When it comes to perfection in Canadian university basketball, the Carleton Ravens men’s team comes pretty close. They’ve won seven of the past nine Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championships and with their 17-0 record this season, they’re showing no signs of slowing down.
This standard has become ever more evident in recent weeks, as the team was characteristically unimpressed with their routine victories over the York Lions and Laurentian Voyageurs Jan. 27-28 at the Ravens’ Nest.
The men defeated the Voyageurs by a score of 109-74 Jan. 28, following a 90-48 victory over York the previous night. The Ravens shot an impressive 61.9 per cent from the field and 55.2 per cent from beyond the arc against Laurentian.
But Ravens head coach Dave Smart was unmoved.
“It’s fool’s gold,” Smart said. “You don’t win because you shoot the ball better than people, because there’s too many factors, too many teams, and pressure. You do it with toughness and rebounding and defence. We got out-toughed tonight, we got out-defended, and we probably got out-rebounded, but we made so many shots that they didn’t have as many opportunities to get defensive rebounds.”
Veteran Ravens guard Willy Manigat led the team with 22 points against Laurentian, but he was outshone by Laurentian’s rookie shooting guard Alex Ratte, who put up 32 points.
Manigat shared Smart’s concerns with the team’s play this weekend. He said the team isn’t playing in championship form.
“We did enough to win the games, but I know if you ask anyone on our team, we’re not satisfied with the way we played by any means,” Manigat said. “The goal here is to win a championship, and I don’t think we are anywhere close to being ready to do that in any way, shape or form.”
The attitude echoes the team’s sentiment following this year’s blowout Capital Hoops Classic, where Smart expressed the high standards he has for his team and star players like third-year forward Tyson Hinz.
“It’s all relative for [Hinz] as far as the standard you set for somebody, and my standard for [Hinz] is pretty high, but he’s obviously an integral part of what we do,” Smart said Jan. 18.
Carleton won that game against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees 74-34. As for the team’s remaining five games, Smart said he’s looking to the players to turn things around in time for the playoffs.
“The players have to make a decision to compete every day,” Smart said. “If that happens, then things can change. If we’re not going to compete every day, we’re going to run into those problems, and shots stop dropping, and it’s going to turn into losses.”
The Ravens resume their hunt for an eighth national title Feb. 3 at the Ravens’ Nest in a Capital Hoops Classic rematch against the Gee-Gees.
