The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team will play for the national championship tonight at 5:00 p.m. EST.
They will take on the defending national champion University of Calgary Dinos.
For this year’s Final 8, the Dinos went through Saint Mary’s University and Carleton’s rival, Ryerson University, en route to the finals.
This year, the Dinos were up by as much as 20 points in the Ryerson game but the gap was seriously narrowed in the fourth quarter.
Ryerson came as close as two points with 10 seconds left. On an inbound play, Ryerson’s Ontario University Athletics (OUA) all-star guard Jean-Victor Mukama stepped out.
Controversy ensued as the entire Ryerson team strongly disagreed with the call. The play meant all coaches were asked about the potential implementation of video review.
So, it might have taken a speed bump against the Rams but the Dinos have not lost a regular season game this year—sweeping all of their three-game playoffs series in Canada West.
The Dinos offence is led by fifth-year senior Mambi Diawara, an elite scorer who can get it done from beyond the arch and around the rim. Look for him to drive hard early and often.
The Dinos cycle their eight-man rotation very well, going big or small, with no disadvantage to the team, allowed them to shut down all of Ryerson’s match-ups in the semi-finals.
Expect a physical defensive game from Carleton in an effort to slow down the running lanes. Carleton’s players are not afraid to go to the floor and take charges.
The defence will be led by guard Marcus Anderson, the two-time U Sports defensive player of the year who had no points in his 27 minutes of play last night.
Anderson, however, is an invaluable key piece to the team as a vocal and strategic leader.
There is no telling what Carleton will do offensively, with head coach Dave Smart’s offence being chameleon in nature—in game one, going 17-33 from three-point range, and in game two, only attempting 17 three-pointers.
U Sports All-Canadian forward Eddie Ekiyor scored 19 and 20 points in the first two tournament games. Ekiyor has cemented his status as the team’s superstar and will be a factor no matter what the offence does.
“We play through Eddie and we see how other teams will react, what they’ll try to take away.” Dave Smart said after the semi-finals.
The Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren is focused on one game, one moment at a time, not at building a dynasty or parallels to Carleton teams of the past.
“We just need to focus on ourselves and take it one moment at a time, that’s what [we] talked about in the finals last year and obviously it worked,” Vanhooren said.
“Today in the fourth quarter we were a bit shakier and that usually happens when you start thinking too much about outcomes,” Vanhooren added. “So, really, we’ll just take it one moment at a time.”
Photo by Tim Austen
