CIS Hoops.ca

Larry Moko has a detailed piece on new McMaster Head Coach Amos Connolly and the Marauders prospects for the coming season

Coach sets his sights high for new-look Marauders

A new era of McMaster men’s basketball officially begins Friday in Toronto.


That’s when Mac, under first-year head coach Amos Connolly, opens its Ontario University Athletics schedule against the Ryerson Rams.

Connolly, a 36-year-old former Marauders assistant coach, takes over from Joe Raso, whose contract wasn’t renewed last spring after a consistently solid 18-year career at the Hamilton university. Raso, incidentally, still teaches around the corner at St. Mary’s Catholic Secondary School and his daughter, Patricia, plays for the McMaster women’s volleyball team.

Raso’s son, Victor, a second-year guard, remains a key member of the basketball team.



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Long-time CIS writer Morris Dalla Costa tees up the Western Mustangs on the eve of their season openers

Mustangs add strength, depth

6'6" Justin Boutilier's driving lay-up into the teeth of the Saint Mary's interior "d" with about 2 1/2 minutes left gave the Axemen the lead for good and started a game-clinching 8-0 run as Acadia came up with a large road win at the Tower.  The Axemen had built leads as large as 13 points in the second half led by the multi-skilled Boutilier and a strong performance by 6'3" guard Anthony Sears (28 points, 1-9 3's but 11-13 free throws) but the Huskies came back led by the athleticism of 6'3" Harry Ezenibe,who led Saint Mary's with several huge, momentum-changing blocks inside. 

The game was tied at 87 with under 3 minutes to play when Ezenibe (15 points, 11 rebounds, credit for only 2 blocks but had to have at least 5 or more) produced a slick post move which ended in a slam attempt from the low blocks followed by a pair of free throws.  Ezenibe made 1 of 2 to give Saint Mary's their final lead and then Boutilier made his big play.  Sears later went 6 for 6 from the line in the final moments to clinch the outcome.  Boutilier had 22 points and 10 boards for the Axemen.

The Huskies used their transition game to jump out to an early first half lead but the Axemen were able to tie the game at 28 and then went on an 10-2 run to take their largest lead of the half at 38-30 as Boutilier began getting into the lane of the dribble and Sears knocked down a 3.  6'2" Migel Pink's three against Acadia pressure broke some of the Axemen's momentum however a jumper by Sears that may or may not have beat the halftime buzzer allowed the Axemen to lead by 7 at 46-39 at the break.

Acadia then built a double digit lead midway through the third as, despite threes from 6'1" Joey Haywood and 6'3" Demitri Harris, Acadia answered Huskie every run; a Boutilier break away dunk off a scramble gave Acadia a 13 point lead.  Later Boutilier hit a 3 of his own and Sears added a three after Acadia shredded Saint Mary's full court pressure and the Axemen led comfortably.

But Saint Mary's had one run left, led by Ezenibe, who knocked down a three, then had a block that led to a Harris lay-up and the resulting 10-2 run bridging the third and fourth re-tied the game for the first time since midway through the second.  Later Haywood hit another three and Saint Mary's finally got the lead back and, seemingly, the momentum.  But Acadia, led by Boutilier and Sears, were undetered, setting up the final 3 minutes.

The game was choppy with some flow in the second half however both teams generally treated the defensive end with passion of a summer league game with the noteable exception of the quick leaping and exciting Ezenibe, who came from the weak side several times for highlight reel pin-ups.

Haywood led all scorers with 30 points on 12-18 shooting but turned it over 7 times while 6'4" Torey Fassett added 18 points/7 rebounds and Harris had 15 in a nice performance. 

6'5" Sinclair Brown came off the bench for Acadia to finish with 10 points and 11 rebounds in 28 minutes, getting more run tonight as 6'8" Owen Klassen (17 points in only 18 minutes) battled foul trouble all evening.

Box Score  plus Monty Mosher's piece in Halifax Chronicle-Herald

Jim does his usual fine job of updating and commenting on the CIS/OUA and Ontario high school basketball scene in his periodic column on the Hoop-la

Jim Thomas Report 1st November, 2010

Thanks as always to Wayne Thomas for his insights into Canada West

Dinos Chase Road Wins in Winnipeg

Wayne's piece previews the entire CW Week Three schedule:
Calgary Dinos (2-2) at Winnipeg Wesmen (0-1)
UBC (3-1) at Alberta (2-0)
Trinity Western (2-2) at Thompson Rivers (0-4)
Lethbridge (1-3) at Regina (2-0) 
Manitoba (3-0) at Victoria (2-2)
Fraser Valley (0-2) at Saskatchewan (2-2) 

Brandon (2-2) gets the weekend off and will prepare for a home weekend vs. Alberta on Nov. 12/13.

Greg shares his poll results for top players in the OUA East and West, obtaining votes from the majority of the OUA coaches across the province.

All-stars ?  Already ?

St. FX X-Men Podcast  with thanks to Neil Foshay

An excellent matchup to get the regular season started in the AUS this evening as Acadia visits Saint Mary's in a game between a pair of teams hanging in the Top 10 discussion.  Both teams had decent pre-seasons with SMU (4-4 overall but 3-0 at home in the pre-season) proving to be a much tougher out on their home floor than on the road.  The Huskies have home wins against Lakehead and Ottawa, both touted as potential Top 10 teams depending upon the poll or observer.  Acadia (5-2 pre-season) is coming off a 12 point loss to Ottawa in which they gave up a double digit lead.  Tonight's game in Halifax at the Tower begins at 8 PM AT (7 PM ET) and is available live! on the Internet.

Jared Hochman of haligonia.ca sets the stage for tonight's affair:

The Haywood era begins by Jared Hochman


The Saint Mary’s Huskies kick off the AUS 2010-11 men’s basketball season Thursday night when they host the Acadia Axemen at 8:00 p.m. Catch the live webcast with Mavs Gillis and Bill McLean on the call.

Acadia at Saint Mary's webcast 8 PM AT/7PM ET

Head coach Ross Quackenbush will look to build upon a moderately successful season last year, where the Huskies went 14-6, good for third in the Atlantic University Sport conference behind powerhouses Cape Breton and St. Francis Xavier.
 
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Long-time assistant Tom Oliveri takes over for legendary Bob Bain and has a roster dotted with athletic scorers who love to play up tempo and get alot of shots up.  The Lions had a tremendous finish to Bain's final season as Head Coach with an upset playoff victory at Toronto followed by pushing Carleton reasonably hard in an OUA East semi-final game in Ottawa.  With eight of the nine projected rotation players starting their third seasons or less, the Lions remain very young and subject to consistency issues sometimes from possession to possession.  Despite the losses of 6'2" starter John Lafontaine and 6'7" rotation regular Vadim Razenberg, this group has several high-quality guards, three very good big men and a couple of strong wings.  Although Oliveri could have one or two more perimeter threats who are more consistent, the parts are in place for a multi-season run at the top of the OUA East.

Expect 5'11" David Tyndale, a former OUA East Rookie-of-the-Year, to continue his maturation into an all-conference calibre point guard as he grows physically and more importantly with his decision making and court demenour.  Tyndale is a tremendous scorer who is almost impossible to stop getting to the rim in transition once he has built up a head of steam and is rapidly improving with his decisions at high speed sharing the ball.  More of a scoring point guard, Tyndale is a difficult matchup offensively for most other points in the conference. 

6'4" second-year wing Ostap Choliy began last season as an unheralded reserve wing and by mid-season was regarded as one of the top young pure shooters in the conference.  Choliy shoots it with supreme confidence from almost anywhere on the floor and when he gets it going can singlehandidly keep his team in the game.  Choliy will flourish when he works harder as a rebounder and begins to understand when to turn some shots down given time and score and how well others on the floor are scoring.  Choliy is another great young player to build around.  6'0" freshman Travis Turnbull from Windsor is a tremendous addition to this lineup off the bench as a score-first mentality point who has tremendous range on his jumper.  Expect Oliveri to play Tyndale and Turnbull, who will play immediately in key spots, together for stretches also.

Up front the Lions feature an imposing set of post-area players led by 6'10" Dejan Kravic, the second-year forward out of London, ON and fellow 6'10" fifth-year center Stefan Haynes.  Kravic has the more polished and higher-upside offensive game with the ability to face up and score in the low blocks while Haynes provides an imposing presence defensively as one of the top shot blockers in the nation.  Both get their fair shots of shots up in the offense and aggressively attack the glass at both ends.  6'7" freshman Nick Tufegdzich is another fine athlete up front who at this point in his career is a much better defensive contributor. 

The fifth starter for the first part of this season has been 6'5" Rene-Pier Mathieu, a second year player out of Champlain College in Lennoxville, PQ who plays hard, defends, rebounds and isn't discouraged when shots don't come his way.  Oft-injured 6'6" forward Justin Bell has always had a chisled body and, as he begins to use his strength and size to assert himself around the rim, has the athleticism to develop into a fine starting-type wing/forward.  6'1" Ken Buchanan, a Toronto native, comes off the bench as a guard/wing also.

Oliveri is also high on 6'2" Jordon Campbell, a freshman from Niagara Falls Westlane who is originally from Whitby, ON.  Campbell can defend all three guard/wing spots and continued to improve and grew on Oliveri and staff as a lightly recruited wing with strong upside potential.

The Lions face arguably two of the top teams in the OUA West at home this weekend with Western and Windsor visiting Tait McKenzie Building in North York as the regular season kicks off.  Noted slow starters as witnessed by last season's terrible first half, Lions hope to reverse that trend and build off last season's encouraging finish. 

Great to see more CIS basketball content popping up on the web including a couple of recent new links:

Flagrant Fouls has an OUA East preview by Barry Hayes

Justin McElroy's Canada West Power Rankings Week Two on CIS Blog

Outstanding work by both guys.

Amid the turmoil of the off-season with long-time and very successful Head Coach Ken Murray leaving the program followed by the departure of last season's CIS Rookie-of-the-Year Clinton Springer-Williams to Gannon College, an NCAA D2 school in Erie, Pa., one overriding theme remained consistent, this program still retains alot of solid, young talent with athletes who can play.  Interim Head Coach Brad Rootes plans to allow this team to play to their strengths, which is to say that the Badgers ideally want to press, run and play up tempo. 

Pushing the ball in transition requires decision-makers who can orchestrate at high speeds and in 6'1" fifth-year pg Andrew Kraus, Brock has a lead guard who is experienced, has played in a Final Eight and has led two other programs (Acadia and Brandon) that also played fast tempo basketball.  Expect Kraus to log 28-30 minutes per game, his time only limited because of the pace Rootes wants to play at over an entire 40 minutes.  6'2" Mike Cruickshank had two tremendous (30+ ppg) offensive performances at the UPEI tournament and is another veteran back court player in his second season after transfering from Humber College.  Brock continues to bring 5'11" Joel Whitty along slowly given his recovery from multiple concussions that have plagued his career.  Whitty can score but is also very comfortable at the lead guard spot, a position he played exclusively prior to getting hurt.

Rootes had expected 6'2" former CIS Rookie-of-the-Year Didi Mukendi, entering his third season, to be ready for the start of the regular season but a recent knee scope uncovered some previously-not-seen ACL damage and Brock hopes to have Mukendi back for the second half but likely not before.  This should allow 6'4" freshman Cedric Kasango even more time to flash his athletic ability and scoring skills on the wing.  Kasango has already had a couple of very strong offensive games and allows Rootes to press and trap with his length and quickness.  Steady 6'1" fourth-year guard Jay Fleming, a likely starter, brings more experience to the wing/back court but is currently suffering from a severe groin injury and is out indefinitely.

Up front, the early season produced a revelation in 6'6" veteran Andrew Ferguson, who has come into his own as a CIS forward, especially with his ability to knock shots down as observers witnessed at UPEI.  His sweet stroke has helped him shoot over 50% from the field (and beyond the three point line) in the pre-season.  Unfortunately, Ferguson fractured his tailbone recently which limits his mobility and likely playing time in the short-term.  A healthy Ferguson provides another dimension to Brock's offense with a big who can stretch "d's" from the perimeter.

Four other solid bigs round out the rotation, led by high-potential athlete 6'9" Brian Nahimana, a second year post from London.  As Nahimana gains consistency, his work on the offensive glass, ability to run the floor and overall active play projects him as an all-conference type in future.  6'6" Mark Gibson is a consistent third-year post from Toronto who usually starts up front.  6'7" Anto Raic, another in the long line of solid Badgers from Welland Notre Dame, shoots it as well as any young big and 6'5" fourth-year forward Jordan Johnson provides experience off the bench.

With the amount of early-season injuries the Badgers must deal with, expect Rootes to look to 6'1" Jay Fast, son of Brock legend All-Canadian Doug Fast (circa early 80's) and 6'2" Brampton native Michael Williams, who has shown signs of being an explosive offensive force off the bench, to work into the rotation where necessary.

Brock is young, fast, athletic and has a young coach who appears to want to let his group play up-and-down and use their skills.  Badgers could be an exciting team to watch, beginning with a pair of games at Ottawa U. on Friday and at Carleton on Saturday.

Greg Layson is blogging again about OUA sports which is a great thing.  His first of hopefully many pieces on OUA men's basketball appeared today and includes some quotes from coach Dave Smart, commenting on Carleton's current #1 ranking.

We're not no. 1 ! we're not no. 1 !

The Ravens host Guelph Friday night and the Gryphs had the Ravens beat last season at home before imploding in the final moments.  Guelph and coach Chris O'Rourke always play the Ravens very tough. 

RMU jumped out to leads of 9-0, 15-2 and 32-11 in the first 15 minutes of the first half and never trailed in the contest. McGill was held scoreless for the three and-a-half minutes of the contest before Simon Bibeau hit a jumper at the 16:15 mark of the first half.


Bibeau led all scorers in the game with 24 points, converting six of his 12 shots from the field, including a 3-for-6 showing from beyond the arc, and going 9-for-10 at the free-throw line.

McGill trimmed its deficit to 38-22 at halftime on the strength of an 11-6 run as Bibeau scored six points and Olivier Bouchard added a three-pointer.

Box Score

Finally was able to find the two pieces Wayne did previewing both Carleton and Ottawa

Recent losses motivate Carleton

Gee-Gees hope to make a name for themselves

No love from the coaches for Manitoba (5-1 overall including 3-0 in Canada West), who has an opportunity to get further on the nation's radar screens with a weekend trip into Victoria, a team ranked #10 by the coaches. 

Released by the CIS today and with much thanks to Dale Stevens for passing this along...

*********************************************************************

In men's hoops, Carleton, winner of six of the past eight W.P. McGee trophies as CIS champion, opens at No. 1 for the fifth consecutive year.

The Ravens, who lost in the national semifinals last March to eventual champion Saskatchewan, went 8-4 overall in the pre-season this fall including a perfect 7-0 mark versus CIS rivals. They beat McGill, Victoria and Windsor at their own House-Laughton Tournament from Oct. 15-17, before sweeping Saint Mary's, UNB and host Laval at the Rouge et Or Tournament in Quebec City from Oct. 22-24. 

Carleton, which opens conference play at home against Guelph and Brock this weekend, received 31 of 41 first-place votes and 468 points in the inaugural poll to finish ahead of the No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds, who earned the remaining 10 first-place nods and 439 points.

Rounding out the first Top 10 are No. 3 StFX, reigning national champion Saskatchewan at No. 4, No. 5 Concordia, No. 6 Western Ontario, No. 7 Laval, No. 8 Trinity Western, No. 9 Ottawa and No. 10 Victoria.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
(regular season record) / votes (first-place votes) / (previous rankings)

1. Carleton (0-0) / 468 pts (31) / (-)
2. UBC (3-1) / 439 (10) / (-)
3. StFX (0-0) / 374 / (-)
4. Saskatchewan (2-2) / 334 / (-)
5. Concordia (0-0) / 305 / (-)
6. Western Ontario (0-0) / 226 / (-)
7. Laval (0-0) / 187 / (-)
8. Trinity Western (2-2) / 161 / (-)
9. Ottawa (0-0) / 96 / (-)
10. Victoria (2-2) / 95 / (-)

Other teams receiving votes: Windsor (74), Dalhousie (72), Saint Mary's (54),  Lakehead (41).

Good to see Wayne back writing again with his annual look at the OUA East including quotes from across the division, the coaches poll on forecasted finish and detailed looks at both Nation's capital-based programs.  Guelph and Brock visit Ottawa this weekend as the OUA interlock schedule kicks off.

Ravens the team to beat... again

There are also a pair of articles previewing Carleton and Ottawa that have not yet hit the Ottawa Citizen web site although are in today's print edition.

Rouge et Or stuck with Weber State until early in the second half after 6'3" J.F. Beaulieu-Maheux hit a three to bring Laval back to within 3 at 43-40 on the first possession.  The Wildcats then held Laval scoreless for nearly 8 minutes and cruised to the victory.  The game was tied at 34-34 with 4:17 remaining in the first half before Weber State ended the half on a 9-3 run to lead by 6.  6'6" Etienne Labrecque had 22 points to lead Laval including 4 for 8 from downtown while Beaulieu-Maheux added 13 for Rouge et Or, who were outrebounded 57 to 24!

Box Score

The Redmen trailed by only 5 at halftime as 6'3" freshman Simon Bibeau had 18 points and 5 rebounds.  Scarlett Knights led by 12 late in the first half before 6'3" Kyle Bernard had 6 of his 8 first-half points in the run and a pair of threes by Bibeau, who had 14 of his in the first, got the game back by the half.  Rutgers grabbed their largest lead at 72-53 with 5 minutes remaining in the game and coasted to the win.

Box Score

The Ravens hung with the Bearcats for much of the game until a littany of foul trouble that saw at least four regulars foul out including 6'6" Tyson Hinz, 5'10" Willy Manigat, 6'5" Cole Hobin and 6'2" Thomas Scrubb overwhelmed Carleton. 

The severely-undersized Ravens scored the first six points of the game and led 19-18 with 7:40 to go after three consecutive threes by 6'3" Elliott Thompson.  The Bearcats then took off on a 9-2 run to grab their largest lead at 6 before Thompson knocked down another 3 with 5 1/2 minutes left.  But Cincy turned up the pressure and created a big piece of Carleton's 12 turnovers in the first 20 minutes, finishing the half on a 13-6 run to lead 40-30 at the break.

Cincinnati outscored Carleton 16-10 in the first 8 minutes of the second half but the Carleton fouls mounted.  Highlight of the middle of the second half was a block inside by 6'8" Kevin Churchill and Cincy's Yancy Gates.  With the majority of Bearcats rotation still in the game, Cincy grabbed an 81-51 lead with 3:30 to play as four Ravens had already fouled out.

Thompson had 20 including 5-7 3's to lead Carleton, which made only 5-17 3's all evening and got only 10 minutes of time out of Manigat before he fouled out.  The Ravens were whistled for a ridiculous 36 fouls on the night against 23 for Cincy.  6'3" freshman sensation Phil Scrubb had 10 points, 5 rebounds and 7 turnovers in 37 minutes, shooting 3-12 from the floor.  Hinz also had 10 before fouling out.

Box Score

Cincinnati coach Mike Cronin post-game news conference

Once again a number of teams that have been brought forth as potential conference champions and/or consistent Top 10 teams were tripped up, a couple at home.  Conservely, at least a couple of teams left for the middle of the pack came up with strong efforts over the weekend, causing at least this Top 10 to again change dramatically.  With the pre-season now complete, all 42 CIS teams will play conference games only through early December (next 4 weekends) and with that, a bit more preparation by coaching staffs, a bit more emotion on the floor and another likely shakeout of teams and the Top 10.  There are at least two teams which are in the current Top 10 that have played comparatively weak schedules vs. CIS teams however being undefeated or having one loss at this piont in the season has to count for something.  Parity continues to reign supreme and this has the makings of a tremendous CIS season.

#1 Carleton (7-0) (LW #1)  Ravens are in the midst of their now-annual tour of U.S. NCAA Division 1 schools, playing Cincinnati tonight after a scrimmage with UB Bulls in Buffalo on Saturday.  By all accounts, Carleton more than held their own in the scrimmages, winning more quarters than the Bulls but likely losing if the quarters were totaled (or something like that).  Carleton played a strong pre-season schedule with home wins over Windsor and UVic, a neutral court hammering of Saint Mary's and a comfortable, come-from-behind win at Laval.  Week One of the OUA interlock schedule sees the Ravens hosting Guelph and Brock this weekend at the Raven's Nest.

#2 UBC (6-1, 3-1) (LW #3)  In retrospect, the Birds deserved this spot last week, proving it after two double-digit wins in Langley against Trinity Western, last week's #4.  Again, UBC's guard play was dominant as 6'1" Alex Murphy continues to grow as a point guard, 6'2" Josh Whyte arguably the best scorer in the nation and veteran Nathan Wu presenting a consistent perimeter threat.  Much has already been written about 6'3" Doug Plumb and his athleticism, which he flashed again over the weekend with multiple dunks.  If the Birds get strong play from their front line defending and rebounding, they are very difficult to beat.  Week 3 of the Canada West schedule continues the "top heavy" early season theme for UBC as they travel to 2-0 Alberta, another CW contender, in Edmonton, where 6'8" Jordan Baker, 6'4" Daniel Ferguson and the rest of the Golden Bears await.

#3 Concordia (5-0) (LW #5) Still undefeated and with a pair of wins against a solid Laurier club as well as high-potential McMaster, all away from home, the Stingers have come back strong after missing the playoffs last season for the first time in Coach John Dore's long career.  Concordia's backcourt/wings have already shown in the early season that their talent and production competes with virtually any in the country.  A perimeter, guard-oriented group, in the long run, the Stingers return to the top of the "Q" will be predicated on the consistency of contribution from their 6'5" veteran forward James Clark plus one or two more big men up front.  Concordia just returned from a pair of games in the U.S. against Rhode Island and Vermont. Stingers kick off their season next weekend Nov. 12 at Laval (Friday) and then the following night with their regular season home opener against UQAM.  Concordia will have to prove right away that this elevated ranking is deserved.

#4 Western (5-0) (LW #6)  Similar to Concordia, another lofty ranking, this time for a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs last season and has played a somewhat-mediocre pre-season schedule against teams with a combined record of just 8-26 thus far (hey? why did I rank these guys so high?).  However, the Mustangs won every game rather handily like a ranked team should and with the continued maturation of 5'10" Ryan Barbeau as a premier lead guard, All-Canadian Andy Wedemire, 6'8" Adam Jespersen (D1 transfer) and the expected return of sold 6'6" forward Garrett Olexiuk, the pieces are in place for a run at the OUA West crown.  The Mustangs should get a strong test in Sudbury against Laurentian on Friday and then meet the athletic, up tempo York Lions in North York on Saturday, kicking off their regular season.  Anything other than a pair of solid wins puts this ranking in jeopardy.
 
#5 St. FX (8-1) (LW #7)  The X-Men's early season performance could easily place them a peg or two higher in these rankings however the loss to Toronto at the Donohue in Ottawa continues to haunt and hopefully motivate the X-Men to prove this slot is too low.  A pair of comfortable wins at home against AUS foes in the final tune up for the regular season does little to cast any doubt that X is the team to beat in Atlantic Canada this season.  X kicks off their season next Sunday at home against Saint Mary's and then gets Dal at home and Cape Breton on the road toward the end of November.
 
#6 Saskatchewan (7-2, 2-2) (LW#2)  Consistency seems to be an issue creeping in on the Huskies although given the format of Canada West this season, defeating a good team twice in two nights - even if both games are at home - can be a challenge.  The dynamic backcourt should be Sask's backbone all season, especially when Jamelle Barrett and Rejean Chabot become comfortable together however it is up front where the Huskies, despite some tremendous athleticism, don't have the heir apparent to CIS Final 8 MVP Troy Gottselig and his ability to defend, rebound and score as of yet.  Saskatchewan hosts Fraser Valley (0-2) on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon in Saskatoon this coming weekend.
 
#7 Trinity Western (3-2, 2-2) (LW #4)  The abundance of talent on this team has been well chronicled but unfortunately once again, the Spartans were soundly dominated by UBC's depth, experience and talent, especially in the back court.  As well, defensively the Spartans need to tighten up as the Birds scored over 90 points on both nights, too many to give up for a program looking to compete for a CW title.  The Spartans travel to Kamloops to meet the winless Thompson Rivers WolfPack this weekend.
 
#8 Manitoba (5-1, 3-0) (LW:  NR)  A pair of weekend victories in Abbotsford against a good Fraser Valley Cascades club has brought some attention to the Bisons (although Cascades starting pg Zeon Gray saw his first action of any kind without practice in 2 weeks and back-up Sheldon Bjorgaard was out with a fractured wrist).  Second-year head man Kirby Schepp who has done a marvelous job turning this program around so quickly, continues to feature his nice stable of guards and perimeter shooters led by Eric Garcia (19.0 ppg/46% 3's).  However, with the emergence of 6'7" Richard Reimer (17.3 ppg/11.3 rpg) as a legitimate complementary scorer inside and 6'7" perimeter-oriented Kevin Oliver (11.7 ppg), the pleasant surprise transfer from Brandon, opponents have to respect Bisons size and inside game more now.  Still, the underlying key to Manitoba has been point guard Josh Ogden, who leads the team in minutes at 31 mpg and has an off-the-charts assists to turnover ratio of 9:1 (18 assists to just 2 turnovers in 3 league games).  The Bisons, who had road wins at Brock and at McMaster in overtime in the pre-season (only loss has been to Guelph), step into a big pair of road games this coming weekend at UVic (2-2).
 
#9 Laval (5-2) (LW #9)  The Rouge et Or once again played a challenging pre-season bringing in top teams Carleton and Saint Mary's into their tournament and travelling to Ontario to play 4 games, most noteable against a rapidly-improving Ryerson Rams program.  Laval shoots the ball extremely well, especially at home and is another guard-oriented team with plenty of well-documented fire power.  To excel this season, Laval needs to find a way to effectively replace the contributions of underrated graduated 6'6" F.O. Gagnon-Hebert, who was that perfect complement to scorer Etienne Labrecque inside and an underrated defender and rebounder at both ends of the floor.  Laval hosts Concordia two weeks from Friday to open the QSSF season.
 
#10 Ottawa (5-2) (LW: NR)  A somewhat-surprising choice given the loss of a First-team All-Canadian and a stellar fifth-year scorer, the Gee-Gees have another emerging All-Canadian candidate in 6'6" Warren Ward who creates his own shot and finishes as well as anyone in the country.  He has already had two seperate 25+ point halves this season, including Saturday's tremendous effort at Acadia that lifted the Gee-Gees to a dramatic come-from-behind win.  But the key win that justifies Ottawa's rank at #10 is their victory at Dalhousie, another in which Ward was terrific.  A comfortable win over Toronto offsets somewhat a loss to X in which Ottawa fell behind by 25 early but managed to keep things respectable and a last minute loss at Saint Mary's in which Ward had a good look at a potential buzzer-beating game winner.  Two newcomers, 6'2" shooter Johnny Berhane and 6'3" point guard Luke Minani, have played fearlessly and add energy and athleticism to the backcourt.  Ottawa begins their OUA regular season this weekend against Guelph and Brock at home.
 
Others considered:  Dalhousie 4-2 (LW #8), Calgary 4-3 (LW #10), Ryerson 4-1, Toronto 5-2, Windsor 2-2.
 

Gary Kingston of the Vancouver Sun provides a comprehensive look at this weekend's UBC/TWU series including a mini-profile of Doug Plumb

Taylor Lambert of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix on Victoria's win over Saskatchewan on Saturday night.

Dan Kinvig of the Abbotsford News on Manitoba's pair of road wins at Fraser Valley

Craig Slater of the Regina Leader-Post has a nice piece on the Cougars 6'4" freshman Matt Campbell