It was another weekend of upsets and somewhat-surprising results that again will insert some churn into the CISHoops.ca and Coaches Top 10 to be released in the next 48 or so hours. Here are some considerations for the voters (league and overall records vs. CIS teams in brackets):
UBC (7-0, 10-0) T-Birds have significant wins over Windsor, TWU, Saskatchewan - all at home and are undefeated against CIS competition
Carleton (7-1, 13-1) Ravens have good wins at home vs. Saskatchewan (tournament) and Windsor (league) plus last night's league win at Mac. Friday noteable loss at Lakehead is the only blemish on their record vs. CIS teams.
StFX (5-0, 11-2) X has won 6 in a row with their only solid wins in the past 2 weekends vs. Dal twice. Prior to that X had losses: at Mac, at Guelph.
Calgary (8-2, 11-2) The Dinos have wins at Trinity Western and at Saskatchewan (after losing badly the night before) and over Dal in the pre-season at the Laval tournament. Calgary's losses were at Saskatchewan and last night at Simon Fraser.
Cape Breton (4-1, 9-2) Capers have wins at Ottawa and this past Friday at home vs. Dal with their losses coming to Toronto (neutral floor at uOttawa) and at home against SMU.
Simon Fraser (6-1, 8-2) The Clan has one strong win, at home against Calgary with losses to Windsor and Lethbridge - both at home.
Lakehead (7-1, 9-2) Good wins at home vs. Carleton and Toronto with losses to Brandon and Ottawa, both at home.
Windsor (6-2, 8-3) Three solid road wins at Ottawa, at Toronto and at Simon Fraser in the pre-season. Lancer losses were at UBC, at Carleton, Queen's at home.
McMaster (5-3, 12-3) The Marauders have nice wins vs. Ottawa (pre-season at McGill tournament) and X at home again in the pre-season. Mac has lost three home games in the OUA regular season at Toronto, Ottawa and Carleton.
Toronto (5-3, 11-4) The Blues have good wins vs. Cape Breton and at Mac with losses to Waterloo twice including once at home, at Lakehead and Windsor at home.
Saskatchewan (4-4, 9-5) The Huskies have had probably the toughest schedule of any team in the first half and garnered a big win at home against Calgary. Saskatchewan's four losses are at Carleton, Calgary at home, at UBC, at UVic.
Ottawa (6-2, 10-5) The Gee-Gees have two big wins: at Mac and at Lakehead with losses to Cape Breton, Toronto and Windsor at home, Mac on neutral floor and at Brock)
Dalhousie (3-3, 10-4) Tigers have nice wins at Laval and Western on a neutral floor with losses to Calgary and somewhat-decisive losses to X twice and Cape Breton in league play.
5 comments:
The story this week-end should be that an unranked team(Ottawa) beat two ranked teams.(away) This doesn't happen very often . Ottawa's two loses in league play have been by a total of five points.(overtime to Windsor) Their pre season wasn't great ; however, all losses were to ranked teams and it was pre-season. They should be ranked head of TO and LH and at least ahead of the lowest ranked east team . Their should be lots of movement in this weeks top ten
Hard to be ranked in a top ten when you haven't beaten a top 10 team . Both SfX and Dal haven't beaten a ranked team and have played very few. Ottawa has play six times against top ten teams winning two and losing 2 in OT . If you compare the results and who they have played Ottawa deserves a top ten ranking.
It's close, but I wouldn't say Ottawa should be ranked ahead of Toronto ... Toronto beat Ottawa at Montpetit at the Donohue, both lost to Windsor at home by the slimmest of margins, and while Toronto lost to Waterloo (5-3 in interlock), Ottawa lost to Brock (3-5 in interlock). Both beat Mac at Burridge (took OT for Ottawa) and Toronto lost by 1 point in Thunder Bay. While Ottawa blew out LU, Toronto dismantled last year's national semifinalist Western in the 2nd half yesterday. IMHO, Toronto ahead of Ottawa, but yes, Ottawa ahead of Lakehead. League play in the OUA will likely produce more topsy-turvy results. You have to love the parity and depth in this league. I'm not sure how any conference (including Canada West) can argue that this is not the best league in the country. And I refuse to listen to the same old "RMC is in the league" argument!! It makes a difference of 1-2 wins!
By the way,Ottawa was undermanned in the Donohue as several of their players were hit by a virus. the results may have been somewhat different if they had been at full strength. Better for them though that they got the virus, or flu, thing over with in the pre-season, rather than when the season started.
I believe the Donohue champs were also undermanned, being without the services of one of the better big men in the league, Nick Snow, and one of the leading scorers in the league, Rob Paris, for at least one of the games. Snow was also hit by H1N1 and missed two regular season games, which Toronto split.
As for X and Dal remaining in the top 10 (and pretty high) without a strong RPI goes to show the much-talked about regional bias in voting. X gets hammered at Mac, loses to Guelph (!?!); Dal has some nice wins but now has 3 losses in a row. Top 10 team?? CAPERS are the class of the AUS, but even Lakehead should be ranked ahead of them..
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