Another Great Sports Weekend and It Begins Today!

This weekend will be another weekend full of sports action. Besides the regular NHL, NLL and NBA schedules, the NCAA Men’s Division 1 basketball tournament begins today along with the CIS Men’s Hockey Championship, the quest for the cup, ah, that is the Memorial Cup, began yesterday and two curling events begin Saturday: the Canadian Seniors Curling Championships and the Ford World Women’s Curling Championship. If we’re lucky we may even see some spring training baseball.

The road to the final four is perhaps the most anticipated and, next to the FIFA World Cup, the most watched sporting event of the year. Action begins today when Georgia takes on Xavier at 12:20 Eastern time followed by Portland State at Kansas at 12:25 and Temple at Michigan State at 12:30. Games will be played well into the night as the last game of the day between Mississippi Valley State and UCLA tips off at 9:55 PM Eastern. When everything is said and done, twelve games will have been played and six spots in the second round on Saturday or Sunday will be claimed.

In Canadian Interuniversity Sport, the men’s hockey championship will be decided this weekend with six teams in the hunt. The top seed University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds, winners of the AUS, are heavily favoured to win the national title and open the tournament this afternoon at 2:00 PM against the Brock Badgers (OUA finalists). At 7:00 PM tonight, the host Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus take on the Canada West Champion University of Alberta Golden Bears while the CW finalist Saskatchewan Huskies and the OUA Champion McGill University Redmen begin play tomorrow against the losing teams of today’s games. The teams are split into two pools and the winner of each pool faces of Sunday evening for the championship.

The road to the Memorial Cup also begins this weekend with four Ontario Hockey League games tonight. The OHL playoffs even started last night with the Belleville Bulls taking the first game from the Peterborough Petes by a 4-1 score. All playoff teams in both the Western Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will start their playoff run tomorrow night. In each league, sixteen teams made the playoffs while two from the QMJHL, four from the OHL and six from the WHL are watching from the sidelines. The winners of each league, along with the host Kitchener Rangers, will be heading to Kitchener in May to play for the Memorial Cup in what is the best Canadian tournament.

If basketball and hockey is not your sport, maybe you’d enjoy a little curling. The Ford World Women’s Curling Championship begins Saturday afternoon from Vernon, BC. TSN will be broadcasting the round robin games, at least Canada’s round robin games, and CBC will likely be showing the semis and final game next weekend. I’m sure anyone who is interested will figure out the broadcasting schedule in their area. For fans in the Prince Albert area, they can check out the Canadian Seniors Championships starting Saturday at the Prince Albert Golf & Curling Club. There will be four draw times with six sheets seeing action every day from Sunday to Thursday with three draw times Saturday and next Friday. The semis and the finals will be played next weekend.

This weekend will be a great time to sit at home and keep the batteries charged in your remotes as there are tons of sports to check out. For me, I will take a break from watching sports Saturday as I make the two hour drive to Buffalo to check out the Bandits vs Rock game. With the Leafs in Buffalo Friday night, this weekend has been touted the ultimate sports weekend by the Buffalo sports community. At least the Sabres organization that put together a great sports package with tickets to both events and a night at a hotel is touting this the ultimate sports weekend. I honestly cannot agree more with this statement. Go Bandits!

More CIS Champions Crowned

The Laurier Golden Hawks earned two more coats of gold on Sunday as both the women`s and men`s curling teams were successful in the final of the inaugural 2008 CIS/CCA Curling Championship. The men's team finished the round robin on top of Pool A with a 5-1 record before defeating the University of Guelph Gryphons 8-3 in the quarter finals and dominating the Brock University Badgers 10-2 in the semi-finals. In the final, it took Laurier nine ends to finish off the Dinos from the University of Calgary when they scored five points to put the game out of reach 10-4 (the score has since been reduced to 5-4 with the last two ends crossed out so I am not sure what happened there but Laurier is still the winner).

The women's side had a tougher time getting to the final as they finished the round robin at 3-3 tied with three other schools. With only two available playoff spots, the four teams were on to the tie breaker games. Laurier squeaked by the University of Regina Rams by a 4-3 score in their tie breaker game. They then defeated the Brock Badgers 9-6 in the quarter finals and Laurentian University Lady Vees 9-3 in the semi-finals. The University of Manitoba Bisons put up a good fight in the finals but Laurier were able to steal four points in the last three ends to take the title game 7-4.

Shortly before the curling champions were decided, the 2008 Men's Basketball Championship final began between the seventh seeded Brock Badgers and the fifth seeded Acadia Axemen. This tournament started on Friday with eight teams. The host Carleton University Ravens were the top seed and were favoured to win their sixth straight championship. That dream was shattered late Saturday night by a gutsy, double overtime performance by Acadia in the semi-finals (82-80).

Prior to that semi-final game, Acadia defeated the fourth seeded Universite de Laval Rouge et Or 85-77 in the quarterfinals. The Brock Badgers snuck into the final game by defeating the second seeded University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 83-78 in the quarterfinals and the sixth seeded University of Western Ontario Mustangs 85-75 in the semi-finals. The eighth seeded University of Alberta Golden Bears were defeated in the quarter finals by Carleton while the third seeded University of Saint Mary's Huskies lost their quarter final game to the Mustangs 75-70.

Before the men's final was played, the Rouge et Or defeated the UBC Thunderbirds 86-84 to claim fifth spot. For some reason there is no game played to determine third place. Surprisingly, Acadia did not look to suffer from their tough game against the top seed and dominated the final match early on. Brock did not let up though and they kept the score tight heading into the last six minutes of the game. In an exciting finish, Brock clung to a one point lead before sinking a long two with just 11 seconds left. After an Acadia time out, a Brock defender forced the play out of bounds, leaving two ticks on the clock and a Brock possession. With a 64-61 score, the 2008 Brock University Badgers claimed the school's second men's basketball title. Not bad for a seventh seed.

Congratulations to the Brock Badgers and also congratulations to the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks (x2).

The last stop on the CIS winter sport season is the Universite de Moncton next weekend for the 2008 CIS Men's Ice Hockey Championship. Let's see if the Badgers can surprise all again and keep the championship party going on the St Catharines campus.

CIS Champions

The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds defeated the University of Regina Cougars 67-46 for the second time in five years in the CIS women's basketball finals to capture the Bronze Baby Trophy. This win marks the third national championship earned by UBC in that five year span (2004 and 2006). UBC reached the final game by defeating University of Toronto Varsity Blues 70-59 and McMaster Marauders (OUA Champions) 71-67 while Regina beat Memorial Sea-Hawks (AUS Champions) 79-66 and the Universite de Laval Rouge et Or (QSSF Champions) 73-63. McMaster defeated Laval 83-79 to capture the bronze. The host University of Saskatchewan Huskies lost in the first round to McMaster but was able to defeat the University of Toronto before losing to the Simon Fraser Clan to earn sixth place.

In CIS women's hockey, the OUA champion Laurier Golden Hawks met up with the QSSF champion McGill Martlets to decide the national champion. It took a 5-on-3 with under two minutes to go in the second period to open the scoring when McGill snuck one past Liz Knox, Laurier's goalie. McGill scored with seconds left in the third period to win the title. The University of Manitoba Bisons got some revenge over the team that beat them for the CW championship, the University of Alberta Panda's, by defeating them 4-2 in the bronze game while the host University of Ottawa Gee Gees beat the AUS champion St Francis Xavier X-Women in overtime for fifth place. During the round robin the Gee Gees and the X-Women combined for 1 goal but during the fifth place game they came together to score thirteen goals.

The men's basketball championship is being hosted by Carleton University this weekend (March 14-16) while the men's hockey is being hosted by the Universite de Moncton next weekend (March 20-23). In addition, the CIS Curling Championships are being held in the Guelph area this weekend.