OT - Carleton 79 Ottawa 67 (Carleton wins 10th title in 12 years)

[jncuse]

Thought a few may be interested.

Instead of watching the Syracuse game this afternoon, I took the opportunity to go watch the CIS Title game between Carleton and Ottawa. (I live in Ottawa by the way). The national championship tournament has been in Ottawa for a while, but I had never went before.

Ottawa bent the rules excessively. I thought I was watching Aaron Craft playing on defence with the amount of grabbing they were doing to not let screens develop. Offensively, Ottawa perfected the Pitt ride em off screen.

Overall it was a good show. They play with a 24 second shot clock. and I really think the NCAA should not go any lower than 28. The short clock results in way too many contested 3's at this level.

Despite the two regional teams making the final, only 7,000 fans showed up for the game. Disappointing in my view (then again who am I to talk, last year there was the same final and it was played on selection Sunday so I stayed home).

I had courtside seats right on mid-court. It was the fourth row of the floor level seats. To be honest I was not crazy about the seats:
1) It was hard to follow any balls that were on the floor, or sometimes pick up dribbling because heads were in the way. I would have rather been 10 feet back and on some sort of incline.
2) When teams are playing this intense, its really hard to detect space and follow plays as they develop from floor level... especially with the bobbing head factor in front of you.

At the same time when you are this close you do respect how fast things happen.

Finally when I was driving home Dave Smart (Carleton coach was on the radio). It was odd interview... he was asked if he would ever leave for an NCAA opportunity. He said of course not... only a 4 or 5 year deal worth 1.5 million (total) would make him leave. And he says that would never get offered that... then said the exact same specific numbers one more time. Sure seems like he has named a price for a school if interested. I am not sure if a team would take that risk, but he has put a fairly specific number out there. It was odd to be talking like that 30 minutes after winning the title.

 

[SWC75]

I thought we won the Canadian championship last summer.

 

[Cowtown]

I had courtside seats right on mid-court. It was the fourth row of the floor level seats. To be honest I was not crazy about the seats:
1) It was hard to follow any balls that were on the floor, or sometimes pick up dribbling because heads were in the way. I would have rather been 10 feet back and on some sort of incline.
2) When teams are playing this intense, its really hard to detect space and follow plays as they develop from floor level... especially with the bobbing head factor in front of you.

At the same time when you are this close you do respect how fast things happen.

Welcome to my world.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

Finally when I was driving home Dave Smart (Carleton coach was on the radio). It was odd interview... he was asked if he would ever leave for an NCAA opportunity. He said of course not... only a 4 or 5 year deal worth 1.5 million (total) would make him leave. And he says that would never get offered that... then said the exact same specific numbers one more time. Sure seems like he has named a price for a school if interested. I am not sure if a team would take that risk, but he has put a fairly specific number out there. It was odd to be talking like that 30 minutes after winning the title.

That is peanuts for a Div 1 Men's Basketball Coach. I don't know the exact figures, but there have to be 100 coaches making that kind of money. Probably a lot of assistant coaches make that much. And I'm sure he is better than some of those 100.

 

[jncuse]

I thought we won the Canadian championship last summer.

I do hope something can be worked out that brings Carleton up to Syracuse every couple of years for an exhibition.

Carleton played at Cincinnati this year -- that has to be over 10 hours from Ottawa (possibly 12?).. Syracuse is only a little more than 3 hours.

 

[jncuse]

Welcome to my world.

Yes it certainly gives me an appreciation for how difficult it is to view the game from floor level, especially when I was not particularly biased for eithe team. They should move the refs above the floor on a chair like tennis umpires.

 

[jncuse]

That is peanuts for a Div 1 Men's Basketball Coach. I don't know the exact figures, but there have to be 100 coaches making that kind of money. Probably a lot of assistant coaches make that much. And I'm sure he is better than some of those 100.

Yes, that was my thought.

If he wanted to drive home the point that "I would only leave for an opportunity that will never come", he would have thrown out a number like a $1,000,000 a year, and that would never be offered to me.

But instead his number that "he would never get" does not seem totally unreasonable... and awfully specific at that.

The guy is obviously driven and a perfectionist. But at some point, while the drive to be perfect may remain, the highs from acheiving perfection go down... instead of creating satisfaction it becomes a real grind. He may be looking for a change.

Whether he would get it, I don't know. Teams have to be hesitant to hire somebody from a totally differnet game. But he could impress with his smarts, and all it takes is one school to be interestred. Think of the Chicago Bears hiring Mark Tressman from the CFL (a different and inferior game) where he had spent most of his coaching career.