Sunday 16 March 2008

Brock vs. Acadia Preview

Hoops Addict provides their account of the two semi-final games

Brock's best player in this tournament has been 6'7" Owen White so expect 6'8" Ach Lual to be assigned to stopping White, who, with his quickness and athletic ability, is a much different player than either 6'7" J.P. Morin or 6'7" Aaron Doornekamp, the two other All-Canadians Lual has guarded in the tournament. But White may be the more difficult check for Lual, especially if he concentrates on facing up from the soft corner instead of trying to back Lual down. Brock will likely have their hands full inside and on the offensive glass with 6'5" Leonel Saintil who likely will be guarded by White. Brock will have to limit Acadia second chances. Both teams have explosive shooters in Acadia's 6'1" Peter Leighton and 6'0" Patrick MacIver with Brock countering with a wealth of perimeter threats in 6'0" Scott Murray, 6'3" Rohan Steen and 6'2" Mike Kemp, not to mention 5'10" Brad Rootes. Expect Kemp to start on 6'5" Shawn Berry, who ran into early foul trouble last night although he was instrumental in Acadia's win down the stretch with some huge putbacks and buckets inside and out. The battle at the point promises to be a good one between a pair of physical guards in the fifth-year sensation Rootes and Kraus, an intelligent, strong sophomore. Kraus battled cramps last night late in the game so his progress to that end will need to monitored. Many championship finals have had mediocre shooting, owing to teams playing their third games in 2 1/2 days. Expect Brock to mix in significant doses of their 2-3 and 3-2 zones, especially if the fouls start to mount and it would not be surprising in those instances to see both MacIver and Leighton on the floor together. 6'1" Paolo Santana played on the edge last night and was spectacular in spots, getting out in transition where he is as exciting a player as there is in the CIS, breaking people down off the dribble and wreaking havoc on the ball defensively. But Santana nearly let his emotions get the better of him in a key spot (credit Kraus especially with showing the leadership to throw some water on what could have been a fiery situation) and Coach Les Berry will have to be aware of monitoring the situation when things aren't going Santana's way, which Coach Berry did marvelously well last night. Somehow, I think both teams will find a way to keep the adrenaline levels high and both teams bring plenty of emotion to the floor; I expect another tremendously exciting, offensive-oriented affair to transpire.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Brock Badgers...2007-08 CIS Champions.
Well, after a post-season like this, why the heck not?
In fact, Brock winning the championship game today over Acadia is the perfect end to a season where the universe most definitely did not unfold as it should.
Before the tournament began, it was practically a foregone conclusion that the W. P. McGee trophy would remain in Ontario for a 6th straight year and indeed, it did...but not in St. Catherines, Ont!
The reason why the Badgers were in this tournament in the first place is rather ironic.
The OUA was granted three berths for this year's tournament...the Wilson Cup winner, runner-up and Carleton who as hosts got an automatic berth.
However, since Carleton entered the tournament as undefeated Wilson Cup champs the "host" berth was up for grabs in a the form of a "play-in" game involving the OUA West and East losing finalists.
Had Carleton lost either their East semi-final or final (as happened in 2006) there would have been no play-in game as Carleton would have exercised its "host" berth option and gone in as the third team leaving Brock out of the tournament.