blogsketball

While I have a free moment I also figured I should note to our readers (or maybe just to Chris) that there’s a little bit of a kerfuffle going on behind the scenes here at the University of Ottawa.

Before last weekends action against Queen’s and RMC, i linked to this media release on the UO Sports Info site which includes an update on the status of Gee-Gees point guard Josh Gibson-Bascombe.

Simon Cremer (sports editor at La Rotonde, the French student paper at the UO) was talking about that release on the Gee-Gees Hour radio show (I’ll link to the podcast when it’s up) on Monday and he let it slip that the release has caused a minor controversy between the UO Sports Info Coordinator Dan Carle and Gee-Gees head coach David DeAveiro.

At issues seems to be the following passage from the release:

The Gee-Gees are without their leading scorer this weekend. Third-year point guard Josh Gibson-Bascombe (Toronto, Social Science) suffered a partial tear of his right MCL knee ligament and sprained ankle following a awkward fall off a rebound attempt with three minutes left in the fourth quarter of last Saturday’s 78-69 home loss to Toronto. Gibson-Bascombe, the Gee-Gees top scorer at nearly 19 points-per-game, will have his injuries re-examined before the week is through. There is currently no time line for his return.

(Bolding is mine)

According to Simon, the specific nature (and leg) of the injury wasn’t supposed to be disseminated in public and was part of a private conversation between Carle and the basketball team. Simon added that since the release was posted, a few head coaches from other OUA schools have apparently called DeAveiro and–as Simon put it–let him know that they’re sorry about injury, while pretty much insinuating that they’ll use this knowledge. Forcing Gibson-Bascome to play towards his weak leg when/if he returns in the playoff.

Understandably this has strained relations a little between the two UO sides.

It’s true that there is a little hearsay involved in this story. However, given the source (of Simon) and the fact that it was discussed on the radio show, I find it hard to dismiss this story as false. Once the podcast is uploaded, i’ll replace the link in the top part of this post so you can swing on by and take a listen to it for yourselves. I know you’re freelancing O’Leary so it’s not like you’ve got anything else to do.

As for my opinion on what may well just be a tempest in a teapot? I think it may make an already tough road in the playoffs for the Gee-Gee harder if teams try to force Gibson-Bascome to his weak side. I don’t know how much of an impact or advantage knowing the exact leg that he suffered his injury in will help opponents, but I don’t think it helps Ottawa at all. The entire situation and possibility that other teams may try to exploit this information does make me appreciate (if not exactly like) why NHL teams have moved to using “upper body” and “lower body” for injury descriptions. If the Gee-Gees switch to parroting those lines in the future I guess we’ll know why though.