Whoa! Let's not get carried away!

[cap2nine]

I was/am quite reluctant to post about the Canadian tour games but I've been lured in by reading some of the pretty extreme reactions to individual plays and players. I won't get caught up in the discussions of "who looks good and who doesn't" because, to be honest, a handful of practices and 125 game minutes in August are useful for making some baseline evaluations more so than determining regular season roles and setting conference or tournament expectations. I admit it was exciting to see a few key contributors make some clutch plays under adverse conditions tonight, but the Carleton comparisons to Wooden's UCLA are gross exaggerations. As impressive as the program's last decade, and their senior laden team's success, appear to be, please keep in mind that the CIS basketball membership consists of a mere 45 Universities. Sure, Carleton is a decent sized Canadian fish, but in a very, very small pond. Let's just take these 4 games for what they are and try not to read more into them than there truly is. These performances may provide a few hints and a couple clues but the real molding, training, coaching and conditioning is yet to come.

... but even I have to concede that Ennis, so far, appears to be the right man for the job.

 

[orangedave]

I was/am quite reluctant to post about the Canadian tour games but I've been lured in by reading some of the pretty extreme reactions to individual plays and players. I won't get caught up in the discussions of "who looks good and who doesn't" because, to be honest, a handful of practices and 125 game minutes in August are useful for making some baseline evaluations more so than determining regular season roles and setting conference or tournament expectations. I admit it was exciting to see a few key contributors make some clutch plays under adverse conditions tonight, but the Carleton comparisons to Wooden's UCLA are gross exaggerations. As impressive as the program's last decade, and their senior laden team's success, appear to be, please keep in mind that the CIS basketball membership consists of a mere 45 Universities. Sure, Carleton is a decent sized Canadian fish, but in a very, very small pond. Let's just take these 4 games for what they are and try not to read more into them than there truly is. These performances may provide a few hints and a couple clues but the real molding, training, coaching and conditioning is yet to come.

... but even I have to concede that Ennis, so far, appears to be the right man for the job.

The comparison to Wooden's UCLA only means that they are as dominant in Canada as UCLA was in the US but it's pretty evident that they are a very talented and well coached team which could probably be competitive in NCAA basketball

 

[Lawrinson14]

As impressive as the program's last decade, and their senior laden team's success, appear to be, please keep in mind that the CIS basketball membership consists of a mere 45 Universities. Sure, Carleton is a decent sized Canadian fish, but in a very, very small pond.

Carleton is a very, very good team.

 

[im4cuse]

Not carried away at all. But a challenging game against an experienced and talented team is revealing. How do we respond? Who makes plays? How does JB substitute? A: by shortening the bench as always. Against a team without size, just one big at a time is the only option. And by the way, could use Whitehead (or similar) right now -- think how much that would open up Ennis driving and CJ and Grant slashing.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Nobody is saying these guys are anything like Wooden's UCLA teams in absolute terms. They are saying this team is winning at that level in their league. That type of winning culture and the high number of veteran players is a big advantage. Their 4th and 5th year players (which all of their starters were) have only lost 4 or 5 games in their careers. They also saw this game as possibly one of the biggest they have ever played (per Leo Rautins). This was a very good win and great litmus test for how the team will play against quality competition. The only real conclusion I am drawing though is that Ennis will be great for us.

 

[pfister1]

I understand that the comparison to Wooden's UCLA dominance is not a comparision of these Carleton teams to those UCLA teams but rather a comparison of how much better Carleton is to their regular competition to how much better UCLA was to theirs. That is a very apt comparison.

But all of the other glowing compliments about how good a team Carleton is, I think a bit oversold. I don't think they would be competitive in a BCS conference. They might not finish last, but I don't think they would compete for the championship in any of the BCS conferences...well PAC 10 maybe. If what is said about their lack of practice limitations is true, then when they play the U.S. College teams in these exhibitions they are at a huge advantage. It really isn't a fair comparison because they are going to operate much more efficiently as a team than a team that hasn't been practicing together. If you want to draw conclusions about the relative strength of two teams you'd need to have them play each other under similar conditions.

 

[We Are Syracuse]

Anyone who watched that game and thinks Carleton is not for real. Has no idea what they're talking about. Carleton is OUTSTANDING on defense. Really sound on their rotations and coverages in man. Drew a ton of charges and practices all year long due to no NCAA restrictions. They were all seniors with some being 5th year guys. Really knew how to move the ball and drive the zone. Really well coached! Smacking Wisconsin does not happen on accident. I thought it was a great win. Showed a lot to me

 

[DoctorBombay]

Winning 9 of 11 championships in ANY league is impressive. Period.
Those guys REGULARLY take very good teams and make them struggle or beat them outright. NC Louisville won by 1 pt, Wisconsin got smoked, etc etc.
This wasn't some fluke- that "just happened", this was a very experienced, well-coached team that'd been practicing year round, while some of our kids were still in HS.
Let's give credit where its due and stop trying to find reasons to minimize a very good win. :blah:

 

[Timonen]

Smacking Wisconsin does not happen on accident. I thought it was a great win. Showed a lot to me

This. All we have to work from are comps. We won. A top 25 team lost. Everybody is caveating that this doesn't mean anything...but we obviously have reason to feel better than fans of the others who went in there!

 

[LAOrange]

No one is going to temper my enthusiasm for this team. I've been living SU basketball for 40 years. This year's team is a great team.
Now, that said, could they implode. Sure. But my primary concern, guard strength was mollified. My secondary concern: Coleman and Christmas need work.