I have been off line since late last night, travelling home to Carp, ON from Halifax this morning so this entry is a little late. Great time in Halifax and extremely well done again - I will miss Halifax but look forward to today's championship game and also next season's tournament which will take place about 10 minutes from my home.
Carleton was dominant last night as Ottawa did not provide their best effort in the face of the Ravens relentless "d" and well-executed offensive play that creates and finds the best matchups for their array of top talent including Moser winner Osvaldo Jeanty, who carried the day in the first half and Canadian National team probable Aaron Doornekamp who broke out of a small shooting slump to knock in four 3's and help push the lead to the high 20's. Congratulations to Coach Smart and his team and for the Gee-Gees, it was an emotional end to a great season and for 3 very special seniors who I had the pleasure of working with, it didn't end the way they had hoped but Alex McLeod, Curtis Shakespeare and Jermaine Campbell has tremendous careers that have laid the ground work for a solid program in Ottawa.
Also congratulations to Coach Barnaby Craddock and the Brandon Bobcats who I had only been able to watch on film prior to the games in Halifax and many times film does not do teams justice - this is the case for Brandon as they are a complete team from 1 through 8, play great defense and execute offensively at key times. Yul Michel is a top guard who did a wonderful job on St. Mary's Mark McLaughlin yesterday in the semi-final, Dany Charlery got it going in transition and getting to the rim, Chad Jacobsen provided a number of crucial, game-breaking threes from way out at key times and up front Adam Hartman is a very underrated post player who understands how to read opponents and defensive situations. He can score in a variety of ways and tape certainly doesn't do his game justice. Finally, up front, a pair of long, athletic centers in Yuri Whyms and Stevens Marcelins. The most impressive thing about this group is their mental discipline and the excellent chemistry among the players. There is very little talking, very little if any body language, they just play according to the discipline very obviously instilled in them by coach Craddock. It should be a great final.
Here are some newspaper articles from yesterday:
Wayne Kondro reports for the Canwest News group on Brandon's victory Bobcats Advance to CIS basketball final plus Kirk Penton provides the Sun Media perspective on Brandon's win Brandon returns to CIS Final
The Toronto Star reports on Carleton's win over Ottawa Carleton cruises into familiar CIS finals territory Wayne Kondro's report on the Carleton win in this morning's Ottawa Citizen Ravens swoop into finals Carleton's student newspaper, the Charlatan, reports on last night's game Ravens down Gee-Gees, off to defend national title
Halifax Daily News reports on St. Mary's comeback that just fell short against Brandon in the national semi-finals Huskies comeback falls just short Chad Lucas from the Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports on the Bobcats/Huskies game Bobcats stop Huskies Chad Lucas also provides some Metro Center hoops memories from the past years Metro Center hoops memories
Sun Media's Rob Brodie reports on Ottawa and the 2008 CIS hoops tournament Ottawa feeling CIS hoop-la
No comments:
Post a Comment