The Ravens men’s basketball team head to the U Sports Final 8 national championship this weekend with a number one seed.
After a semi-final loss last year, the Ravens are looking for their 14th national championship in the last 17 years.
The Ravens have never failed to reach the gold medal game in back-to-back seasons since the beginning of the Dave Smart era in 2002.
Smart, Carleton’s head coach, needs no introduction as he took home his 12th overall and third consecutive Ontario University Athletics (OUA) coach of the year honour this season. Smart has been honoured as coach of the year on nine occasions at the national level.
The Ravens played a very strong season this year, winning the OUA championships for the second year in a row. They only lost one game all season in a 78-74 thriller against national rival, and tournament third seed Ryerson University Rams.
The Ravens also had two close calls, probably considered losses in the mind of the team. The first was a close win by only three points against the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks in October despite a large free throw disparity (38-7).
The second was a narrow two-point win against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, who missed qualifying for the OUA playoffs.
Recently, things have been a bit smoother for the Ravens. Carleton beat Laurentian University 107-78 on Feb. 16 – a team led by 2018 U Sports player of the year in guard Kadre Gray. They also upset the number three ranked Ryerson Rams last month.
They beat the Queen’s University Gaels twice this season by twenty point margins, including in the first round of the Wilson Cup playoffs
The semi-finals saw a neck and neck first half against the Brock Badgers until the Ravens soared away to a 40 point win.
The OUA finals were perhaps their most impressive game of the season as the Ravens beat Ryerson by 20 points.
The Ravens won’t have home court advantage in Halifax, but their eight-man rotation will be there. A strength of the team this year has been the squad’s ability to rotate players in and out games depending on foul trouble or size of other players.
The Ravens elected to bring OUA first-team all-star Eddie Ekiyor off the bench for the majority of the season – allowing the forward to play against opposing bigs who already earned one to two fouls.
This also allowed Ekiyor to remain healthy for the majority of the season and not have to take the brunt of the physical toll associated with his position.
In the second half of the season, Ekiyor shined by winning game MVP at Capital Hoops on a 25 point, 11 rebound performance.
The playoffs saw Ekiyor score 12, 25 and 18 points respectively – shooting 71.8 per cent from the field and collected an average of 6.3 rebounds a game. All this while still playing less than 30 minutes a game.
While he would be the key piece to most teams, the reason Ekiyor received limited minutes is that the Ravens are not most teams. Ekiyor can sit while his teammates do the scoring.
Ekiyor was joined in the OUA all-star selections by guard Munis Tutu on the third team and forward T.J Lall on the second team.
Joining Tutu in the backcourt are guard Yasiin Joseph, this years’ Wilson Cup final MVP. An all-star in his own right, however, Joseph was hurt for most of the season and was overlooked compared to his other teammates.
Marcus Anderson usually starts on the floor with Tutu, the lockdown defensive player has twice been honoured by the OUA, and once by U Sports, for his defensive talents. Look for Carleton to match him up against their opponent’s biggest offensive threats.
The team’s diverse range of talents and top-rated defence in the nation is a credit to their hard work. Their nationally fifth-ranked offence, however, is slightly skewed as their starters often come out early in the second half.
The Ravens will take on the University of Alberta Golden Bears on Mar. 8 at 5 p.m. EST.
The Golden Bears earned the at large berth and finished third in the Canada West Conference. Not to be underestimated, however, as Smart is famous for taking every team seriously.
The winner of this matchup will play the winner of UBC and Dalhousie in the semifinals. The winner of the other side of the bracket is favoured to be Ryerson or Calgary.
The national championship game is Mar. 10 at 7 p.m. EST.
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