Totem Poll No. 4

Pardon the lateness of the newest poll, but a trip to Pittsburgh the last five days has kept me away from the computer, and happily so.

But I won't shirk my responsibility this week, especially considering the Canada West conference has shut 'er down for the holidays.

Here then, is the final Totem Poll of 2007. Oh, how far we've come:

1.(2) Calgary Dinos (9-1) — A sound beating of Saskatchewan on Friday, a sweep of their weekend, a seven-game winning streak and a UBC loss. It all adds up to the Dinos tasting top spot for the first time this season.
2.(3) Brandon Bobcats (9-1) — A pair of double-digit wins over Winnipeg won't make the earth shake, but the Bobcats are getting it done without their starting big man and 9-1 is 9-1. Still feels like something is missing with these 'Cats, though.
3.(1) UBC Thunderbirds (10-2) — Got soundly whipped by Victoria on their home floor, and we're not ready to push any panic buttons with the T-Birds. Still, this week was ripe for a shake-up.
4.(4) Alberta Golden Bears (7-3) — The Bears won't get a tonne of love here this week (in terms of climbing the ladder) simply because they beat up on the 98-pound weaklings of the conference (at Lethbridge, 114-70, 92-52). But the Bears, and some serious beatdowns they're giving out, are not going unnoticed.
5.(5) Victoria Vikes (9-3) — They probably deserve a bit more recognition, especially after nearly sweeping the Birds in Vancouver, but just don't feel right putting a team that sports just one 'good win' in conference play above the other four atop the leaderboard.
6. (8) Simon Fraser Clan (7-5) — Have won seven of their last eight and if they had just shown up to start the season (losers of their first four games), we'd be talking about them atop the Pacific Division. But they didn't, so we're not.
7.(6) Saskatchewan Huskies (5-5) — Middle of the road seems right for a team that has won a middling five of its last nine games and is sitting at .500.
8. (7) Regina Cougars (5-5) — Pretty inexcusable to lose one at home to Manitoba, a game that prolonged a losing streak that had reached five games.
9. (9) Winnipeg Wesmen (4-6) — The Wesmen hung tough with Brandon at home on Thursday before a late 17-2 run killed them. They usually get rejuvenated by their Wesmen Classic tournament at Christmas. For their sake they better: Second place in the Great Plains is now just one win away.
10. (10) Fraser Valley Cascades (5-7) — Perhaps Trinity fans would like to see their team get a bump for beating these guys in Abbotsford, but we're still not convinced. Still, UCFV gets a skunk-eye for dropping one at home.
11. (11) Trinity Western Spartans (4-8) — And why are we not convinced? We're still waiting for TWU to win back-to-back games this season.
12. (12) Thompson Rivers WolfPack (1-11) — Hard to fathom giving up 110 points to defensive-minded Simon Fraser.
13. (13) Manitoba Bisons (1-9) — Congrats to the Herd for getting off the schnied and doing it in Regina, a place suddenly losing its lustre for being a tough place to grab a win.
14. (14) Lethbridge Pronghorns (0-10) — Not much else to say here anymore, so we'll just provide the U of L fact of the week and this one is pretty straight forward: The 114 points given up against Alberta on Friday were the most given up by a team in 40 minutes of Canada West basketball since Jan. 21, 2006 (120, UBC at TRU) and only the third time in the past five years a team has hit that number in regulation. Yuck.