lane, but he turned in a strong overall performance.

The Bad:

Rodney Pierce: His name suggests a combination of Rodney Stuckey and Paul Pierce, and that isn't a bad description of the Buffalo guard. Pierce isn't the tallest guy on Buffalo's roster (6'2''), but he's got a lot of muscle, and he was able to both drive effectively and shoot from the outside. He went 10 for 19 from the field (as well as five for eight from beyond the arc) and put up 25 points and five rebounds.

Calvin Betts: This game's a prime example of impressions deceiving. From watching, you'd think that most of Buffalo's points were from their numerous big men who dominated the paint. What was working even better for them, though, was driving the lane and then kicking it out to the guards, who would either drain the shot or drive the lane themselves for a layup. Betts is another short guard (6'3''), and he put up Buffalo's second-best stat line of the night: 16 points on six-for-eight shooting (including a two-of-three from downtown effort).

The Gaels' fourth quarter:
Queen's kept it pretty close through three quarters of the game. They were outscored 14-11, 25-20 and 19-16 in those quarters, which created a not insurmountable eleven-point deficit going into the fourth. They were dominated in the fourth, though, and only put up 14 points against Buffalo's 30.

The Ugly:

The late technicals: Queen's managed to pick up five technical fouls in the dying moments of the game to Buffalo's one. Two of the technicals were assessed to Leger, two to the bench, and one to Shaw. Passion is good, but that lack of discipline isn't particularly something you want to see in an exhibition game.

The turnovers: Queen's turned over the ball 24 times in total, compared to Buffalo's 13 turnover. The chief culprit was Bannister, who only recorded three assists and turned the ball over 10 times, which is pretty ugly. Leger and Boyle also had four turnovers each.

Buffalo's pressure: It was the Bulls' high-intensity full-court press that created many of those turnovers, several of which came when the Gaels were moving the ball up the court. There were even quite a few off inbounds passes, which really shouldn't be happening at this level.

Buffalo's size advantage: The Bulls had three players listed as 6'9'', two more listed as 6'8'' and two more at 6'7''. By comparision, Queen's tallest players are Leger and Patrick Beswick, who are both only listed at 6'7''. Buffalo's players were also solidly-built packages of muscle, while the Gaels tend to be skinnier. As a comparision, Buffalo guard Betts, who's 6'3'', weighs 225 pounds. That's the same as both Shaw and Leger, Queen's two most muscular players.

One play from Ryan Hairsine: Hairsine was all right on the night, but one play of his summed up the Gaels' night. He beat his defender on the dribble and pulled up to launch an open three-pointer, but the ball slipped out of his hands and only flew about three feet. There were plenty of times when the Gaels would do the right thing initially, but couldn't finish the deal.

Post-game reaction:

Queen's guard Dan Bannister:

- On the loss as a letdown, given their long upcoming break before the regular season: "It was our last game going into a month-long break. We really wanted to have a better showing."

- On Buffalo's size advantage:"They kind of beat us up a little. They're bigger than us, but that's no excuse."

- On where things went wrong:"We played a strong first half, but we let it get away in the second half."

- On the upcoming break:"We've got a month now to do everything right that we did wrong."

Queen's head coach Rob Smart:

- On how the main problem was Queen's being tired after their 102-94 win[goldengaels.com] over the University of South Alabama the previous day(it was on the road, and I was tied up in Journal meetings, so I wasn't there to cover it): "We played three overtimes yesterday, so I think that's what went wrong. I think we were exhausted. ... Every step, you're a little slower and that just hurts you."

- On how important the win over Alabama was: "I don't think you can explain how big beating South Alabama is. Their coach is probably making half a million a year!"

- On how he was only able to utilize Patrick Beswick briefly due to his shin splints: "He goes for a couple minutes and he just can't go any more."

- On what led to the technical fouls: "I got really upset because we run a cutter off the high post almost every play. ... What bothers me is when one of their guys doesn't read the screen at all, gets hit, and then they call us for a charge."

Buffalo head coach Reggie Witherspoon:

- On his team's play: "We're still a little ragged at times. It's that time of the year."

- On what changed in the second half: "I think we had a bit better pressure on defence, forcing them into some turnovers."

- On how his main goal was to stop Queen's outside shooting: "They shoot the ball so well from the arc. ... We wanted to do a better job of stopping that [in the second half]."

- On how Queen's compared to the other teams they had faced on this tour, the defending CIS champion Brock Badgers and the McMaster Marauders: "This is the best opposition we've played."
[That was a pretty surprising comment in my mind, given how one-sided the game turned out. Still, Queen's did stick with Buffalo pretty well, except in the fourth. For reference, the Bulls beat the Badgers 109-67 [Brock Athletics]. McMaster doesn't seem to have a release posted on their game and neither does Buffalo, so that might have just been a scrimmage. Carleton beat Buffalo 84-74 [David Kent, Carleton Athletics] in the final game of the Bulls' tour Monday.]

- On the level of CIS basketball as a whole: "I think the quality of competition is really underrated. It presents us with a challenge. These teams are well-coached. ... It's tremendous preparation for us."

- On if the Bulls will be back in future seasons: "The [NCAA] rules only allow us to do it [make a trip to Canada] once every four years. We'd love to do it every year."

Campus Corner: Ding dong, Hitchcock's gone

Queen's principal Dr. Karen Hitchcock announced her resignation earlier today, which came on the heels of some severe criticism of her by student leaders, professors, and even our own paper.

It's no secret that I haven't been the biggest Hitchcock fan, especially given her treatment of the athletics review. Back in June, three months after the review's initial release date, she wouldn't even speak to our paper about why it was delayed or when it could be expected out. Instead, we got a statement from one of her plethora of spokespeople that she'd been considering it for a month and would release it in the near future. Well, that near future turned out to be nearer than expected: the day after we went to press, she suddenly released the review (perhaps prompted by our editorial criticizing the delay, or perhaps with the knowledge that any criticism of it would be delayed until our next print issue a month later, as we operate on a slower schedule in the summer months). In any case, her momentous decision that took over a month to come up with was the bold and shocking claim that the report needed further review. She dragged the process out for another six months in the name of soliciting additional feedback (mostly from the same people who gave their opinions before the generation of the review), and then made her final decision over a month after her own deadline.

In keeping with the vein of her bold decisions, the stunning conclusion that took so much time to come to was that parts of the review should be gradually implemented, but the most important recommendation (cutting funding to some teams to fund others at higher levels) should be put off until another review in April 2009 reranked the teams. It certainly seemed a political decision calculated to try and keep both the pro- and anti-review camps happy, perhaps not surprising given how the timing lined up with her quest for reappointment. There are parts of the review I disagree with, but on the whole, it's a pretty solid work and it outlines a compelling vision of excellence in a few sports. The anti-review forces also have a compelling vision of Queen's succeeding in a wide variety of sports. Hitchcock's attempt at a diplomatic response alienated both sides and prevented any solid progress in either direction. As we pointed out in an editorial the next issue, her response effectively nullified the review's chance to accomplish much in the coming years.

"Hitchcock has erred so much on the side of caution she has effectively made no changes at all," we wrote. "With a whole school year nearly passed before her haphazard response, Queen’s athletics hardly seem to be a top priority for Hitchcock.
The Athletics Review had the potential to improve Queen’s athletics and do so within a foreseeable timeframe. Hitchcock’s call to review interuniversity and competitive teams in another year renders that aspect of the initial report useless and doesn’t say anything concrete about the teams’ futures. It seems ridiculous that so much time and money went into the Athletics Review, only for it to be reviewed again."

Hitchcock followed up this lack of concern for athletics with an even more prominent display of her disregard when she skipped the annual end-of-year athletics banquet, sending vice-principal (academic) Patrick Deane instead (as she seemed to do for anything remotely controversial). She did address the assembled crowd via a creepy Orwellian pre-recorded video message, however. This wasn't a lone example of Hitchcock's lack of engagement with athletics, which was starkly different from her predecessors. A Queen's coach I was speaking to the other day told me about a recent encounter she had with ex-principal Bill Leggett, who not only remembered her, but discussed her team's recent successes in detail. It's hard to picture Hitchcock being able to do that, as she rarely attended games. When she did bother to show up, it was usually for a quick photo op at the start, and then she'd swiftly take off to do more important things. Contrast that with a university president like David Naylor of the University of Toronto, who, as James Mirtle wrote about in a Globe feature last fall, sees athletics as important to the school's overall success. Naylor, a former basketball Varsity Blue himself, told Mirtle he fully supports strong varsity teams.

Naylor's approach is hardly unique. In a time when universities are becoming less distinguishable from each other academically, sports play a huge role in both developing tradition and selling your brand. Consider the following quote from Michael Grange's story about the role the success of Carleton's basketball program played in shedding the school's "Last Chance U" reputation. "Their success has changed our outlook," said Dr. Samy Mahmoud, Carleton's president. "Sports are no longer an ancillary activity here. It's at the core of what we do." Wouldn't it be nice if Queen's new principal thought the same way? Sports should be one of the crucial parts of a university: not necessarily neglecting academics for athletics (a la the NCAA), but using athletics to build community spirit and attract people (and donors) to your school. Hitchcock never understood that: let's hope her successor does.

"Rock, chalk, championship!"

A fantastic American national championship game last night saw the University of Kansas Jayhawks claim their first championship since 1988 with a 75-68 overtime win over the University of Memphis Tigers. Funnily enough, current assistant coach Danny Manning was the star of that Kansas team 20 years ago, which was appropriately known as "Danny and the Miracles" and pulled off a stunning upset of Oklahoma to claim the title.

It was a great run for this year's Jayhawks, but they didn't go without their struggles, almost losing to Cinderella team Davidson in the Elite Eight when the Wildcats' Jason Richards missed a crucial shot at the buzzer. For much of last night, it looked like the Jayhawks would come up short again, especially when they were nine points down with just over two minutes left. They went on an incredible late run, though, and forced overtime off a tremendous contested three from Mario Chalmers with only 2.1 seconds left.

That Chalmers shot deserves its own paragraph. Hell, it deserves its own column, perhaps its own book someday. It should be forever enshrined in NCAA tournament lore. Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star absolutely nailed it with this column, impressive considering that he filed it almost right after the gmae.

"As soon as Mario Chalmers’ shot went up in this wild Kansas-Memphis championship game, you could feel that crazy twist in your stomach," he wrote. "It’s going in. It’s the same feeling that every sports fan has in the last second, when the last Hail Mary is thrown, when the last fly ball is hit, when the last putt is curling toward the hole. Of course, most of the time the Hail Mary is knocked away, the last fly ball dies at the warning track, the last putt breaks left of the hole. And the last shot usually hits the rim and bounces away. Great finishes, like straight flushes, rarely come through."

This great finish did come through, though. Chalmers took a kick-out pass and got off what looked like a partly off-balance shot with two Tigers in his face, and it hit nothing but net. "We got the ball in our most clutch player's hands, and he delivered," Kansas coach Bill Self told CBS after the game. Boy, did he ever deliver, sending the game to overtime and paving the way for the eventual Jayhawk triumph. Posnanski properly called it "the greatest shot in Kansas basketball history".

Memphis looked rattled after that, almost destined to lose. They were getting decent looks in the overtime period, but couldn't hit a shot when it mattered. Kansas pulled off a great steal, several key rebounds and even an alley-oop to seal the deal and give Self his first national championship.

Another interesting part of this matchup was the presence of Roy Williams. Williams, now the UNC coach, famously took over the Jayhawks program in 1988, right after Larry Brown led them to their last national title and then left for the NBA. He brought the program through the sanctions levied on them for recruiting violations under Brown, and led them to terrific success. They qualified for every NCAA tournament between 1990 and 2003, made the Final Four three times and won an astonishing 80.5 per cent of their games.

Still, Williams was never able to take that last step, and flew the coop right after his high-water mark with the Jayhawks, the 2003 title game where they lost to Syracuse. He soon won a championship with North Carolina, but left a bitter taste with some Kansas fans. That made the Kansas - North Carolina semifinal even more epic, and the Jayhawks' win seemed to provide an opportunity for Kansas fans to get their grievances with Williams out. Indeed, Williams was present and welcomed in the Kansas cheering section during this game, a classy move on both his part and the part of the Jayhawk fans.

The game also marked the dawn of a new era: Kansas basketball is no longer about getting even with the old coach, as he's since been eclipsed by the new coach. Bill Self cleared the knock on his record of failing to make the Final Four, and went on to join the pantheon of Kansas coaching legends with names like James Naismith, Forrest Allen and Larry Brown. It additionally demonstrated the circular nature of NCAA coaching: Self started at Kansas as an assistant to Brown in 1985, filling the position recently vacated by John Calipari. He then left to take an assistant's position at Oklahoma State, and then had head coaching jobs with Oral Roberts University, the University of Tulsa and the University of Illinois before returning to Kansas to take over from Williams. Calipari, of course, eventually wound up at Memphis, and found himself facing both his old program and the man who filled his shoes.

This year's tournament had everything: star players like Michael Beasley, underdogs like Davidson, an eventual Final Four of top-seeded teams, and storylines galore. Yet, to top it all off was a nice CIS connection. Neate wrote before the game that Kansas is planning a pre-season match against the Carleton Ravens on August 30. That will be something, to see the NCAA champions in Canada against our greatest dynasty, even if the game's unlikely to mean much. Now, if only they could be convinced to go play Brock for the North American championship. Even the Jayhawk scrubs could probably win in a heartbeat, given the disparity in program resources, but you never know: as this year's CIS championships showed, the clock doesn't always strike midnight on Cinderella.

Comeuppance for the giant-killers

Well, Barnsley finally met their match. After seeing off both Arsenal and Liverpool, their magical FA Cup run came to an end at the hands of fellow Championship strugglers Cardiff City. A ninth-minute goal from midfielder Joe Ledley, playing for his hometown side, proved to be the difference between the two sides: Cardiff created many more chances, but couldn't tack on an insurance marker. Barnsley had their own chances, though, particularly when Kayode Odejayi broke in alone but could only find the side of the net in what Soccernet described as "quite possibly the worst miss seen at the new Wembley". In the end, Cardiff was deserving of the win and a berth in next month's final against Portsmouth.

What's interesting is how Barnsley cranked it up to beat top-flight sides like Arsenal and Liverpool, but couldn't seem to do the same against a club from their own league. Perhaps it's the downside of an upset: all of a sudden, the expectations are weighing on your shoulders instead of those of the opposition, particularly when matched up against a club that's an underdog in its own right. You can't play the "Nobody believes in us!" card any more, because all of a sudden, everyone believes in you. Meanwhile, the other side can play with the freedom low expectations bring: if they happen to lose, it was the predicted outcome, but if they win, they've knocked off the giant-killers. In Cardiff's case, no one would raise much of a fuss about joining a roster of defeated adversaries that prominently displays such names as Arsenal and Liverpool.

The other aspect of this is the danger of buying into the hype. You pull off a miracle win, and all of a sudden, you start reading your own press clippings and believing you're up there with the best. As a result, maybe you stop putting in the extra effort that carried you this far. You think, 'Ah, this will be easy! We've beaten the best, now we can coast!' This kind of attitude tends to lead to abandoning the hustle and work ethic that made the wins possible. Meanwhile, the new underdogs have you firmly in their sights, and you can bet they aren't slacking off.

The best other example of this I can think of is from this year's CIS basketball championships. After Acadia pulled off a miracle double-overtime win in the semifinals against the five-time defending champion Carleton Ravens, beating the seventh-seeded Brock Badgers for the title must have seemed like a piece of cake. Instead, Brock went out there and pulled off an upset of their own. Granted, there were other factors involved, including the far-too-short turnaround time between the late-night semifinal and the early-afternoon final, but there's still a good chance that Acadia thought the hard work was done. There aren't any guaranteed wins, and no opponent should ever be taken for granted: it's far too easy to go from underdog to target.

Another interesting aspect of Cardiff's win: it's only the second time a Welsh club has advanced to the FA Cup final. The previous appearance was also by Cardiff, back when they beat Arsenal in 1927. As the Globe's esteemed soccer writer Ben Knight pointed out a while back, being Welsh also means that they won't get the UEFA Cup slot reserved for the FA Cup champions even if they win, which is a great injustice.

Sidebar: It's interesting to see Cardiff doing well again. I remember watching them play the Vancouver Whitecaps in an exhibition a couple years back, and I was pretty impressed. For all the bashing it gets, the Championship actually has a decently high calibre of play.

The upset of the century

Bigger than the Giants and Patriots. More remarkable than the Edmonton Oilers' Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Finals. More unprecedented than the seventh-seeded Winnipeg Wesmen knocking off the undefeated McMaster Marauders. Even more unexpected than Barnsley knocking off Liverpool and Manchester United. There's nothing that's happened yet this century that can compare to the Acadia Axemen's improbable, almost unbelievable 82-80 double overtime upset of the Carleton Ravens tonight in the CIS men's basketball championships. They'll go on to face Brock tomorrow in a final no one would have predicted. As Streaming Sports Network Canada's Mark Masters noted on their webcast, "This is a game that will go down in the history books as one of the best all-time games in national history." I'd go even beyond that.

Carleton has been one of the most dominant programs in any sport ever, winning the last five national championships, going undefeated in OUA competition this year, and winning 18 straight games at the nationals to tie UVic's record. Acadia barely made it into this tournament, squeaking in from the wild-card slot in a somewhat contested decision over Brandon: as Mark Wacyk of cishoops.ca noted on the SSN broadcast, "Some people didn't even think they should be here." I for one, picked Brandon by a nose for the wild-card berth. The Halifax Chronicle-Herald's Chad Lucas now looks like a genius for his post defending the inclusion of the Axemen over the Bobcats and the overall strength of the AUS conference.

As Masters commented, it's tough to grasp the significance of this upset. "You try to wrap your head around the magnitude of what just happened here," he said. "It's a game that will go down in the history books as one of the best all-time games in national history." The Globe and Mail's Michael Grange captured the significance perfectly in the lede of his article. "The Acadia Axeman chopped down a giant," he wrote. "It took two overtime periods, countless lead changes and surviving a controversial reversal of a basket that may well have decided the game with 21 seconds to play, but they will be playing Brock University Sunday afternoon after an 82-80 win that not only ended Carleton University's remarkable five-year run of CIS dominance but will likely stand as one of the most remarkable games in CIS history."

It certainly wasn't an easy win. Acadia held the lead most of the way through, but Carleton wasn't ready to give up on their dreams of a sixth straight championship and kept fighting back, forcing first one overtime, then a second, and even having a chance to win at the end buzzer. Acadia might have been able to pull further away if not for a controversial overturn of a call near the end: they airballed a long jumper, but Sean Berry grabbed the rebound, hit the shot and got the foul. After extensive consultations, the referees overturned the basket and gave Carleton the ball, though, determining that a shot clock violation had occurred. Acadia coach Les Berry was furious, but the SSN guys agreed that it was the right call, and I'm in a mind to agree. The nice thing is it didn't wind up making a difference: it would have been bad if Carleton had won off that call, and it would have been worse if Acadia needed the call to complete this upset. This way, there's no asterisk, and nothing to cast a shadow on their triumph.

The key to victory for the Axemen was a solid defence. As Masters noted,
"When it counted the most, the Ravens just could not hit a shot." Wacyk agreed, citing the defensive play of the Axemen as explanation for the Ravens' abysmal 33% field-goal percentage. "Carleton did not get a lot of open looks," he said. Acadia also pulled off the rare feat of beating the Ravens on the glass, outrebounding them 38-33.

Acadia got a particularly great performance from Achuil Lual, who did a fantastic job of shutting down CIS Player of the Year Aaron Doornekamp. Wacyk attributed Luau's performance as the top factor that let Acadia win, and I'm of a mind to agree: Carleton is tremendously deep, which is why they were able to hang around for so long, but minimizing the impact of a star like Doornekamp is vital for an upset. Lual told the SSN guys in a post-game interview that his defence is the main reason he’s on the squad. “Since I started playing ball, I wasn't really a big offensive threat,” he said. He recognized Doornekamp’s talent, but wasn’t intimidated. “All I was thinking was play my hardest and try to stop him.” Acadia coach Les Berry also had high praise for Lual. "He matches up against the best player on every team," he said. "His intensity is through the roof. He's the most intense player in our league."

Offensively, the key for the Axemen was Peter Leighton, who poured in a game-high 23 points on 60 per cent shooting, including making four of seven attempts from deep. As Wacyk noted, "Leighton played the game of his life." Leonil Santil also had a great game for Acadia, chipping in 22 points and adding nine rebounds.

Lual cited historical precedent, where UVic's reign of 18 straight victories at the nationals─which Carleton tied with Friday's quarter-final win over the Alberta Golden Bears─ended at the hands of an underdog. "Nobody thought we were going to do it," he said. "We used that as motivation and went from that."

Wacyk also made a good comment about how Acadia still needed to excel, even with Carleton having trouble from the floor. "1985, everyone had Georgetown and Villanova played a perfect game," he said. "Tonight, Acadia played as close to a perfect game as you'll see."

CIS Coach of the Year Mike Katz of the University of Toronto Varsity Blues told the SSN guys the victory should be properly appreciated for its uniqueness, rather than rationalized. "It's just the beauty of sport," he said. "You can't overanalyze it, just enjoy it and move on." As Dale Stevens wrote on CIShoops.ca, "The reign is over!" Carleton's dynasty has been good for the coverage of CIS competition, as dominance is always interesting. There's a limit to the amount of times one can expound on that theme, though, and it's good to see that this isn't just a one-horse league. The kings are dead: long live the kings.

One interesting thing that may come out of this win is a strengthening of the push for a 16-team tournament, which Wayne Kondro of the Ottawa Citizen reports already enjoys significant support. If the wild-card team can knock off a five-time defending champion, it suggests that CIS parity is very strong. This is further evidenced by the quality of several of the teams that missed out, such as Brandon, Katz' Blues, and the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. If there's a way to make a 16-team tournament work around school commitments and expenses, I'd be all for it. I'm not as big of a fan of the scheme Kondro outlines though, where the tournament is split into four regional ones and only the four champions play. That essentially is a contraction, rather than an expansion, of the nationals, as there already are regional tournaments in the lead-up to the CIS championships. This also won't necessarily lead to the best teams playing at the end, as is evidenced by tomorrow's finalists: Brock finished third in the OUA playoffs, while Acadia picked up silvers at the AUS tournament. One final point against regionalizing the nationals is that most Canadian papers can't afford to send four people to cover university basketball in different locations, so your quality of coverage will be greatly decreased. This isn't just a newspaper issue, either: it would be pretty hard to convince the Score to pay for four different camera crews and commentary teams to fly to different cities and be billeted there for most of a week, in addition to the technical issues with broadcasting from that many arenas. If the nationals go to 16 teams, it should be a full-week tournament in one central location: now that would get some significant coverage.

Regardless of expansion, as Wacyk rightfully concluded on the SSN broadcast, this sort of match bodes well for Canadian university basketball. "Any time a team loses for the first time in six years its a big story, but I think the bigger story is the incredible excitement generated by this ball game," he said. "CIS basketball is a tremendous product, and tonight we got one of the greatest games in the history of the CIS. It just shows you how great CIS basketball can be."

Update: Some new links on this: Neate has good pieces at Out Of Left Field and The CIS Blog, and Chris Stevenson of the Ottawa Sun has a very impressive deadline story.

Campus Corner: Can hockey keep it up?

In the final installment of Campus Corner for this week, here's my thoughts on the hockey teams. First, the men's team pulled off a very nice come-from-behind victory against RMC on Wednesday: the Journal was well-represented at the match, with Mike, Josh and myself all making the cross-town trip to Constantine Arena. I mentioned in a comment on Neate's blog earlier that I wasn't too impressed with the arena: to me, it felt way too small and cramped (the section we were sitting in was packed to the brim, and there were constantly people moving around looking for seats). Also, the penalty boxes weren't glassed in, which I haven't seen in a hockey rink before, and the whole arena's covered by white netting, making visibility pretty limited. Others think differently, though.

Anyways, on the game itself: it was a pretty impressive performance from the Gaels. What amazed me the most was one particular coaching decision on the part of Brett Gibson. Pat Doyle was flattened by RMC captain Luke Pierce, got up, skated up behind Pierce, reached around and yanked him down with his stick, taking an obvious and unnecessary penalty away from the play. As Mike pointed out in his article on the game, many coaches would have benched Doyle then and there. Gibson, who had already suspended Doyle for two games following an earlier pattern of poor play, took the opposite tactic though and moved Doyle to the top line with Brady Olsen and Jon Lawrance. The move paid off, with that line accounting for every Gaels' goal.

The other impressive factor was Olsen himself. He scored three times for Queen's, including a second goal that was one of the prettiest I've seen in a long time. Gibson's description of it to Mike was perfect.
“At any level you won’t find a nicer goal, and I’m not exaggerating one bit,” he said. “I stood on the bench and was in awe, I just couldn’t believe it. … There aren’t many kids that can do that.”

This is the third year I've seen Olsen play, and he's improved each year. He's doing particularly well this year, and is third in goals scored in both the OUA and the CIS. Unfortunately, he's in his fourth year of eligibility, so it will be interesting to see if he comes back next year, and if not, what happens to the team in his absence.

This weekend's games for hockey should be pretty good. Tonight's road game against Toronto is huge for the men: the Blues are only two points back, with a game in hand, so it could be decisive in terms of determining the division title. They also play Carleton Saturday night in Napanee. Oddly, despite the similarity in the teams' records (Queen's is 11-10-3 and Carleton is 11-10-2), their playoff positions are hardly similar: Queen's leads a weak Mid-East Division, while Carleton's in third in the Far East (and only a couple points ahead of Concordia and Ottawa). If Queen's can pull out two wins, they'll be in great shape: anything else will make the stretch run very interesting.

The women's team also plays this weekend, after a disappointing tie with UOIT last weekend. They take on two pretty strong teams in Windsor and Laurier. Queen's is currently in the middle of the standings, so a repeat of last year's OUA silver isn't looking all that likely at the moment, but as teams like the Edmonton Oilers and New York Giants have shown, seeding can become irrelevant once you get into the playoffs.

Campus Corner: A sibling rivalry, or lack thereof?

The men's basketball team faces a sharp contrast this weekend. Tonight, they play 14-0 Carleton, the consensus No.1 team in the country (according to the CIS poll, cishoops.ca, and the RPI rankings, which agree on very little apart from Carleton). Tomorrow night, they play a polar opposite team in the 0-14 RMC Paladins (as an aside, why does RMC even bother keeping volleyball and basketball teams? They haven't won a game in either gender in either sport this year, so they're worse than the Miami Dolphins, which is pretty sad).

Tonight's Carleton game should be quite interesting. As Neate Sager noted on The CIS Blog, Carleton's suffering from a flu bug. That, combined with the possibility that the Ravens might overlook tonight's match in preparation for tomorrow's Capital Hoops Classic against Ottawa before 10,000 fans at Scotiabank Place, should at least give the Gaels a slim chance to my way of thinking.

Unfortunately, head coach Rob Smart doesn't seem to agree. Smart told me that the game means "almost nothing" for his team, as they've pretty much already written it off. While certainly a pragmatic and realistic attitude, I'm not entirely convinced that it's the proper one for a coach to take before such a clash. As earlier mentioned, there's a reason we still actually play the games rather than just simulating them on computers. If both the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens can almost knock off the New England Patriots, there's certainly a chance that Queen's can hang in there with Carleton, and maybe even take the match if they channel the kind of shooting (71% from three-point land!) the Raptors put
up against the Celtics in their upset the other day. Perhaps I'm just a huge fan of underdogs, but I like to believe that there's always some hope. If Queen's can hit 71 per cent of their threes, I'm pretty sure they'll pull off the win: otherwise, it's still a slim chance, but it's definitely there. In any case, the battle of the Smarts (Rob and his younger brother, Carleton coach Dave) alone makes this game worth watching.

By the way, to keep from coming down on Smart too hard: he also made a good point about how Queen's young guys (i.e. Mitch Leger, Jon Ogden) are right up there with, if not better than, Carleton's equivalent young guys. The difference is Queen's relies on its young stars, while Carleton uses them primarily as fill-ins. It's also possible that he's saying one thing to the media to keep expectations low while secretly pumping his guys up for battle. The other alternative is that he's just sick of the inevitable questions about the success his brother's having with Carleton. In fairness, these games don't really mean a ton in terms of playoff positioning either: the 9-5 Gaels are currently fourth in the OUA East, and there doesn't seem to be too much likelihood of them catching Toronto given the Blues' recent success: however, there are still a lot of games to play. They should be able to finish ahead of fifth-place Ryerson, though, as the Rams are currently 5-9. Thus, barring an unexpected run or Jean Van de Velde-esque collapse by the Gaels (or a Phil Mickelson-esque choke-job by the Blues), they should be set to host Ryerson in the first round, a very winnable game.

(Hilarious response by Smart when I asked him if there's a sibling rivalry: "A rivalry involves being close.")

It will also be interesting to see if Queen's can keep any intensity for Saturday night's game against RMC, or if it will all have been drained from them in the Carleton game. Smart said he isn't worried about overconfidence, but you have to think that there might be some going from playing a 14-0 team to matching up against an 0-14 team. RMC's certainly going to pull out all the stops against their cross-town rivals in an attempt to avoid a winless season, and the schedule should help them a bit. I don't think Queen's will let down far enough that RMC will take the game, but it might be closer than you'd think, and the improbable does occur from time to time.

The women's matches should also be interesting. Tonight, 5-10 Queen's takes on 3-12 Carleton. The Gaels then play the winless Paladins Saturday night. These are key games for playoff positioning. Queen's is currently fourth in the OUA East, and has no chance of moving up (third-place Laurentian is 12-4). However, they need to hang on to the fourth seed to host a first-round matchup. They definitely don't want to slip any further than fifth, as the sixth and final playoff seed earns a doomed matchup against the third-place team. Carleton currently occupies sixth place, and will be desperate to try and move up. As Gaels' head coach Dave Wilson noted, it really is a four-point game. The RMC game will also be key: Wilson pointed out that the Paladins have been playing good basketball without getting results, and you know they'll be fired up against a crosstown team that has also struggled.
(By the way, Wilson is one of my favorite coaches: he always has time for the media, and he's one of the most quotable people I've ever interviewed.)


Related:
- Neate Sager's piece setting up the weekend at Out of Left Field: he also threw a link my way, which was completely unexpected and very nice of him
- Neate's other piece on basketball at The CIS Blog, referenced above
- The CIShoops.ca weekend preview (By the way, Mark Wacyk got some nice recognition for his work from Michael Grange of the Globe and Mail, my favorite basketball reporter).