CIS Hoops.ca

Congratulations to a handful of readers for correctly identifying Kevin Stacom as the player in my profile. Stacom was part of that Providence improbable run to the 1973 Final Four along with Marvin Barners and Ernie DiGregorio, who later thrilled Southern Ontario fans as a slick point guard for the Buffalo Braves, garnering NBA Rookie-of-the-Year in 1973-74 season. In association with this latest spot quiz, maybe the most unlikely event ever to take place in the history of cishoops.ca also occured: the stumping of the unstumpable... my good friend and loyal reader Hammer missed Kevin Stacom... I continue function in a state of disbelief and ponder this once-in-a-lifetime happening. For that reason alone, I'll take a break with the quiz for this week (actually I'm short on time)... WESTERN'S TWO NEWEST RECRUITS are both likely to be rotation players from the start: 6'2" Marcus Barnett, an American who played at William and Mary who can shoot it and 6'5" David Harder, originally from Copenhagen Denmark, who played last year at Canada Juco in California and should be in the rotation at the forward spots for the Mustangs. FINALLY, in this abbreviated version of Sunday musings, in the past few days we have received numerous inquiries as to the future of Bol Kong, originally from Sudan who played high school in B.C. and most recently led Douglas College to the CCAA title in 2007-08 but has not played since. As anyone who surfs the Internet for Canadian basketball related topics likely knows, there has been much talk and conjecture about Kong including why he apparently hasn't arrived at Gonzaga as of yet and what his future holds. The Slipper Still Fits, a blog dedicated to Gonzaga University Athletics, has a post dated 12 Sept 09 (yesterday) with the following excerpt related to Kong:

Regarding Bol Kong, it's 50/50 and that is probably all we will know until the roster is officially released. Apparently the immigration process hit a snag but it is still being worked out. We probably will not have much on him until it is final. Speculation isn't really fair in a situation as delicate as this is. We sincerely hope it all works out for Bol, not just for Gonzaga's sake, but just so the kid can realize his dream.

Amen to that.


In a related story, sources in Western Canada tell us that another Sudanese player, 7'2" Riiny Ngot is apparently looking for a spot in the CIS. Ngot played high school basketball at Father Lacombe High School in Calgary before starting a trek of commitments, signings and playing over the past three years in the U.S.: Notre Dame (MA) prep school followed by a commitment to NCAA D1 Stony Brook for which he subsequently did not qualify and then SUNY (State University of New York) Orange County JuCo in 2007-08 season during which photo shown here was taken). Ngot's story of how he came to Canada from his native Sudan is incredible and well worth a read. Here is one wonderful piece on Ngot entitled One man's incredible journey to freedom Thanks again to our tremendous "source" out west who keeps uncovering these gems for Canadian basketball readers.