CIS: The end of a streak

Maybe the SFU Clan had the Olympics on their mind this afternoon, as they fell 63-61 [Mike Tucker, UVic Sports Information] on the road to the sixth-ranked University of Victoria Vikes in their final league game. It would be all too easy to see the Vikes' upset of the top-ranked Clan as some sort of game-changing moment for CIS women's basketball, but there's more to it than that. The Clan had won 49 straight games, or 54 if you count the playoffs, so it's certainly noteworthy that someone finally found a way to beat them. In truth, though, this probably just shows that Canada West is about more than just SFU.

As the most recent Top 10 rankings show, the conference is absolutely stacked in women's basketball. They have No.1 SFU, No.2 Regina, No.4 Saskatchewan, No.6 Victoria, No.8 Alberta and No.10 UBC, six out of the ten slots. Back in 2008, I wrote a piece for the Queen's Journal about the West's dominance in men's volleyball. What I wasn't able to include for space reasons is that they've been just as dominant in women's basketball, and for similar reasons (earlier introduction of athletic scholarships and earlier investment in facilities).

Canada West teams have won the last 18 national championships since Laurentian's back-to-back wins in 1990 and 1991. In fact, since the first national championship in 1972, there have only been nine championships won by non-Canada West teams, seven by Laurentian and two by Bishop's. It's not like it's been one absolutely dominant team, either; starting with the 2000 championship, Regina has one title, Victoria has two, UBC has three and SFU has four. That shows there's a long tradition of outstanding basketball in the conference, and it means it's not that surprising that someone finally knocked the Clan off.

The win also shows the progress the Vikes have been making, and suggests they'll be a tough team to face in postseason play. Kayla Dysktra had a huge game for UVic, scoring 18 points and adding 13 boards, while Debbie Yeboah dumped in 21 points, including 15 in the second half and the final buzzer-beater. The Vikes didn't get discouraged after being held to four points in the second quarter, which suggests they're a resilient bunch. They'll have their hands full against No. 4 Saskatchewan in the playoffs, but counting them out wouldn't be a wise move.

Don't go writing off SFU just yet, though. They lost to the No.6 team, on the road, in a game that was meaningless for their playoff position, on an improbable buzzer-beater. That's quite a collection of circumstances, and it's one that may not be repeatable. Moreover, their streak is made even more impressive by the quality opposition it's come against. The Clan have been incredibly dominant for the past two years; I watched them lay a smackdown on a very good UBC team just two weeks ago, and a single loss doesn't mean that incredible team has disappeared. Moreover, they'll be still looking to exit CIS competition with a bang. Sure, they're no longer invincible, but that doesn't make them any less of a juggernaut.

[Cross-posted to The CIS Blog]

CIS: Peters settles with TWU

Some interesting news coming out of Langley these days. Trinity Western University announced that they've settled with former men's basketball coach Stan Peters. Peters, who was dismissed Dec. 13 after the Spartans got off to a 4-8 start, filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the university last month as Gary Ahuja of the Langley Times reported. His suit claimed that his firing was only the second time a CIS men's basketball coach had ever been let go in the middle of a season. Terms of the settlement weren't released.

Peters had gone on a solid run with the Spartans since joining the program in 1999: his team made the Canada West playoffs four out of the last five years, and he won a Canada West bronze medal and the Canada West Coach of the Year award in 2003. He's also an experienced coach, with 21 years of coaching at colleges and universities under his belt. To my knowledge, this year was expected to be a bit of a rebuilding one for the Spartans, so I was pretty surprised when they axed Peters partway through.

Of course, it made a little more sense when they announced his replacement: Scott Allen, the coach of the White Rock Christian Academy Warriors, a perennial powerhouse that frequently punches above their weight on the B.C. high school circuit, playing up in the AAA division against bigger schools. White Rock's won three AAA championships since the school moved up to that level, and Allen has the highest winning percentage of any coach at the AAA championships. He's unproven at the university level, but he's certainly got some coaching talent.

Also, as either a side benefit or his main appeal (depending on your degree of cynicism), he's got a lot of connections with some key B.C. players: he's already landed former national rookie of the year Jacob Doerksen on a transfer from UVic. Doerksen led the Vikes to the CIS silver in 2006 and was named a Canada West second team all-star the next year, but then walked away from UVic. He was reportedly considering UBC or Calgary, but instead chose to join Allen, his former provincial U17 coach, at TWU. He's already sat out a year, so he'll suit up for the Spartans this fall. Nick Greenizan of the Peace Arch News called Doerksen "one of Western Canada’s most sought after players." As Greenizan reports in the same story, Allen's hiring and Doerksen's decision then led White Rock Christian star Tonner Jackson to join the Spartans. Jackson reportedly had options in Canada and the States, but the close links to Allen persuaded him. “Knowing (Allen) was definitely part of it, and with all the returning seniors they’ll have next year, and with Jacob coming in, I think it will just be a good environment for me.” Jackson told Greenizan. Allen's also nabbed Louis Hurd, the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association's leading scorer.

The timing is interesting here. Allen takes the new job Feb. 23, and within a month, lands three sought-after recruits. It makes me wonder if Allen's recruiting potential wasn't the real reason Peters was bumped. This sort of move isn't unknown in university sports, but it's more common south of the border (consider the Wall Street Journal's piece on USC giving Lil' Romeo a basketball scholarship despite his lack of talent in hopes of luring Demar DeRozen.) There may have been legitimate reasons for the firing, and I don't know what was going on behind the scenes, but the suspicion lingers that Peters was axed to make way for Allen and his stable of recruits. In any case, firing a long-time coach with Peters' reputation midseason is unusual for any university, but even more so for a university whose human resources department has the bold mission statement "Our mission, as providers of professional human resource services, is to support the people of the TWU community in fulfilling Gods [sic] call in their lives." Guess they decided Peters was being called elsewhere...