They may have claimed another pre-season tournament win last weekend, but the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team still has a lot of work to do, head coach Dave Smart warned.
The Ravens swept the University of Laval’s Rouge et Or tournament with wins against the St. Mary’s Huskies, the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds and the tournament host, Laval. Still, Smart said he wasn’t thrilled by his team’s performance.
“I don’t think we played particularly well,” Smart said. “We shot the ball well, but especially [against Laval], we did not play well in the first half at all. We didn’t do a good job getting them going on their weaknesses.”
The Ravens trailed by two at the half, but would go on to win 99-81 Oct. 24, in what was the closest game the team played all weekend. St Mary’s had fallen 99-61 to Carleton on Oct. 22 and New Brunswick was defeated 88-49 the following day.
In both of those games, the Ravens grabbed the lead at the 30-minute mark and didn’t look back.
“We were very fortunate to win three games,” Smart said. “One game we were up 18 at half [against St. Mary’s] when it was a four point game, and one game we were down two at half when it probably should have been a 12 or 15-point game.”
First-year guard Phillip Scrubb, of Richmond, B.C., was unstoppable throughout the weekend and was a key player in Carleton’s victories. He posted the top score in all three games, including a 35-point performance against Laval Oct. 24. For his efforts, Scrubb was named tournament MVP.
“He shot the ball extremely well. He’s got great talent, but he’s got to get bigger and stronger to deal with the types of matchups he’s going to end up getting [in the regular season],” Smart cautioned. “He deserved the MVP, but he still has a long way to go.”
The Ravens play two more exhibition games this weekend against NCAA opponents, before opening their regular season at the Ravens’ Nest Nov. 5 against the Guelph Gryphons.
Despite their promising pre-season, in which the team has gone 8-0 against non-NCAA teams, Smart said that his Ravens have to be better in order to be succesful this season.
“We’ve done some good things,” he acknowledged. “We’re working hard, we’re shooting the ball well. Still, our execution is not great. You can’t count on shooting all season, and you’re going to have some bumps in the road if you don’t show up strong on both ends of the floor.”
“We’re not really close to being there yet.”