CIS Hoops.ca

CISHOOPS.CA TOP 10 for week of February 4th, 2007
Before we get into this week's Top 10 cishoops.ca version, here are some stories from the weekend:

Kevin Dulude, former star at RMC and the OUA's leading all-time scorer, has recently returned from a tour in Afgahnistan and the Kingston Whig-Standard reports on it (this and the Queen's link are courtesy of Neate Sager from of Out in Left Field fame) Kevin Dulude Article

The Whig Standard also has a story on the sliding Gaels men: Gaels Article from Kingston Whig-Standard

The Varsity, U of T's student newspaper has a somewhat-rare story on the Blues and their weekend exploits (somehow in the associated photograph, Coach Katz got a little shorter and got some of his hair colour back) Blues Weekend Review vs. Ottawa & Carleton

Former Dal Head Coach Tim McGarrigle and his suit against Dal are back in the news after an absence of a couple of years Dal vs. Tim McGarrigle Begins Again

Guelph has won 2 in a row and face Lakehead twice this weekend as the Guelph Mercury reports Gryphs Back on Track and as well as story on Tom Kieswetter's 500 game coaching and a link twenty years ago to Guelph coach Chris O'Rourke Warriors Lose Sixth in a row

Hamilton Spectator reports on Mac's win over Western on Saturday Mac Corrals Western

Brock sweeps a pair of games in Thunder Bay against last place Lakehead St.Catharines Standard Reports

Saskatchewan had a standing room only crowd of over 1,500 at home to witness their win over UBC B-Ball Huskies Rock the House

From Friday night, UVic comes back to defeat Saskatchewan Vikes Silence Huskies

UPEI Panthers weekend review from the PEI Guardian Panthers erupt to shade Memorial

Sunday's AUS review from Chad Lucas of Halifax Chronicle-Herald Hoop Tigers Can't Gain Ground

Excellent article on the resurgence of Acadia basketball well written by Chris Cochrane of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald The Right Kind of Attention

LATE BREAKING NEWS FROM HALIFAX DAILY NEWS: Acadia Athletic Director Resigns McNally Resigns at Acadia

For another Top 10 view, here is the Cheers Index courtesy of Bob Adams CIS site Cheers RPI Feb. 4th, 2007

#1 Brandon (18-2 in Canada West, 25-3 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #1 ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: a pair of wins at home against Regina (7-13, 7-16). UPDATE: Winners of 11 in a row and sailing in first place in Canada West Great Plains, the Bobcats have solid weapons at all positions with pg Yul Michel, slasher Dany Charlery, long-range shooter Chad Jacobsen and a pair of strong post players in Adam Hartman and Yuri Whyms. Although not as deep as some teams, the 'Cats have thus far been able to continue their fine play with 6 players logging 85% of the minutes, although post Stevens Marcelin, back in the second semester, has added to the depth up front. Bobcats have 3 wins against Top 10 competition: a pair of home wins two weeks ago against UBC and Victoria and a neutral court win at the Wesmen Classic against Toronto. Bobcats have also lost to Winnipeg twice (once in the finals of the Wesmen Classic) and also to Trinity Western in their second league game of the season in November. Brandon has a home and home with Winnipeg (9-11, 14-13) starting this Thursday at the Duckworth Center as Wesmen will honour 5th year star Erfan Nasajpour with the Wesmen looking to clinch second place in the division. The Cats then await the winner of the Best-of-3 Great Plains semi-final which has not yet been set. All 3 games of the Best-of-3 division final will be played in Brandon. Have had an easy schedule relative to other Top 10 teams - only 7 of their 28 games overall have been against teams with records better than .500 - and they have not yet played a Top 10 team on the road (2 home games, 1 neutral site). As a result, the Bobcats need to win out to maintain their #1 ranking in the cishoops.ca poll.

#2 Concordia (10-1 in QSSF, 15-2 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #2 ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: Won at Bishop's 90-61. UPDATE: With only one loss since the pre-season and the return of star guard Damian Buckley, the Stingers have all but clinched the regular season pennant in the "Q". The Stingers are 2-0 against teams in the Top 10: wins out west over the holidays against Victoria and at UBC as well as a six point win vs. Brock at the Laurier tournament in October. Concordia has 2 meetings with Laval in the final 2 weeks of the regular season.

#3 Carleton (17-2 in OUA, 25-2 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #4 ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: Won at Ryerson 90-66 and at Toronto 70-63 UPDATE: Captured the first 2 of their final 5 league games, all on the road, including a win at U of T that wasn't decided until the final minute. Having played more than half of their games against teams with an over .500 record, Carleton schedule is rated as one of the toughest in the country. The Ravens are 5-1 vs. teams currently in the cishoops.ca Top 10 including 2-0 against Windsor and wins at home against Toronto plus early season wins against Victoria and Cape Breton.

#4 Victoria (16-3 Canada West, 20-6 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #8 ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: Won at Saskatchewan 79-67 and won 83-70 at Alberta. UPDATE: The Vikes made a strong statement this past weekend with a pair of road victories, taking out the top 2 teams in the Central division in their gyms with solid wins in front of big crowds. Now tied with UBC, the Vikes are likely to be placed in second place given the T-Birds final 2 season opponents. Victoria needs to use the playoffs to improve on their 1-6 record thus far against teams in the Top 10, with the only win coming against UBC at home (losses: UBC twice, at Brandon, vs. Concordia at UBC tournament, at Carleton, vs. Windsor in overtime at Carleton tournament). The Vikes host Fraser Valley and Thompson Rivers to close out the regular season and then are likely to meet Simon Fraser in a Best-of-3 Pacific Division semi-final starting in 2 weeks.

#5 St. Francis Xavier (8-4 in AUS, 16-4 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #9 ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: Did Not Play UPDATE: With so many teams above them in the last poll losing, X will move up by default however this Wednesday's game in Cape Breton will determine how far this team filled with freshman has come. With 8 regular season games still to play, St.FX still has first place in their sights but a loss on Wednesday will drop them further behind and X then travels to UPEI on Sunday - the teams are currently tied for third. X is 3-3 in games against Top 10 teams (1-2 vs. Cape Breton & 2-1 vs. Acadia) however they did have a pre-season win against York, a team on the verge of a Top 10 ranking. X still has three games remaining against the two teams ahead of them in the standings: Cape Breton twice including in 10 days at home as well as one more trip to Acadia. The top 2 teams avoid having to play on the Friday night of the AUS Final 6 tournament and would need only one win in the semi-finals of that tournament to qualify for the Nationals.

#6 UBC (18-3 in Canada West, 24-4 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #5 ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: Won at Alberta 71-67; lost at Saskatchewan 79-75. UPDATE: UBC needs a pair of home wins against non playoff teams TRU and UCFV this weekend to clinch top spot in the Pacific and will likely face Trinity Western in the first round of the playoffs. The T-Birds are 8-4 overall since the holiday break and UBC suffered their first loss against a non-Top 10 team in Saskatoon on Saturday. The T-Birds are 3-3 against cishoops.ca-ranked team including an early season victory against Cape Breton on a neutral court at the Memorial tournament in early October.

#7 Ottawa (15-4 in OUA, 24-4 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #6 ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: Lost 70-68 at Toronto; won at Ryerson 88-75. UPDATE: The Gee-Gees have won 14 of their last 17 league games with the losses by 2, 1 and 3 points, 2 of which were at the buzzer, including Friday's loss at Toronto. Ottawa is getting solid point guard play from 6'4" sophomore Josh Gibson-Bascombe and improved work from 6'3" Sean Peter. With three fifth-year seniors entering the final weeks of their careers, the next 2 weeks (at Queen's Friday and then home against Carleton next Saturday) will go a long way in determining whether their ranking is warranted. Ottawa is 4-2 against cishoops.ca Top 10 teams including wins over Carleton, Toronto (twice) and an 8 point win at Acadia in the pre-season. The Gee-Gees are a solid 7-4 against teams above .500 with losses at Toronto, Queen's, at York and at Windsor.

#8 Windsor (12-5 in OUA, 15-6 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #9 ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: Lost a pair of games against unranked teams at Guelph 81-69 and at home to Laurier 66-62. UPDATE: The Lancers are still learning to play as a hunted team and without arguably their glue guy in 6'6" Greg Allin who is out with a high ankle sprain. Still the favorites to retain home court throughout the Ontario playoffs, Windsor must take care of business starting this Wednesday at Mac and Sunday afternoon at home against Western. Three of Windsor's six losses have come decisively on the road at Brock, at York and at Guelph - two other losses have come to Carleton in close games. Windsor is 3-2 vs. the current cishoops.ca Top 10 including the 2 losses to Carleton and wins against Toronto (big comeback), Ottawa (decisive) and Victoria at Carleton's House-Laughton tournament.

#7 Cape Breton (10-1 in AUS, 15-6 vs. CIS overall): THIS PAST WEEK: Sunday at UPEI 66-61 and won at UPEI 83-57. UPDATE: Currently tied with Acadia for the AUS pennant but with 3 games in hand, the Capers latest run is making many forget about their lacklustre pre-season and decisive loss to York at the Ryerson tournament over the holidays when the Lions zone stymied Cape Breton in the second half. This team is very capable of making a National championship run with veterans at all key positions especially point guard with the steady if not spectacular Ryan Keliher.

#8 Acadia (11-4 in AUS, 17-10 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca Not ranked last week): THIS PAST WEEK: Defeated Cape Breton twice at home 72-70 and 66-56. UPDATE: With a pair of wins on the weekend against then #7 Cape Breton, the Axemen are back in the Top 10 and leading the entire AUS after winning 9 of their last 10 games against CIS competition. Having now won 8 of 9 league games since the holidays, Lake Superior State transfer Sean Berry ignited the Axemen in a pair of recent wins but it has been the improved overall depth and the outstanding play of 6'1" AUS player-of-the-year candidate Paolo Santana that has brought Acadia back to the top of Atlantic Canada. Acadia is only 4-3 against teams with records above .500 and are 4-3 against Top 10 teams including an 8 point home loss against Ottawa. The Axemen hosts UPEI on Saturday in their only game this week.

TIED #10 Toronto (11-7 in OUA, 16-9 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #10 ranked last week) and Cape Breton (10-3 in AUS, 15-8 vs. CIS overall) (cishoops.ca #7 ranked last week): THIS WEEK: Toronto defeated Ottawa in the last second 70-68 then lost 70-63 against Carleton in a game that was tied going into the final 2 minutes. The Capers were swept at Acadia. Toronto's victory over the Gee-Gees was their first against a Top 10 teams (now 1-6 against teams in this week's cishoop.ca Top 10. The winner of Friday's game between the Varsity Blues and York at Tait MacKenzie Building in North York will essentially determine third place in the OUA East. Cape Breton hosts X this Wednesday and then travels to UNB on the weekend plus their final 3 games of the season are on the road at Dalhousie, St. Mary's and St. FX on the final night of the season. With the 2 losses and Acadia's appearance in the Top 10, the Capers are now 2-6 against cishoops.ca Top 10 teams with 3 losses to Acadia and single losses to Carleton, UBC and X. Cape Breton also was soundly defeated by 15 on a neutral court against York.