The NCAA tournament started this morning and I can safely say that so far, it’s been a great day for shirking responsibilities and not showering. More importantly, despite this being heralded as one of the least exciting college basketball seasons on record, this is the most fun I’ve had watching the tourney in years.
March 16, 2008
Denied II
Like most people, when I look back on the 2008 CIS national championship, the Brock Badgers’ victory isn’t what’s going to stand out to me. What does stand out is that the host and then-reigning five-time champion Carleton Ravens had to watch from the stands if they wanted to see the championship game.
I’d go into more detail if I had watched the game, but I spent my weekend away from Ottawa and the TV.
Some Raps’ news for your candy: Chris bosh says he might be back on Wednesday.
March 13, 2008
Denied
Well, guess it’s the webcasts or Score broadcasts for me. Wonder if they read my complaints about a couple of weeks ago or CUP just doesn’t rank too highly…
March 10, 2008
Dear Applicant,
Thank you for sending me an application for Media Accreditation for the 2008 CIS “Final 8” Men’s Basketball National Championship. At this time I have to inform you your application was turned down due to the numerous volume of applicants that we received for the Championship. There was only so much room on the Court Floor and in the Media Center.
Once again thank you for applying.
March 12, 2008
Sharing the ball > hogging the ball
Watching the clock wind down on the Raps’ latest loss, it was something that Chuck Swirsky said that’s going to stick out for me.
“With about 4:10 to go, the Raps had a 96–95 lead,” the Sandpaper Dink said. When he said this, the Raps trailed 107–98 or something. Things were going well for the Bosh-less Raptors. They had erased an 18-point first-quarter lead and had a shot at winning against a tough team on the road. Then two things happened. First, Baron Davis took the game over. Then TJ Ford, in response, decided to turn the game into a one-on-one battle. It worked for a little while, but when it got to the point that Ford was holding the ball at the top of the three-point line, waving the screens away and forcing the rest of the team down to the baseline, the game might as well have ended right there.
March 5, 2008
heart the size of a lion
I’m popping my youtube-video-post cherry, folks. Here are two of my (many) main men, Chris Bosh and Will Ferrell:
March 2, 2008
Ravens Roll On (OUA East Final), Adventures in Media
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.
March 1, 2008
Western Upsets Brock (OUA WEST FINAL)
Wow. That’s a surprising result and makes me wonder if there’s something in the water down there in London. First their football team, who were good, but not great make a run. Now, their basketball team who are decent, but finished fourth in the weaker Western division of the OUA are off to Nationals for the first time since 2001. Hmm.
Also, more on my continuing saga of trying to cover the basketball game tonight. Word on the street is that tickets are completely sold out and with the Carleton Sports Info staff only registering 1 writer and photog from the paper it looks like I may have to complain/beg/bribe my way into the game. My editor is more worried about this than I, mainly because he needs the story for the section.
I don’t complain about the sports info support I receive from schools on here (mainly because it’s always been top notch), but it’s annoying that student paper writers who are (granted) not the most important people, but cover their CIS teams on the most consistent basis get bumped as soon as big games arrive. If this is a preview of what can be expected at Nationals in a few weeks, it’s not going to be an enjoyable experience for me as I try and cover teams (either the Gee-Gees or other ones for CUP or my alma mater paper)
March 1, 2008
Goin’ All Out (OUA East Pre-Game)
While my colleague(s) on this blog seem to have fallen off the face of the earth when it comes posting CIS stuff, i’m going to keep on keepin’ on.
With 6.5 hours until tip off at Ottawa’s second best university of the OUA East Division final, there are some bases to cover. Since in addition to their titles, some towels from their hotel and dozens of those little shampoo bottles the Ravens also heisted the CIS Tournament on their way out of Halifax last year, the OUA division finals in the OUA aren’t guaranteed to be knockout games. Instead, there are at least 3 possible ways things could unfold:
- What everyone expects (including I*) is that the Ravens push through the Gee-Gees tonight on their way to yet another OUA title. Under this scenario, the Ravens and the winner of the OUA West semi (Western @ Brock at 2est) will automatically get in while the losers of the 2 semis battle it in an OUA 3rd place game with the winner securing the final guaranteed OUA berth spot.
- What Ben Myers thinks is that the Gee-Gees will topple the Ravens. Meaning that the Gee-Gees, Ravens and the winner of the OUA West game advance to Nationals and their isn’t a need for another game.
- The “hell-in-a-hand-basket” scenario is that the Gee-Gees lose the OUA East final, lose the 3rd place game and then need to count on the wild-card berth. Given what happened in Canada West (something Mr O could enlighten us on) this isn’t going to happen. The complex mathematical formula which involves coaches voting, Col . Sanders secret ingredients, best-3-of-5-rock-paper-scissors battles and the average air speed velocity of a swallow all conspire against the Gee-Gees and will probably put Brandon or Calgary into the wild card berth. All of this is of course pending what those crazy AUS kids do of course.
So there you go. I’ve been told that because of the impending media crush, Carleton doesn’t have enough room for me to set up my laptop and blog away, even though I’m also there on assignment for the Fulcrum. I’m going to take it along and see if i can finagle some space and even if I can’t i’ll write away and then post some things when i get back to an internet connection.
Edit: Sean Peter of the Gee-Gees was on the radio show this week and kind-of-sort-of said the Gee-Gees would win. Check it out ici.
*I’m picking this because this is truly what i believe is going to happen. I suppose it’s worth noting that I’ve been very bad at picking important Gee-Gees games this year though. I thought the football team would blow out Western in November. Oops. I though the Ravens would destroy a JGBless Gee-Gees team during the last game of the regular season. Not so much. I also said that Toronto woud beat Ottawa last weekend. Swing and a miss.
February 28, 2008
Celebration time
Not sure when this exactly took place, but it turned up on a Bears’ Facebook page in the past week. If they beat Brandon tomorrow night, will Don Horwood break this out in front of the Calgary fans?
February 26, 2008
Alex Steele: Canada West MVP
Just got in and had an email waiting from the U of A’s athletics dept. Alex Steele has been selected as CW MVP in men’s basketball this year, and Don Horwood picked up conference coach of the year.
