Four rows back, with a tablet, empty water bottle and black Adidas backpack, Dave Smart watched the game unfold. He knew what the players were experiencing. He knew what head coach Taffe Charles was feeling. He knew what the team had been through and what it took to get to this point.
After all, Smart—former head coach of the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team and now director of basketball operations—had been there before. He led the team to 13 national championships between 2003 and 2019.
When the buzzer rang and the Ravens stormed the court to celebrate their 85-72 championship victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies, Smart followed slowly. He picked up his unzipped backpack, strolled past the Ravens bench and onto the court.
What Smart hadn’t experienced as a head coach—or player, for that matter—was what the 2021-22 Ravens went through: a cancelled season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a month-long lockdown in the middle of the year, a historic loss in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) semifinals and an underdog campaign at the national championship.
It just might be the toughest route the Ravens have ever taken to get their banner.
It’s the 16th national championship in 19 seasons for the Ravens and the 10th in the last 11. Carleton won its first championship in 2003; soon, there will be players younger than Carleton’s reign of dominance.
“It doesn’t get old,” Charles said. “I know when I won the first time, it did a lot for my life, so just being able to pass it on to some other guys is just an amazing feeling.”
This year, it almost didn’t come to be. The Ravens lost the OUA semifinals to the Queen’s Gaels, bouncing them from the OUA playoffs before the Wilson Cup for the first time since 2006. They were forced to make nationals as the wildcard team and were seeded seventh out of eight.
Then, after the loss, players started getting sick. They tested negative for COVID-19 but it hurt the team’s overall health. The team had to battle to be ready for the national quarterfinal.
In the semifinal, they had another scare. The game came down to the last possession, with the Alberta Golden Bears missing two shots in the final seconds, only to lose by one point.
“I survived last night,” Smart said. “I thought we had the game under control most of tonight.”
The Ravens mostly led in the championship game. After Saskatchewan got out to an early 11-2 lead, Carleton climbed back and ended the first quarter up by one. The Ravens outscored the Huskies by 13 in the second quarter, then put up a run of 18 consecutive points to start the third.
Saskatchewan didn’t even get their first third quarter points until more than six minutes had passed.
The Huskies fought back. In a span of three minutes in the fourth quarter, Saskatchewan outscored the Ravens 20-4. After a jump shot from Huskies guard Alexander Dewar with a minute and a half left on the clock, the Huskies were down nine.
“At one point, we started getting complacent,” said forward Lloyd Pandi, who posted 16 points and 13 rebounds on Sunday.
The Ravens held on. “Bend but don’t break,” Charles said after the game.
Most of the Ravens know what it feels like to win a championship—after all, they’ve done it every season since 2019. The trophy, the banner, the champagne—it might not get old, but it’s a familiar feeling.
Guard Alain Louis has been through it three times. He won a championship in 2019, 2020 and now 2022. He said this season was the toughest he’s been through.
“This year, nobody had any fear. Everybody came at us,” Louis said. “They’re all great but this one feels much better because we’re the underdog.”
This also happens to be Louis’ final U Sports championship. He graduates at the end of this season, putting a four-season university career to bed. He doesn’t know what’s next. Right now, he’s partying.
On the other side of the championship is a losing team. More than the Ravens, the Huskies were underdogs—the last-place seed, entering nationals by the skin of their teeth as the Canada West bronze medalists. They survived a coaching change just three weeks ago and finished with a silver medal.
“Everyone had their own expectations, but so did we as a team,” said Dewar, who finished with a game-high 27 points. “Regardless of what anyone else thought, we had expectations for ourselves and that’s what we stuck to.”
The toughest season in recent memory is over. The Ravens are champions, again. After six long months, Carleton is finally headed back to Ottawa with a banner in tow.
“Oh my god, I’m so ready for a vacation,” Charles said.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
