CIS Hoops.ca

LEFT: Canada's Denham Brown battles for a rebound with Argentina's 6'10" Luis Scola, who had 23 points and 6 rebounds as Canada's record in the quarter-final round dropped to 2-3 with 2 games remaining including today's matchup with Mexico at 3:30 PM ET.


After Venezuela's upset over Uruguay yesterday, the fourth and final semi-final spot is there for the taking. In fact, without doing all the math, Canada looks to be in a very favorable position and will definitely clinch fourth with victories in their next two games against Mexico and Puerto Rico. Canada could also still finish third with a pair of wins and a pair of losses by Brazil (to Argentina and Uruguay). Even with a split, Canada could conceivably squeeze into fourth even if they don't win both of their remaining games - depending upon what happens in the remaining games - Canada would likely have to win a Week 17-like NFL wild card tiebreaker. There are a number of permuatations and combinations however Uruguay appears to be in the most difficult position, already losing the head-to-head tiebreaker against Canada (sure they were resting their guys...) and facing both the USA and Brazil in their final two games. No one has been officially eliminated as of yet as even Venezuela, with their upset victory today, can finish fourth with a pair of victories over Puerto Rico and Mexico. Puerto Rico appears to be rounding into the form expected of them before the tournament began and by winning out could finish fourth as well. Wednesday's results should bring more clarity to the situation.

Standings:
USA 5-0 vs. Uruguay & Argentina
Argentina 5-0 vs. Brazil & USA
Brazil 3-2 vs. Argentina & Uruguay
Canada 2-3 vs. Mexico & Puerto Rico
Uruguay 2-3 vs. USA & Brazil
Puerto Rico 1-4 vs. Venezuela & Canada
Mexico 1-4 vs. Canada & Venezuela
Venezuela 1-4 vs. Puerto Rico & Mexico

(Top 4 teams advance to semi-finals)

Articles from yesterday's game

Matthew Sekeres from the National Post describes how school was in session yesterday as Argentina taught Canada a few lessons
Argentina's veteran squad bullies fresh-faced Canucks

Mike Ganter's piece in this morning's Toronto Sun on, among other things, Canada's terrible first half against Argentina First-half flop dooms cagers Mike also has a piece on Toronto's Denham Brown and his role off the bench for Canada Brown cast in new role on bench brigade

Julie Marriott from the Canadian Press reports on yesterday's loss in an article appearing in this morning's Globe and Mail Canada comes up short

Doug Smith of the Toronto Star reports on how newest Raptor Carlos Delfino helped lead Argentina to victory yesterday New Raptor helps hammer Canada

In another story mentioning former Canada Basketball Executive Director Fred Nykamp, the Ottawa Citizen's Richard Starnes sheds more light on the recent resignation of volunteer President Colin Linford of the Canadian Soccer Association Why Canada Can't win at Soccer and another piece by Peter Mallett in the Globe and Mail CSA President steps down

CIS STORIES:

The Windsor Lancers are preparing for their Labour Day weekend battle against Virginia Tech and Dave Waddell from the Windsor Star has a report (thanks to blog buddy Cam LaCivita for this link) Windsor Basketball camp

I received a short note from Garry Gallimore, fresh off a solid performance as co-captain for Canada at the FISU Games. Gallimore arrived in Europe last week and was immediately back in transit to France "straight off the plane to play against a Pro A team in France" as he put it. However, Garry was up to the task, ending the game with 20 points. He is happy with his teammates and looks to enjoy his season going forward - we hope to have more reports on Garry and other CIS grads throughout the season.

Finally, to fix up an error from a past posting, there are in fact 5 players who will play in the CIS this season from Eastern Commerce Prep. Joining 6'6" Cole Hobin (Carleton), 6'2" Jacob Gibson-Bascombe (Ottawa) and 6'1" Omar Ibrahim (Guelph) (previously reported) are 6'6" Robert Nortmann (Dalhousie) and 6'5" Yoosrie Salhia (Lakehead) as the five graduates from the Eastern Prep program from last year. Thanks to various readers who emailed to re-remind me.