I won’t go too in depth on something that happened three days ago, but there were a few things I wanted to go over regarding this past weekend’s Bears-Huskies best of three series. Alberta took Sask out for the first time since 2005 and will travel to Calgary to take on the Dinos at home, where they’re 12-0 on the season.
Anyway, some notes on the series…
Andrew Spagrud was a beast
The downside of this series was that it brought Spagrud’s CIS career to an end. A solid 6-8 power forward with an inside and outside game, Spags is the best player I’ve seen on a CIS court. His lines from each game:
Game 1: 40 mins, 36 points (12-21 fg, 2-3 3pt), 10 rebounds, 2 steals. 74–82 L
Game 2: 40 mins, 20 points (9-18 fg, 1-2 3pt, including game winner with 7 seconds left), 11 rebounds, 4 blocks. 66–64 W
Game 3: 40 mins, 18 points (5-12 fg, 8-10 ft’s), 6 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal. 61–76 L
Seems like the big guy ran out of gas in game three (his post-battle with Richard Bates was epic), but what a weekend overall. Huskies coach Greg Jockims put it best after the game:
“He’s in my opinion the best player to ever be a Huskie. He’s our all time leading scorer, rebounder, all time leading scorer in CW and he’d up there in rebounding. He’s essentially scored 20 through his career and gotten 10 rebounds a game and that’s almost unheard of from a rookie season through to your fifth year. CW is a pretty strong forward league too.
He’s got to rank up there as one of the best players of all time, there’s not question. The fact hat he’s unable to extend his career is disappointing, but he’s done a lot of great things. I expect him to be an all-Canadian again this year.
Four years all Canadian and his first year he was national ROY. There’s not too many people with that kind of resume.”
Don Horwood never counts his money when he’s sittin’ at the table…
After losing on Spagrud’s jump-hook from the block in game two, and after blowing a ten-point halftime lead for the second night in a row, Horwood called out Alex Steele, basically putting the loss on his senior guard’s shoulders.
A move like that with your season suddenly on the line takes a whole lot of what Gorilla Monsoon called intestinal fortitude. If Steele were thin-skinned, he could have crumpled under the criticism and I’d have just written a Steele CIS obituary above instead of Spags. Instead, Steele came back with a solid 13-point, six assist effort in the game three win. Foul trouble kept him on the bench for stretches of the second half, but Steele responded when he was on the court.
Richard Bates and Andrew Parker are on their game
And that’s bad news for everyone else. Bates played Spagrud as well as anyone in the country could have last weekend. He kept him out of the paint, he wore him down on the defensive end, and he flossed an offensive game that prior to this year was basically non-existent. When he plays like that, the Bears gain a whole other dimension to them that the opposition can’t handle.
The same goes for AGP. His two dunks at the end of game three might be what people left talking about (and for good enough reason: the first one, a two-hander on the break, had him peaking inside the rim as he put the ball down; his second, a windmill off two feet, still runs through my head in slow motion. Total thing of beauty), but it’s his defence, energy and his outside touch that made the difference in game three. Something to think about: the Bears are 5-0 when Parker scores more than 20.
Bears have a good shot at nationals
Considering their regular season play, the Bears are in good shape to get the wildcard should they lose to Calgary this weekend. Assuming they’re in Calgary the following weekend for the CanWest Final Four (where two CW teams qualify for nat’s) the Bears just have two win one game to qualify for national tournament. Should they beat Calgary and host the tourney then not qualify from there, they’d be in good shape for a national wildcard spot in Ottawa in March.
3 Comments
February 21, 2008 at 1:24 am
Of all people *Ross* told me about AGP’s massive dunks. I wish someone had video of them.
If the Bears go to Nationals, hoooo-eee, that would be exciting.
You need to get some sort of exit interview with AGP. I need to know that I’ll be able to see his massive dunks in the future. Somewhere other than Ozerna.
No comments on All-star Weekend? I watched all of the Dunk Contest footage. I liked that they were giving them the two minute time allowance. That’s a great idea. I didn’t like that Howard’s Superman dunk was *thrown* into the basket, but it was still pretty impressive.
February 21, 2008 at 12:03 pm
There’s a pic of him at the end of his windmill on the Bears’ site.
I’ll definitely get an exit interview with AGP. In the meantime, here’s his transcripts from Sunday:
On the play where he jumped onto the scorers table after saving a ball going out of bounds and how he’s keeping his composure this year:
“You know what, coach, Alex Steele, those two guys and coach Dunkley just keep reminding me. And when you get older you start seeing things a little better and understanding what’s going on. For instance, if I have two fouls in the first, I can’t guard Grant and he gets off from the three point line. I said to myself, if I have one foul, play smart and stay with him. You don’t have to do everything, you just have to do your job. And that’s what coach has been telling me all year. Do my job and everyone else will do their job and we’ll be successful.”
On outscoring Sask in the third quarter:
“What was really different, we came into the halftime and everyone just started getting with each other and getting live and getting ready to play and being enthusiastic. Before we were getting mellowed out or whatever. We said look here guys: We’ve got 20 more minutes of potentially me, Steele and Bates’ career. How did we want to be seen? We said we’re not going to go out like that, playing the same style. Basically to death, we were going to go out there and put our bodies on the line, everything.
Because that’s what it was. Do or die. Do or die Sunday. And we livin. You dig? Haha…”
How’d you sleep last night?
“I did, but I dreamt, dog. I had DREAMS. I had dreams about winning. I just try to keep as many positive thoughts, you know? I actually dreamt about the windmill. I swear.”
Was that your nicest dunk in a game?
“Ever. Well, Concordia, that was just a gong show. At u of a yeah and this is the most meaningful. It was in a game, against a competitor, and it was when we needed it when we needed a lift. I was glad to contribute, big time.”
Bates said earlier that you guys talked about how words don’t mean anything…
“That’s what it was. I think, you know, that’s got to be our motto from here on out. You gotta remain focused. We got past this stage. There’s another stage after this and we just have to remain focused. Talking’s not going to do anything. Actions speak louder than words. It’s a cliché but its the truth, we have to live up to that.
My defensive assignment was to stay on Grant and don’t let him get any shots. For the most part I just wanted to stick to him like glue.
I was just remembering my childhood basketball hero Gary Payton, the way he used to get on people and don’t give them anything. Make them irritable. Grant looked irritable out there. I just said to myself if you want any type of postseason you know what you have to do. I tried to put every hustle play together and help my teammates.”
February 21, 2008 at 1:53 pm
“I did, but I dreamt, dog. I had DREAMS.”
Ahhh hahahah. That’s hilarious.
Also: the “Do or die” thing? Hilarious. I would have cracked up so hard if someone said that to me.
2x(also): the idea of anyone listening to Dunkley is HILARIOUS to me. Flashbacks of Dunkley at LaZerte!!!!
3x(also): on a scale from one to “you’re a cruel and judgmental bitch, Vanessa Thomas”. . .where would this comment rank?
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