Monday 16 January 2012

Recent Articles: Quack's replacement speculation begins

Yesterday's decisive loss at UPEI, ST. FX X-Men's second consecutive this week, knocked the previously-undefeated X-Men out of first place in the AUS and is likely to push them down the National rankings; as many know by now, X was shorthanded with 7 players unavailable yesterday afternoon.  These 7 players missed the important game while serving a team-imposed, one-game suspension for violation of team rules.  Good on Coach Steve Konchalski to ensure that his strict team rules are being enforced to the fullest.  These are lessons that these young men are likely to learn from and should serve them well going forward... UBC Thunderbirds went a long way to re-establishing themselves as a Canada West Pacific division title favorite with a solid pair of road wins over Thompson Rivers in Kamloops on the weekend.  Our newest B.C. correspondent, former St. FX All-Canadian Randy Nohr, reports that the Birds got a very strong effort on Friday from explosive 6'3" Doug Plumb, who went 11 for 15 from the floor and attacked the rim at every opportunity, taking only one 3 as part of his 23 point effort.  The following night the WolfPack was without 6'5" U.S. import Justin King, who injured his hand in the Friday affair and UBC took full advantage to sweep the weekend.  Howard Tsumura , he of the apparently hacked Twitter account (looks like that has been corrected :) ), of Vancouver Province summarizes UBC's pair of victories on the weekend.  Also, Birds are back to their stingy ways defensively as the Ubyssey reports... UVic Vikes gained a split of their weekend set against visiting Fraser Valley Cascades, dropping Friday night's lid-lifter as described by Ron Rauch of Victoria Times-Colonist Surging Cascades rain on Vikes parade ... Monty Mosher of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald presents his take on the two high-profile vacancies at Saint Mary's with football and men's basketball.  While Mosher touches on current Huskies assistant coaches Augie Jones and Jonah Taussig as potential replacements for the legendary Ross Quackenbush, expect the job to attract numerous candidates from across the country... Annual Silver Fox high school tournament has attracted much of the top talent in Ontario and Marauders coach Amos Connolly was quoted in this Hamilton Spectator article... Brock Badgers have lost one of their talented big men as 6'9" Theo Davis has left the program.  The well-travelled Davis, who once played NCAA Division 1 basketball, showed some flashes of brilliance especially with his passing skills but missed Brock's Florida training camp over the Holidays and then was a DNP for the first game back while working back into shape.  In Davis first game back for him after the holidays two weekends ago at Laurier, he was whistled for a tough foul on an attempted blocked shot but followed the referee to the scorer's table and then was assessed a technical.  His minutes were limited in Brock's next game and Coach Brad Rootes shared yesterday that Davis is no longer with the team.  St. Catharines Standard reports on fifth-year Badger Andrew Ferguson and Badgers loss on Saturday at home to Western... Somewhat quietly, the Guelph Gryphons have moved up the standings in the OUA West and the Guelph Mercury reports on Gryphs latest victory against Waterloo... Larry Moko of Hamilton Spectator reports on Windsor/Mac as Marauders spirited comeback falls short...Christine Rivet of Waterloo Record covers the first-place showdown in OUA West as Hawks rebound for key win... uOttawa Gee-Gees will have to prepare for the rest of the season including this Wednesday's Capital Hoops Classic without the services of 6'6" Warren Ward, who injured his knee early in the Gee-Gees win at Laurentian two Friday's ago.  Late last week, it was determined that Ward tore his ACL and will definitely miss the remainder of the season.  Coach James Derouin has done a fine job refocusing his troops in the face of the injury to his All-Canadian candidate, taking a pair of road victories over Ottawa's closest rivals in Toronto, Varsity Blues and Ryerson Rams... Te'Jour Riley, the highly-touted McGill freshman from Hamilton, Bermuda, has yet to rejoin the team after going home for the holiday break. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard has been stuck at home and is still awaiting a student visa from the Quebec government.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The offense the X players committed (having a 'night out' within 3 days of a game) might seem benign and harmless but that is not the point.
The point is team rules are for everyone to follow, whether you are a star (Terry Thomas) or not.
These players really put Coach K in a bind.
I'm sure he hated to have to discipline those players but what choice did he have?
If he chose to ignore it or give them a slap on the wrist it would have sent the wrong message.
Obviously the punishment hurt the team as a whole because of the loss
but that is on the players, not Coach K.
He did what he had to do.
Those seven suspended players owe their team mates who had to play without them a profound apology.