blogsketball

I’m a little late with getting this up, but my apologies. It was a busy night.

I’m still trying to sort through my thoughts on the game itself and separate them from what went on outside of the game while I was trying to do my reporting job (see below).  The 75-56 Ravens win probably makes it appear like they dominated the Gee-Gees and to a certain extent that’s true. But there’s more to the result then that. The Ravens held a slight 31-30 edge at the break thanks to stud-Aaron Doornekamp who spent most of the night making drives to the basket seem like he was cruising down the highway. Stuart Turnbull’s open shooting also caused havoc for the Gee-Gees off the top of the game.

Yet, just as it looked like the Ravens were going to steamroll Ottawa, the Gee-Gees found their game. Sitting down behind the bench (amidst a ton of  UO students banging pots, pans and wearing the garnet and grey) they settled down, worked the ball to Dax Dessureault and let Josh Gibson-Bascombe run the offense as good as he has all year. Add that to some stifling defense that pulled down four straight boards and Ottawa turned a 28-21 deficit into a 30-28 led just before half. The Ravens did sink a late 3-ball (i missed who thanks to the throng of fans) to take the lead, but they weren’t blowing the doors off Ottawa and it looked like it was going to be another tight, difficult contest.

Then things just fell apart for the Gee-Gees.

The Ravens came out like gang-busters while Ottawa looked content to just be on the court. I’ve seen it a couple of times this year from Ottawa and I think it’s partly a result of their relative inexperience and youth that they sometimes lose focus and forget they’re playing a 40 minute game. Not a 28 minute one.

In this instance there was more to the disintegration than just their effort and Carleton’s ability though. The officiating, which had been rocky (to be charitable) all night both ways took a major dip during the third quarter. Dessureault, who despite being heavily  in the fray over the first half, had no fouls to start the third picked up three in less than a minute and a half. All of the calls were pretty awful, but the final call was the worst.  As Dessureault and Doornekamp were tangled on the floor after a Ravens basket, Doornekamp  clearly did something as Dessureault tried to get up (thanks to my new 2nd half vantage  in the press box i could see that…see below for more) and Dessureault (stupidly) stomped on him in frustration anger. Doornekamp sunk the free throws and  added to what would be a 10-0 Ravens run.

After a couple more just flat out bad possession calls from the reffs, David DeAveiro reached the tipping point when a Sean Peter pass was clearly tipped (since physics doesn’t allow you to pass it into the third row when you’re thrown on a downward angle). After jawing with the near side reff while holding the ball and preventing Carleton from inbounding it, DeAveiro threw his head back and threw the ball to the offical across the court. Getting T’d up and marking pretty well the end of the Gee-Gees chances on the night.

In my notes from the midway in the 2nd quarter i have scribbled that “Rav are 5 time champs, I don’t think they need the reffs help.” Just below that i’ve scribbled “never mind, the only people these reffs are helping are the ones that are going to replace them working nationals.” I know I’ve talked with Mr O about this a bunch back in our UA days, but the CIS might just have the worst officiating crews on the whole. For a big, intense, energetic game like last night you need officials who thrive under the conditions, but don’t get such an adrenaline rush that they’re making bad calls. Unfortunatley this wasn’t the case last night and while it helped hasten Ottawa’s collapse, it made for a miserable showcase of CIS basketball heading into Nationals.

As an aside, having never been to the Ravens nest before but having heard a lot of talk about how nice it was I was a little underwhelmed. It’s much nicer than UO’s high school set-up, but it’s very similar to the aptly named Main Gym at the UA, only newer and with a press box. The stands are set up extremely similar though it seems like there are fewer of the nice (aka non-bench) type seats at Carleton than the UA and the Ravens Nest also lacks the second tier of seating like the UA has along the east wall. Maybe it’s my emotional tie  to the UA, but I thought the Ravens Nest was nice and all, but because it seemed so new it lacked the grittiness and historic (or “shitty” as Chris puts it) feel that the Main gym has. Also, they don’t have a display screen like the UA does, so i think that HAS to drop them down a notch. Or not.

Adventures in Media:
In  my post about the OUA West final I said there was the distinct possibility that i may have been on the outside looking in when I got to Carleton since I didn’t have media accreditation and tickets were sold out.  Thanks to a roommate of my benevolent sports editor who didn’t wish to attend and a $10 transfer I was all set up to go. Miffed about having to pay to enter the game, but still able to attend.

Unfortunately for my colleagues from La Rotonde who had been told (and had email proof) they could bring two writers and a photog to cover the game found they only had passes for 2 people. When they mentioned this to the Ravens Sports Info Dir they were (quite rudely) told them’s the breaks and if they wanted another person in they needed to find and buy a ticket. The kicker in this whole scenario is that at the half my benevolent editor came down and told me to come up to the press box because where he and La Rotonde’s editor were sitting was empty and could easily accommodate another couple of sports writers.

This is my fifth year of writing sports for a university newspaper. Over that time span I’ve covered a handful of national championships, covered games at visiting schools a half-dozen times (including a few at US Schools where I was literally a nobody) and I’ve never received such a terrible reception. It wasn’t like we were asking for free food, champagne or a limo home. Just simply accommodation for a couple of writers to do their jobs. Not even jobs in our cases, but a volunteer commitment that we enjoy doing.  It was terrible and makes it a little more understandable (as CIS Hoops point out) why few of the Ottawa media attended last nights game.

I remember talking with Chris when they announced that Carleton was going to take over hosting and how wrong it seemed because of the history and tradition in Halifax. Hopefully the management at Nationals will be much better (and more cordial) then it was last night, otherwise there could be big issues and dead zones in the media coverage.