For any other men’s basketball team in Ontario University Athletics (OUA), winning two weekend games by wide margins would be viewed as a massive success. For the Carleton Ravens, that doesn’t cut it.
The Ravens won 95-72 on Friday and 110-57 on Saturday against the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks at the Ravens’ Nest, improving their record to 4-0 on the season. But the final score hides underlying leadership issues for a team expected to be the best in Canada, according to head coach Taffe Charles.
“They tried, we didn’t,” Charles said Friday. “We played like a team that thinks they’re pretty good and didn’t put the work in.”
Ontario Tech entered Friday’s game reeling from a 44-point loss to the uOttawa Gee-Gees the weekend prior. In the Ridgebacks’ inaugural season in 2019-20, they went 1-21, losing 119-58 in their last match-up against Carleton.
But on Friday, the Ravens stumbled out of the gate. Carleton played sloppy defence and failed to communicate. By the end of the first half, the Ravens were up only 42-40 after being outscored 25-20 in the second quarter.
“The problem is that the people who know what they’re supposed to be doing and know how to communicate at high levels, they’re not doing it regularly,” Charles said. “If the guys who are leading aren’t going to do it consistently, then the guys who are following, they’re not going to do it as well.”
Carleton started playing cleaner and widened the gap in the third and fourth quarters. With the score at 69-58 and 9:15 left in the game, guard Connor Vreeken put up back-to-back three pointers—including one from deep beyond the three-point line.
It was at that point that Carleton seemed to have the game under control.
“My job is to make three-pointers and play defence and rebound,” Vreeken said. “When [other guys] do their job, I’m able to do mine. When I do my job, they’re able to do theirs.”
Vreeken, in his second year of eligibility but a first-year starter, said the Ravens came out weak on defence and were sloppy when transitioning from offence to defence.
He also said leadership is an issue with the team.
“The leaders need to start challenging each other more and that starts with the starting five,” Vreeken said. “We set the tone for the game at the start and we didn’t do that at all today.”
Vreeken said leadership is less about getting young players to do the right thing but making sure the leaders themselves don’t make mistakes.
“You gotta be ready to go,” Vreeken said. “I don’t necessarily feel like we’ve been ready to do that in our first three games.”
While Charles said Saturday’s game was not much better, the Ravens managed to get out to a stronger start. They outscored the Ridgebacks 26-11 in the first quarter and widened the gap in every frame, wearing down on Ontario Tech’s depth with a 37-12 fourth quarter.
Saturday was the first game the Ravens changed their starting lineup this season, with Vreeken and Biniam Ghebrekidan sitting in favour of Grant Shephard and Nelson Cilien. Charles said he was up all night watching the tape of Friday’s game and “did a lot of reflection” before changing the lineup.
“I just wanted to say, ‘Hey, listen. We gotta start doing [things] the way that I need to do them,’” Charles said, adding that the lineup isn’t set in stone and will be mixed up in the future.
Shepherd took full advantage of his first start of the season, leading the Ravens with 27 points. He said the team took Saturday’s game more seriously and succeeded in executing their defensive strategy.
“We have guys who are pretty young,” Shepherd said. “It’s about coming out of our shells and finding ways that we can lead and finding our different personality types and [seeing] how that can work. It’s a work in progress but we’re definitely seeing progress.”
Shepherd’s big night was complemented by Lloyd Pandi, who scored 24 points. The two played together for the Niagara River Lions of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) this past summer.
Shepherd said the two lived together over the summer and that it’s easier to find each other on the court during the game.
Looking to hash out remaining growing pains, the Ravens will travel to face the York Lions on Nov. 26 and 27. Next weekend’s games are the last before Carleton breaks for the holidays.
Featured image by L. Manuel Baechlin.
