On Dec. 4, one month after the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team opened the 2022-23 season, they closed out the first half in a sleepy, half-full Ravens’ Nest.
The game mattered little. The Algoma University Thunderbirds, Carleton’s final opponent before the winter break, had lost 39 consecutive games and would lose their 40th by the end of the day, when the Ravens claimed a 99-71 win.
But for Carleton, the same questions that plagued the team on opening day persisted, thanks in large part to a 80-68 loss to the Brock University Badgers on Dec. 2.
The loss was Carleton’s second of the fall semester, making this season the first since 1999-00 in which the Ravens have lost two games before the winter break. Carleton previously lost to the Queen’s University Gaels on Nov. 18.
“Don’t worry about what happened in the past. Talk about right now,” head coach Taffe Charles said on Dec. 4. “I guarantee you we’ll lose more games. I guarantee you we will. But at the end of the day, it’s not about how many games we lose and what record we’re trying to hold, it’s about [what happens] at the end.”
The Ravens won both of their games coming out of the break, narrowly edging the Waterloo Warriors 80-71 on Jan. 6 before taking down the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks 92-80 on Jan. 7. Charles predicted before the break that the team would lose three to four more games this season. That would result in five to six losses on the season—the most since 1999-00, when Carleton lost nine games. That season came before any of Carleton’s 16 national championships.
The prediction underlines the challenging situation of this year’s team, with the same issues of inexperience that challenged the Ravens so much over the summer persisting.
“Any standards that people have set on us about other stuff that has nothing to do with anything, that’s not up to this team,” Charles said. “What we did [in the] past with guys who were different, [a] different situation, different people, doesn’t matter, right? It’s about this year. [The team] can’t bring anybody back.”
That was reflected when the fourth-ranked Badgers took down Carleton in a comfortable win on Dec. 2. Brock last defeated the Ravens in 2006. The previous matchup between the two teams was in February 2020, when Carleton won by 63 points.
This time around, the Badgers battered the Ravens in a 26-15 first quarter, then stayed ahead by outscoring Carleton by four points in the second quarter. Forward Godsman Kwakwah led Brock with 19 points and six rebounds in the first half.
While Carleton shut down Kwakwah in the second half and held the Badgers to 31 points, it wasn’t enough. Brock’s defence held on to its 15-point halftime lead and stopped guard Aiden Warnholtz—Carleton’s biggest offensive contributor—from making an impact.
Instead, Carleton guard Marjok Okado led the team with 15 points in the game, followed by forward Elliot Bailey, who scored 14 points with seven rebounds.
Okado, in his first year of eligibility after red-shirting last season, started on Dec. 4, the first of his Carleton career. He made the most of it, putting up 18 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes on the floor.
For his performance, he was named the Ravens’ athlete of the week. This past weekend, he continued to fill in as a valued sixth man, logging 51 minutes combined with 24 points off the bench.
Despite the Ravens’ loss to Brock, Carleton remained atop the national rankings for the 34th consecutive week, dating back to February 2019.
“Obviously there’s a lot of people on social media, stuff like that, everywhere, talking about who’s gonna beat us and whenever someone does, it’s a celebration,” Carleton guard Wazir Latiff said Dec. 4. “It’s a lot of pressure on us to just keep our culture and let everybody know that we’re the best.”
Latiff scored 24 points against Algoma. The effort put a bow on a strong first half of the season for Latiff, who entered his second year of U Sports eligibility having never started a game. He has since started all 11 regular season matches and averaged 12.6 points per game.
“It’s a big jump,” Latiff said, “but our practices really prepare you for that.”
Latiff said he’s grown as a leader, discovering how to lead by example and use his voice in the locker room.
Regardless, as the second half gets under way, Charles is aiming to make more of an impact on U Sports competition.
“We kind of limped through the first term, but again, can’t make too many excuses—everybody’s limped through the first term,” Charles said Dec. 4. “People set some standards for us that are probably ridiculous, but at the end of the day, we [can’t worry] about what other people’s expectations are for our team and our program … [We] worry about what we have to do inside.”
Featured image by Mark Colley.
