Sporting Madness

The Blogs With Balls conference wrapped up yesterday, and it was amazing. I'll finish my Fear, Loathing and Blogs series breaking down each panel later this weekend. However, before then, we interrupt this program to bring you a live blog of the second leg of the USL-1 final. For those who don't know much about the USL, it's the second level of pro soccer in North America, just below the MLS. What makes this year's edition of the final even more interesting is that it's played over two legs for the first time, it features two Canadian teams with good reasons to dislike each other and it features two teams aiming for MLS in the near future and currently embroiled in a dispute with the league's new owners. This leg will be in Montreal at 2:30 p.m. Eastern/11:30 a.m. Pacific. The Montreal Impact come into the second leg fresh off a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on the road last week; I was there in person for that one, but I'll be bringing you cov...

It should be a great day in CIS football, as the No. 2 Western Mustangs take on the No. 10 Guelph Gryphons live on The Score 's University Rush. I'll be live-blogging it here and at The CIS Blog with Neate Sager and Rob Pettapiece , plus anyone else who can make it out. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific. Come join us then! Western-Guelph liveblog

This is rather spur-of-the moment, but myself and some of the other writers from The CIS Blog thought we might as well live blog this afternoon's men's hockey final between the Western Mustangs and the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds (which can be seen on all four Sportsnet regional channels and at ssncanada.ca ). Who will take home the University Cup? It should be quite the clash, so come join in the live blog below! Men's hockey final

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

(Apologies to Sean Keeley for the blatant title theft ...) Perhaps the most impressive thing about Saturday's Vanier Cup game was the play of Laval quarterback Benoit Groulx . I came in expecting him to be good, but not great. Yes, he put up some tremendous passing numbers, especially in completions, but that's in a conference where Matt Connell can become the all-time leading passer in CIS history. Laval's West Coast-style offence, filled with quick, short passes, also certainly played a part. It's also difficult to compare players across different conferences solely on a stats basis when they play different opposition and in different offensive systems, and I didn't get to see Laval this year, so it was tough to learn much about how they played. I wasn't even entirely convinced that Groulx had a big advantage over Western quarterback Michael Faulds (who I still think is rather underrated; he led the league in passing yards with impressive rate stats as well...

Breaking down Queen's win over Western [myself, Queen's Journal ]... The score: Queen's 46, Western 13. How I saw it: In person. The Good: - Queen's defensive line: The Gaels put tremendous amounts of pressure on Western quarterback Michael Faulds all day long, sacking him four times and forcing him to throw the ball away several other times. Dee Sterling and Osie Ukwuoma were particularly effective, recording one sack each and seven solo tackles between the two of them. I particularly liked Neate 's take , evoking memories of Grantland Rice : You could almost write of the Queen's D line, "In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Osie Ukwuoma, Kyle MacDonald, Dee Sterling, and Neil Puffer and they formed the crest of the Kingston cyclone." - The turnover ratio: Queen's forced 11 Western turnovers (four interceptions, three fumble recoveries and four more turn...

Apologies for the lack of a live blog: I wound up outside the main press box in the stands due to a space shortage, and the pouring rain kept me from even taking out the computer until now. Fortunately, Neate is watching from home and has plenty of live-blogging coverage: check it out at Out of Left Field . Halftime score here is Queen's 23, Western 0. The Gaels are winning this one in the trenches: the offensive line is giving quarterback Dan Brannagan tons of time and opening holes for running back Mike Giffin , while the defensive line and linebackers have been bringing tons of pressure on Western quarterback Michael Faulds and his running backs all day, resulting in a couple of sacks, a number of thrown away balls and little offensive yardage on the ground. The other significant thing thus far has been the play of Western long-snapper Conor Elliot : his first two snaps flew way over the head of punter Daryl Wheeler , resulting in a safety and fumble, which was recovered and ...

A big shout-out to Dan Pawliw for throwing to this blog in his terrific weekly Queen's Football Club Newsletter. Just to let everyone interested know: I will be doing my best to live-blog tomorrow's Queen's - Western game (kick-off: 1 p.m. ET), but a lot depends on the weather. Due to the media crush covering the match, there's a good chance I'll be in the regular bleachers instead of the press box itself, which may lead to difficulties in case of rain. There's also a possibility I'll be in the press box serving as a spotter for announcer Tim Cunningham , which would help with the weather but probably keep me from trying to do every play the way I did last week : if this happens, I'll check in periodically here with big plays, updates and analytical thoughts on the game. Either way, there will almost certainly be some form of live-blogging going on here, but it's unclear at this point exactly what form that will take. I'll also be checking in wi...

Breaking down Queen’s win over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Saturday [myself, Out of Left Field ] (which you may have missed while pondering UBC’s stunning loss to Regina [ Neate Sager , Out of Left Field ] ... UBC now stands for Unbelievably Bad Clock management in my mind)... The score: Queen’s 58, U of T 14 How I saw it: In person (live blog can be found here ): yes, I went to Toronto just to see this one The Good: - Running back and all-around superstar Mike “The Giffinator” Giffin: Giffin ran for a career-high 215 yards 212 yards [see this post for explanation] on 16 carries despite being pulled after the third quarter. He got 4 or so yards on almost every run, which is respectable, and pulled away for some huge ones as well. He also picked up two rushing touchdowns and his 15th-straight game of 100-plus rushing yards. 189 of his rushing yards came in the first half, as he only got three carries in the third quarter. Giffin leads all CIS players with 687 rushin...