Tuesday 23 October 2007

CISHOOPS.CA Top 10: October 23rd, 2007

#1 Carleton (6-0, #1 last week) (this past weekend: Champions of UVic Tourney, defeating then #2 Brandon, Alberta and UVic) Held off three strong Canada West teams despite (by their standards) mediocre shooting and offense in general. However, as has been the case for most of this decade, the Ravens dug in defensively when it mattered. Carleton now prepares to face three NCAA Division 1 teams in the U.S. including Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals at venerable Freedom Hall this coming Monday night.
#2 Windsor (2-1, #4 last week) (this past weekend: defeated Lambton College-Earl Grant Memorial Game) Did not play any CIS teams this week; plays a pair of non-conference games at Laurier this weekend against #7 Cape Breton and an improving Bishop's squad with emerging All-Canadian candidate 6'1" Junior Nicolas.
#3 Concordia (4-1, #5 last week) (this past weekend: won at Queen's in overtime) Found a way to knock off an emerging Gaels program on the road with a difficult comeback against a very good team. The Stingers now prepare for five games in eight days in the U.S. against NCAA Division 1 teams beginning next Wednesday night at Vermont.
#4 UBC (1-0, #6 last week) (this past weekend: defeated Toronto at home) After a slow start, the T-Birds comfortably defeated an underrated Toronto team that had played a tough game only 14 hours earlier. Begins Canada West league play on Friday, hosting Trinity Western and then plays at Simon Fraser on Saturday.
#5 St. Mary's (5-1, #10 last week) (this past weekend: 3-0 won Eric Garland UNB Tourney) The Huskies avenged an earlier loss to Acadia in the final of the UNB tournament and got contributions from several players but tournament MVP 6'2" Mike McLaughlin remains the offensive go-to guy. SMU is at the Laval tournament this weekend facing Laurentian, the hosts and UNB.
#6 Acadia (5-1, #3 last week) (this past weekend: 2-1 UNB tournament finalists) The Axemen suffered their first loss of the season in the finals of the UNB tournament. Acadia does not play again until Nov. 7th (Wednesday night) when they host St. Mary's in Wolfville for the start of the AUS regular season.
#7 Cape Breton (3-0, #7 last week) (this past weekend: idle) The Capers travel to Southern Ontario for games against OUA West opponents beginning Thursday in St. Catharines, ON against Brock.
#8 Brandon (4-2, #2 last week) (this past weekend: 1-2 at UVic Tourney) The Bobcats stayed with Carleton until late in the game and were then knocked off by Alberta in a game in which they trailed most of the way. Brandon is idle until start of Canada West play in early November.
#9 Saskatchewan (5-1, #9 last week) (this past weekend: 3-0; won Huskiehoops.com Shootout) Health of 6'8" Andrew Spagrud is key as Huskies play in Lethbridge tournament this weekend with Ryerson, Rocky Mountain (NAIA) College and host Pronghorns.
#10 Dalhousie (5-1, NR last week) Have not yet played a home game and have won 5 of 6 including quality wins against Guelph, Laurier and York led by emerging star 6'1" Simon Farine. Tigers are 3-1 on road and 2-0 in neutral site games. Dal plays three more road games in Ontario this coming weekend at Toronto, at McMaster and at Guelph.

Also considered:
last week's #8 McGill(5-1) (this past weekend: lost at Queen's)
Alberta (2-1) (this past weekend: 2-1 at UVic tournament)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting that st marys jumps from # 10 to #5 over Acadia.
They beat Acadia by 3 on the weekend, while acadia beat them by 10 just a week ago. As well, Acadia is being run by the assistants. While they are close, a three pt win doesnt justify ranking them higher....but that's just my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Also interesting that Windsor moved from #4 to #2 without playing a CIS game, while McGill is out of top 10 after beating that #2 team with a 5-1 record. Only loss against Queen's - a very good team that almost won against #3 Concordia (and I am sure will surprise some other teams this season).