CARLETON RAVENS RECLAIM CIS BASKETBALL

CROWN

Special By Marc Tessier                                                                            Posted March 17, 2009

As we prepare to indulge in the first week of the NCAA Tournament, most are unaware that March Madness had already begun.

Last weekend the Final 8, Canada's men’s university basketball championship was held at ScotiaBank Place in Kanata just Outside of Ottawa. It’s a big deal for the event to be held in an NHL sized hockey arena, because host Carleton’ s home court, Alumni Hall seats just over 1,000. Most of the other schools facilities range from slightly bigger than High Schools to several hundreds.

Let me preface the rest by saying that I’ve been a Carleton basketball fan for as long as I can remember. It’s easy to be labeled a bandwagoner when coming into this season you’ve won five of the last six championships. But I’ve been going to games for a long time. The fact that the Ravens lost in last year’s semifinal in double overtime made me sick, but doubly ready for this year.

I’ve always found it a shame that Canadian university sports aren’t as important in the public eye as our American counterparts. There are no bracket competitions (though I will shamelessly point out that I predicted six of the seven outcomes correctly...), we don’t need a ticket lottery for the championship game, and only six games this year were on national TV. But there was one small area at the arena which reminded me of Cameron Indoor (home for Duke Blue Devils).

Despite having moved to Toronto, I still have a valid Carleton ID card. I was able to get into the Red Zone, Carleton’s student section. A section behind each basket, reserved for students of the schools. Carleton easily defeated St. FX in the quarterfinal and would face Western in the semi-final. Yes they’d beaten the Mustangs twice in London this season, but I wasn’t as cocky as I was for the first game, knowing that Western made the Final Four last year, and had added Keenan Jeppesen from Brown in the Ivy League.

The semi-final was just like the previous year’s game. Great back and forth action, and I would suggest that it was even better because the players were playing their bests, unlike last year’s comedy of errors. Fifth-year guard Stu Turnbull missed two free throws with under 20 seconds left which could have given the Ravens a three point cushion. Western’s Matthew Curtis then made two free throws with under five seconds to play to give Western a rare second half lead.

I stood in the Red Zone though the entire game and was crunched over the chair in front of me during the entire timeout that followed. For a school that had won five straight titles, could they really lose in back-to-back semi finals on a quasi-home court as the #1 seed? It was all too possible.

Fortunately, Turnbull came down the court after taking the inbound pass and nailed a 10-foot, fade-away jumper that sent the crowd into a frenzy. I think the sudden extreme change in emotions took ten years off my life, but it was worth it.

Turnbull had a game-high 22 points in the final en route to capturing tournament MVP honours, truly a fitting way to end a great career. He, Aaron Doornekamp and Rob Saunders will graduate from Carleton with four championship rings and countless accolades.

In the end, just over 8,000 people attended the final. Yes, it’s a far cry from the 70,000 that will pack Ford Field at the NCAA Final Four, but for a hockey town like Ottawa, they put on a good show. I recommend that you make the trek to Ottawa next year, because it truly is the most underrated sporting event in Canada.

Marc Tessier is an Ottawa native. He attended Carleton University and is currently enrolled at the College of Sports Media in Toronto.

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