The players don’t want to talk about it, and the coaches brush it off as media hype.
It’s just another game, another step towards their ultimate goal of winning a Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) men’s basketball championship.
And in many ways, it’s just that.
But the winner of tonight’s quarter-final contest between the Carleton Ravens and University of Victoria Vikes won’t just be one step closer to being crowned CIS champions, they will be one step closer to making Canadian university sport history.
Or in The Vikes’ case, one step closer to re-writing it.
Up until last year, the Vikes held sole possession of the CIS record with eight national titles — a record that seemed untouchable for so many years.
Then came Carleton.
Five straight banners between 2003 and 2007, three in the last four years, and all of a sudden the Ravens and Vikes find themselves in a deadlock atop the CIS record books.
In these parts, it’s understood that Carleton’s tradition of excellence is largely due to Ravens head coach Dave Smart and his philosophy of — for lack of a better word — winning.
Out West, the same can be said for former Vikes head coach Ken Shields, who led Victoria to an unprecedented seven straight national championships between 1980 and 1986.
“To be quite honest, I didn’t realize what was going on at the time,” Shields said from his home in Victoria. “We weren’t going after consecutive wins. Each year was a separate year.
“That’s the way we approached it. We never even considered setting records or anything like that.”
Sound familiar?
When asked about tying the record just minutes after last year’s championship final, Smart took a moment and channeled his inner Shields.
“It’s one title in one year,” he said. “It’s one at a time.”
More recently, Smart told the Globe and Mail the record means nothing to him and no matter what happens this weekend, “it will always be Ken’s record.”
The similarities between the two decorated coaches are almost uncanny. Both are fierce competitors, both stress stingy defence over flashy offence, and perhaps above all, they’re meticulous in their preparation.
“I think it’s actually very parallel,” Shields agreed.
“I have tremendous respect for [Dave’s] teams,” he continued. “The way he prepares, for how his teams compete, for how they play the game . . . they’ve set the bar for Canadian basketball. There’s only one team that everybody chases every year and it’s Dave’s.”
Long ago, it was his.
It’s been over 20 years since Shields last manned the sidelines at a Vikes game, which in a way makes it easier for him to grasp the magnitude of what his teams accomplished back then.
Former Ravens star Osvaldo Jeanty knows the feeling.
One of the most successful players to ever grace the Ravens’ Nest court, Jeanty was a member of the Carleton squad that won five straight national titles starting in 2003. He was named the CIS Final 8 championship game MVP four of those years.
For his part, Jeanty said he wasn’t aware Carleton was “heading for the record books,” but he hopes they can finish it off.
“I’m really proud of what the program has become since the late 90s,” Jeanty said. “I hope they can keep it going.”
They only have the Vikes — and potentially two other teams — standing in their way.
Shields, who still follows the Vikes closely and attends their games regularly, said this year’s squad is a “balanced team with interior scoring and some decent perimeter shooters.”
Although his health didn’t allow him to make the trip out to Ottawa, Shields said he’ll be watching this weekend’s games on TV. As expected, the four-time CIS coach of the year will be hoping the eighth-seeded Vikes can pull off an upset.
And that has very little — if anything — to do with any record that may or may not be broken.
“There’s no time UVic goes on the floor that I’m not cheering for them,” he said.
