The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team wrapped up their nine-game stint against National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition Sept. 8, winning five of nine games.
The games weren’t all smiles and success for the Ravens, who despite keeping all their losses to within 10 points, were often pushed around in the earlier games against the bigger NCAA competition.
“Those games are definitely very helpful for the rest of the year because you start off with some really good teams, since the American teams are going to play a different style than some of the Canadian teams,” said third-year forward Tyson Hinz. “They’re very aggressive.”
This aggressiveness was seen in the Ravens’ 93-84 defeat against the University of Central Florida Knights, which saw the two teams combine for 56 personal fouls and two technical fouls.
“You get the unorganized basketball, but you get to play against guys who are bigger, stronger, faster,” said rookie forward Justin Shaver, weighing the pros and cons of NCAA competition. “Fundamental-wise, it’s not the greatest, but in terms of trying to get bigger and trying to get stronger, it’s really good.”
Although the team would have surely preferred to win them all, second-year guard Philip Scrubb nevertheless seemed pleased with the results of the NCAA Cross-Border Battle.
“We just learned how to play better as a team,” he said. “Those first couple of games, we weren’t on the same page, but I thought towards the last few games, we kept getting better.”
The results certainly seem to support Scrubb’s beliefs, since four of Carleton’s five wins came in the final four games of the NCAA matchups.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the team also benefited from the return of Hinz and fifth-year guard Cole Hobin. Hinz and Hobin had both been playing for Team Canada in the Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China, but returned to Ottawa to bolster the Ravens lineup for the Aug. 25 contest against the University at Albany Great Danes. Despite their return, the Ravens lost 91-81.
“We got our defensive player of the year joining an already good team, so that’s another player in the backcourt. Then [we obviously have Hinz], who’s a scorer,” said Shaver. “He does everything for us on offence, keeps us organized.”
Shaver also mentioned the benefit of having the two leaders back as a great learning experience for the rookies — a sentiment Hinz himself echoed.
“We have a lot of new guys this year,” Hinz said. “[Shaver], Guillaume [Payen-Boucard], and a lot of guys coming in who can play next year, so it’s important to get out there and play with the guys.”
Payen-Boucard and Shaver will be joined by NCAA transfer Ben Felix as new faces on this year’s Ravens.
Hinz said although the team often practices together, it isn’t always easy to recreate game situations. For that reason, he was pleased with the opportunity to play against NCAA competition.
“It’s always good to play against the best teams, see how you’re doing and how much work you still have to do.”
When asked to pinpoint an area that needed more work in the team’s game, both Hinz and Scrubb provided similar responses.
“I think, still, we’ve got to work on our defensive rotations and being all on the same page on offence,” Scrubb said.
“There were moments in these games where we rotated well, we communicated, we did pretty good,” added Hinz. “Then there were times where we really didn’t, and were exposed pretty badly.”
Despite this shortcoming, the Ravens still performed well, defeating teams from Illinois State, Saint Louis, Niagara State and Santa Barbara.
Their losses came at the hands of La Salle University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Akron and the University at Albany.
“[We’ve] still got a ways to go. We have some holes and we’ve just got to work to fill those holes,” Shaver said about the team’s chemistry. “The faster we can do it, the better. Time will tell.”
The Ravens don’t return to the court until Oct. 14 when they host the House-Laughton Hoops Classic, a tournament Carleton has won 10 years in a row.
The tournament, which spans three days, will see the Ravens tip off against the University of Guelph Gryphons, the University of Victoria Vikes and the Bishop’s University Gaiters.
