The last four weeks for the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team have been filled with history—but not the type the team would like to be making.
The team started by giving up more than 100 points for the first time since 2013. Then, Carleton lost by the worst deficit in program history. Now, after a 92-64 loss on August 23 at the Ravens Nest to the Oregon Ducks, Carleton has lost all of its games against NCAA competition for the first time since 2010.
A combination of an overwhelmingly young roster and injuries to more experienced players are to blame for the poor showing across the four exhibition games, head coach Taffe Charles said. Tuesday’s loss was an upgrade from the Ravens’ 62-point defeat to the Kentucky Wildcats in the Bahamas on Aug. 13.
“We improved since the last game … but improvement’s a slow process,” Charles said. “It’s just about the little things that we need from [the young players].”
Carleton struggled to shoot, especially in the first half against Oregon. The Ravens shot only 4-for-16 from the field in the first quarter, ending the quarter down 25-13. They shot 4-for-19 in the second quarter, which ended 47-29.
Play improved marginally to start the second half, with the Ravens closing the gap to 13 points after five points from guard Connor Vreeken, but it was the closest they would come.
Vreeken ended the game with 15 points and a team-leading 10 rebounds. He said the loss demonstrates Carleton is “not where we need to be as a team.”
“Carleton basketball’s always been about culture,” Vreeken said. “There’s been enough guys here, the vets, who know what that culture’s supposed to be, and it’s our job to teach the young guys what we need to do as a team, what that culture is, and we clearly haven’t done that yet.”
Vreeken, in his third year of eligibility, was a first-year starter last year and is one of few experienced players on the roster. Guard Aiden Warnholtz, who led the Ravens with 16 points, and forward Grant Shephard are also team veterans.
Tuesday was Shephard’s 2022-23 debut after eligibility issues related to his course load kept him out of action for the Ravens’ first three NCAA games. He played 18 minutes Tuesday and “steadied the ship a little bit,” according to Charles.
But even with Shephard, who was named on the Team Canada training camp roster for the FIBA 2022 AmeriCup, the team is still without forward Elliot Bailey, the only other player in his third year of eligibility or higher, due to a ruptured spleen.
The sizable loss to Oregon was even more jarring after the Ducks won by just two points over the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on August 22..
The last time the Ravens lost all their pre-season games against NCAA teams was 2010. They went on to win the national championship in March 2011.
“There’s obviously some panic [in the locker room], because we haven’t had a result like this in the summer in a very long time,” Vreeken said. “At the same time, it’s [understandable] that these [young] guys have only been here for a month and a half, two months. We have really high expectations but, at the end of the day, we can’t expect them to pick it up overnight.”
The playing time for rookies, especially against top NCAA teams like Oregon, is valuable, according to Charles.
While he said losing four games “shatters confidence” in the locker room, the team has learned valuable lessons. Charles compared the losses to when the Ravens lost to Queen’s in the Ontario University Athletics semifinals last season, after which they went on to win the national championship.
“Losing is not a bad thing at this time of year,” Charles said. “[It] depends on how you take it. The good news is … it usually wakes people up.”
The next scheduled action for the Ravens is on Oct. 6, when they play Bishop’s University at the Ravens Nest in pre-season action. It may be Carleton’s first win of the year, but Charles is concerned with the games the Ravens win in March at the national championship.
“We may lose more games than we’re used to but, at the end of the day, it’s about losing the games that we need to [so that we can] win at the end,” Charles said. “We’re pretty equipped to be able to know what that takes and, when it comes, we’ll figure it out.”
Featured image by Spencer Colby
