So last Wednesday I started my Canada West conference rankings for men's basketball with the thought that having them come out the day after the national coaches' poll would be good timing.
I'm stupid.
No need to wait for the coaches to decide who they want to put where, I'm jumping the gun and changing the release date to every Monday.
Just think of it as a chance to disagree with me earlier in the week.
Here's the Canada West Totem Poll:
1. (1) UBC Thunderbirds (7-1) — They haven’t toyed with anyone this season. Convincing road wins at Winnipeg and Manitoba and UBC just continues to dominate.
2. (3) Alberta Golden Bears (5-1) — Took advantage of a sluggish Brandon team Saturday night and held serve on home court. Showing they can put up points with the best of them.
3. (2) Brandon Bobcats (5-1) — No one is doubting their ability to score, but the hallmark of BU has been its ability to stop even the most prolific point-getters. One-hundred-and-six points at Edmonton is not a good example.
4. (4) Calgary Dinos (5-1) — Did what they had to do by trouncing Lethbridge on the road. Kept pace with Alberta and more and more seems like the team the Bears will have to beat to grab the Central.
5. (5) Victoria Vikes (6-2) — Did the same trip as UBC but looked nowhere near as good in narrowly beating U of M and then dropping the weekend finale in OT to Winnipeg.
6. (7) Saskatchewan Huskies (3-3) — Perhaps having their starting PG quit the team will be a rallying call for the Dogs who are going to have a tough road to sled the rest of the way.
7. (6) Regina Cougars (4-2) — Got their first real test of the season — a roady at Saskatoon and Edmonton — and failed. Another benchmark weekend looms at Brandon with the Cougars suddenly needing something big to happen to challenge for the top spot in the Great Plains.
8. (8) Fraser Valley Cascades (4-4) — Give this group marks for rebounding after a feeble effort on Friday with a win on Saturday. It is very early but, with third place currently theirs, getting a split with SFU could prove to be huge.
9. (10) Winnipeg Wesmen (3-3) — No coach in the conference will be sad to see Erfan Nasajpour exhaust his eligibility after this season. The most recent applicant to the “Get Him Outta Here Club”? Craig Beaucamp, who’s Vikes watched the fifth-year guard score 41 and once again prove that the Wesmen can be in any game Erf is playing.
10. (9) Simon Fraser Clan (2-4) — One-up-one-down weekend seems apt for a team that has been hard to figure out. Maybe they’re getting too much credit but if they don’t do some convincing this weekend (vs. Manitoba, vs. Winnipeg), I’m off the bandwagon.
11. (11) Trinity Western Spartans (2-6) — With 20/20 hindsight, can now look back on a blown opportunity this weekend. By splitting with the previously winless Wolfpack, flunked a chance to pull into a tie for fourth in the division.
12. (14) Thompson Rivers WolfPack (1-7) — It took beating one of the conference bottom-feeders to do it, but the WolfPack are on the board with their first W. We think these will be few and far between, however.
13. (13) Manitoba Bisons (0-6) — The U of M women’s team is averaging 69 points per game. The U of M men’s team is averaging 64 points per game. Ladies and gentleman, your 2007-08 Manitoba Bisons. And even they rise above these guys ...
14. (12) Lethbridge Pronghorns (0-6) — Oh the Horns, who are a conference worst in scoring differential (-18.2 ppg), opponent field goal percentage (51%), rebounding margin (-15.3 rpg) and free-throw shooting (59%). So, they can’t score, they can’t stop anyone, they can’t rebound and they can’t shoot standing still.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Totem Poll No. 2
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5 comments:
What do mean no one has toyed with UBC this season? Your #4 pick Calgary beat them at home. This year's UBC team is far from dominating, this season. Road wins at Manitoba and Winnipeg are far from convincing. They need to roll through Brandon, Alberta, Saskatchewan and UVic before they are considered dominant. Besides Calgary, they haven't had a real test yet.
40-point win at SFU, 21 at Leth, 20 and 21 vs Fraser, 24 at winnipeg and 15 at manitoba. no it's not the toughest schedule yet, no i didn't forget the calgary loss (i figured that was a given what with the record showing and last week's rankings listed in the post below). ... but you can't fault a team for who they've played. and when you're beating teams on average by nearly 20 points, that's a pretty convincing effort. until they get those other teams, all that matters is who they have played
Fair enough. Still way to early in the season to be calling them dominant, especially being tagged with a loss. However, we will see as the season unfolds who the class of the Canada West is. UBC does have alot of depth though, which can't be said for some other top teams in CanWest(ie. Brandon (majority of starters playing 30+ mins/game), Sask (same deal)and UVic) Calgary also has a very shaky backcourt with the exception of Darrah.
i'm really interested to finally see calgary (will see them at wesmen classic in wpg over xmas). i think you're right, there are a lot of flawed teams, which means this is one of the bigger toss-up years in recent memory.
It is Monday December 3rd and no post ??
I was looking forward to your take on the West each Monday this year. I enjoy CIS especially the West and there is so little coverage of the game anywhere I was thrilled to have new material to view. Whgere are you?? Help a bball junkie.
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