Once a Raven, always a Raven.
It seems like a fitting description for Carleton Ravens women’s basketball head coach Taffe Charles, who’s in Halifax this weekend to support his old team in their bid for a record-setting eighth Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) national basketball championship.
Charles, who played for the Ravens men’s team from 1990-1995, earned Ontario University Athletics (OUA) all-star honours three times with the Ravens. He scored 2,437 points in his five years at Carleton, averaging 17.4 points per game.
He joined the men’s team as an assistant coach in 1998 and stuck with the team when Dave Smart took over the program. In 2007, he was offered the head coach job for the women’s team.
But this weekend isn’t about him; it’s about the 15 young men on the court hoping to do Carleton proud and bring home another national title.
“I think a lot of people take it for granted, actually,” Charles said of the Ravens’ success. “I think it’s unbelievable how they’ve made things look pretty easy [this season], but not losing a game [and still winning a national title] is one thing that they’ve never done. They’ve never went through a season undefeated.”
The Ravens won all 31 of their games against CIS opponents this season, but that doesn’t sit well with the head coach of the men’s team, Charles said.
“I know that [Smart] is very superstitious,” Charles said. “He’s a little bit leery about that. We’ve never won a national championship without losing a game, so he’s just hoping that they can win three more games.”
If they can win those three games, not only will they be the first team in CIS history to win their eighth national title, but they’ll have done it without losing a game.
“[Smart] hates losing,” Charles said. “He hates losing at anything. It’s not even about records or anything like that. He’s very very competitive, especially in the sport of basketball. He doesn’t like losing one game over the next. These are just other games, and that’s how he approaches them.”
However they approach it, the Ravens aren’t expecting a walk in the park over the next three days. They play the eighth-seeded Acadia Axemen, who knocked them out of the 2008 CIS nationals with a stunning 82-80 double overtime upset, in the quarter-finals March 9.
“Acadia’s going to be tough early,” Charles said. “I think that there’s going to be nervousness and jitters for both teams, but especially Carleton. As long as they can get past that first game with the jitters, they’ll end up playing well.”
The fourth-seeded Lakehead Thunderwolves are also a team to watch this weekend. They upset the Ravens in the OUA final last year, and came within four points of beating them in their only regular season meeting this year. The pose a huge threat to the Ravens’ national championship hopes, Charles said.
“Lakehead’s going to be a very tough team,” he said. “They lost last week, and they’re going to be very motivated. Motivation is a big factor in playing in these kind of things. Everybody’s talented here, it’s just who’s more motivated and who wants a shot a redemption. I think Lakehead’s going to be very hungry.”
Whatever the outcome in Halifax, Charles said the Ravens have a young core and will likely extend their recent run of national championships even further.
“Tyson Hinz is only in his third year and Phil Scrubb is only in his second year,” Charles said. “Whenever your base is that young with so many impact players . . . I mean, it’s basketball. You only need two or three people to carry a whole team. So when your best players are those key positions, they’ve got another two, three years, and especially since they host the nationals the next two years they have a great opportunity.”
