re: Alabama basketball lost to small Canadian college basketball team

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Alabama had 10 fricking practices breaking in 4 freshmen playing a team full of 4th 5th year players who allowed to practice year round. You really expected Alabama's defense or offense to be ready?

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Auburn had 4 freshmen starting for us last season, including a 17 yr old who should have still been a senior playing against high schools and he came in in December and had literally 1 practice with the team, and no weight room workouts, before getting thrown into the fire immediately against Oklahoma and Uconn and then SEC play immediately after that.... Bama fans didn't seem to think that was an acceptable excuse for us, and that our defense should have been ready... funny how your view point changes when it's happening to you

ETA

And Lawson Shaffer is better quality walk on than most teams have. Dude was a Mr. Basketball finalist, 6A player of the year and averaged like 22 ppg, 8 rpg, and 8 apg at Cullman

Shaffer grew up an Auburn fan and we offered him ad a preferred walk-on too. So we'll just consider that payback for Daniel Carlson who grew up a Bama fan.

Walk-on basketball player averaging 2 minutes and 1 point per game so far in his career for the GOAT kicker in CFB history and his little brother to take over after he graduates.. sound like a fair and even trade to you?

That'd be great and all if Bama could beat Auburn

For all of you Alabama fans who have taken a sudden interest in Canadian basketball, Carleton beat Vanderbilt 61-56 on Monday at the Paradise Summer Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Someone commented earlier about Carleton joining Division 1 NCAA basketball. The Ravens would be competitive no doubt. They are far too good for Division 2 having slaughtered some of those teams over the years. Those games weren't pretty to watch.

Problem is Canadian university sports (U Sports) is not taken as seriously as in the U.S. so financially Canadian schools couldn't make it work. They would also have to compete in four other NCAA sports ... there's simply not enough money for that. Canadian schools emphasize education and sports are something you play in addition to your learning. Thus almost no sports scholarships and best Canadians go to NCAA on full scholarships.

A pet theory I have is that the U-Sports Canadian champion play a play-in game for March Madness. They would be competitive and March Madness would not put a financial strain on Canadian university sports. That said, it's unlikely to happen because U.S. schools really want the money and prestige associated with March Madness.

Here's a link to the Vanderbilt-Carleton game summary LINK / and to a list of Canadians currently playing in the NBA LINK
And Canadians going into the NBA draft this year.
LINK /

Also worth noting is the general manager of the Canadian National team is none other than a man raised on maple syrup, Steve Nash from Victoria, B.C.

I'll be watching with interest to see how Alabama does this season in basketball.

And oh yes, someone was asking earlier what the home court of the Carleton team is called ... the Ravens Nest. Holds all of 2,000 people. They play the Capital Hoops Classic at the Canadian Tire Centre (home of the NHL Ottawa Senators) which holds 20,000 people. The Hoops Classic pits Carleton against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees and it draws about 12,000 fans.

Enjoy your season.

One other thing you might find interesting.

The top ticket price for the Carleton-Alabama game in Ottawa, Canada was $15 cdn.

Just sayin'

cheers

We had an interesting discussion this summer about Carleton University's excellent basketball program in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Deadspin did a story on it and the article gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of program it is.

The discussion began when a SEC team lost to Carleton last August.

Enjoy the article:

LINK