Great all-star weekend in Toronto. The best I have ever seen.

The NBA ASG ended up getting some media coverage in Quebec last night and today.

Big game tonight.

Well, that was fucking amazing. One of the greatest performances in Raptors' history by Kyle Lowry. I'm a believer.

Awesome!!

Anthony Bennett waived by the Raptors today. Sad that the no. 1 pick in the 2013 draft hasn't caught on anywhere, and has now been let go by his hometown team "to give Bennett an opportunity to seek an increased role elsewhere."

I admit to having felt giddy before the beginning of the season about the prospect of two Toronto guys playing for the Raptors, but while Bennett has been a bust, at least Cory Joseph has been a standout as the team's backup point guard.

The Biosteel All-Canadian Basketball Game is gaining increasing interest. Canada is churning out great basketball talent by the bucket load so this is a glimpse into the pipeline of future stars. It showcases the top 24 high school players in the nation. The talent level coming out of Canada these days is so high that I wouldn't be surprised to see the majority of these guys in the NBA after college. That said, they all have the potential to get there.

It tips off on Monday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m. EST on TSN, live from the University of Toronto's Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. I'm definitely going. Here's the roster:


Emmanuel Akot, Wasatch Academy (Utah): Winnipeg, Man.
RJ Barrett, Montverde Academy (Fla.): Mississauga, Ont.
Jahvon Blair, Orangeville Prep: Brampton, Ont.
Ignas Brazdeikis, Orangeville Prep: Oakville, Ont.
OâShae Brissett, Findlay Prep (Nev.): Mississauga, Ont.
Nate Darling, DeMatha Catholic High School: Bedford, N.S.
Christian David, Vermont Academy (Vt.): Milton, Ont.
Jerome Desrosiers, Northfield Mount Hermon: Montreal, Que.
Nikola Djogo, Athlete Institute Prep: Stoney Creek, Ont.
Danilo Djuricic, St. Michael's College School: Brampton, Ont.
Marquell Fraser, The Hill Academy: Hamilton, Ont.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Hamilton Heights Christian Academy: Hamilton, Ont.
Justin Jackson, The Hill Academy: Ajax, Ont.
Abu Kigab, Prolific Prep (Calif.): St. Catharines, Ont.
Jaelin Llewellyn, Orangeville Prep: Mississauga, Ont.
Anthony Longpre, Glenelg Country School (Md.): Montreal, Que.
Matur Maker, Athlete Institute Prep: Perth, Western Australia
Thon Maker, Athlete Institute Prep: Perth, Western Australia
Koby McEwen, Wasatch Academy (Utah): Toronto, Ont.
Grant Shephard, Kelowna Secondary School: Kelowna, B.C.
Simisola Shittu, Montverde Academy (Fla.): Burlington, Ont.
Aher Uguak, Harry Ainlay: Edmonton, Alta.
Howard Washington Jr., Montverde Academy (Fla.): Buffalo, N.Y.
Kalif Young, Orangeville Prep: Vaughan, Ont.

Lindell Wigginton of North Preston, N.S. was selected to appear in the game but is unable to participate due to academic obligations. I know Howard Washington plays for Canada but what about the Maker brothers? Do they play for Australia or Sudan? I doubt they play for Canada despite attending the Athlete Institute in Ontario.

It being March, I thought I'd also post the college teams that have punched their ticket to the Final 8. So far we have this:

1. Dalhousie (AUS champs)
2. UBC (Host school)
3. McGill (RSEQ champs)
4. Calgary (Canada West champs)
5. Ryerson (OUA champs)

6. 1 extra berth assigned to the OUA
7. 1 extra berth assigned to Canada West
8. 1 wild card

I'm pretty sure that Carleton will get the extra OUA berth, Thompson Rivers will get the extra Canada West berth, and Ottawa the wild card. Manitoba and McMaster have a case but will end up looking in from the outside.

Never heard of Thompson Rivers U until right now.

BC and Alberta created a slew of new universities this past decade. I imagine most of them were originally colleges that now have degree granting powers. There are a few that are affiliated with an established school. Canada West re-jigged their divisions to accommodate the newbies. The Explorer division is full of new names: Thompson Rivers, Fraser Valley, MacEwan, Mount Royal, UBC Okanagan, and UNBC. Ontario was also busy adding Nipissing and Algoma.

Quebec remains, by far, the most under represented in CIS basketball. There are only 5 teams compared to 8 in Atlantic Canada, a region with less than a third Quebec's population. Atlantic Canada has 1 team for every 300,000 residents. They must have to recruit like crazy outside Atlantic Canada to field competitive squads. It does help that the sport is big out there (AC), but still.

CIS basketball in Quebec is almost where CIS football was a couple of decades ago: it's mostly the anglo schools that play. Although I see UQAM and Laval do have teams.

Quebec doesn't really have a strong basketball culture generally. For most kids basketball is something you might play in gym class, and your high school might have had a team that played against other schools.

It pretty much stops there for 99.9% of kids. Kinda like volleyball when you think of it.

If you look at who the top players to come out of Quebec tend to be, most are from the anglo or immigrant communities.

After graduating from university in NS, I moved to Montreal. I knew college hoops were a far bigger deal in the Maritimes than any where else in Canada but was still shocked at how much of a fringe sport it was in Quebec. I'm constantly puzzled how CIS basketball continues to remain an obscure preoccupation from Quebec to BC. Canada's top 10-15 teams are quite good, games are very affordable, and it's good entertainment.

In the 90s, you could ask a random person on a Halifax street who they thought would win the AUS title and no one would think it a strange question. A good number of people would know what you're talking about and offer up some commentary on who was going to take it. I attended the Final 8 in Ottawa a few years back and 4 bus loads of Cape Bretoners made the trip to cheer on the Capers. There were a few hundred who showed up to support Acadia too. These are tiny tiny schools yet their fans almost drowned out the hometown Carleton Ravens and Ottawa GGs.... schools with massive student populations. The Ottawa crowd seemed astonished at the level of support for NS teams. I wasn't. The Maritimes remain the only place in Canada where college hoops matter.

Basketball is booming in southern Ontario, but even there college hoops mean the NCAA... never their owns teams. The NCAA tournament is fabulous and I fully understand the interest in programs like Kentucky or Oregon which have Canadian stars. That said, the complete disinterest in our own teams by Ontarians continues to puzzle me. Surely we're close to the point where people start taking an interest?

CIS sports in general don't have a huge following in much of the country... it seems that football is really the only sport that manages to maintain much of a general following, but even that tends to be concentrated in a few hotspots (Sask, Quebec, NS).

My impression is that most of the universities which form the CIS like it that way... for better or for worse, they don't seem the least bit interested in promoting collegiate sports the way that the NCAA does in the US.

Looks like I was right about who'd get the 3 berths up for grabs for the CIS tournament. #1 vs #8, #2 vs #7, #3 vs #6, #4 vs #5. The brackets continue so that the winner of #1 vs #8 will meet the winner of #4 vs #5. The winners of the other 2 games form the other bracket Semi. Teams that qualified and the seeding:

1. Ryerson Rams (OUA champions: 17-2 regular season / 3-0 playoffs)
2. Carleton Ravens (OUA finalists: 16-3 regular season / 2-1 playoffs)
3. Ottawa Gee-Gees (At-Large Berth: 17-2 regular season / 2-1 playoffs)
4. Calgary Dinos (CWUAA champions: 17-3 regular season / 4-0 playoffs)
5. McGill Redmen (RSEQ champions: 12-4 regular season / 2-0 playoffs)
6. Dalhousie Tigers (AUS champions: 13-7 regular season / 2-0 playoffs)
7. Thompson Rivers WolfPack (CWUAA finalists: 16-4 regular season / 3-2 playoffs)
8. UBC Thunderbirds (Hosts: 16-4 regular season / 3-1 playoffs)

UBC going deep will be good for attendance but I can't see them getting passed the Rams.

I know that a group in Western Canada tried to form a broadcast consortium which would have the top tier CIS Football teams in Canada play each other in the regular season. The response from the Ontario universities was lukewarm at best.

Just discovered a Chronicle-Herald piece that advocates something similar.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/...n-cis-football

Without knowing a thing about CIS basketball, considering Carleton has won 11 out of the last 13 years, I'm assuming they must be the consensus favourites? ;)

Ryerson beat Carleton and Ottawa this season and finished third last year. It's a pretty tight between the three.

Carleton lost both meetings to Ottawa this year. Ryerson only lost to Windsor and Guelph.

^ Interesting...sounds competitive.

^^ We're finally seeing an end to the dominance of Carleton. It's been a problem for CIS basketball for decades. I remember Victoria dominating for about a decade. Brandon used to be good. Now it's Carleton. The lack of parity isn't good for the sport and the continued weakness of the AUS is problematic. It's a shame because that region of Canada has the most cultural interest in varsity basketball/football yet they just don't have the population base or financial clout to field competitive teams.

When the AUS conference produces a legitimate challenger, support for that team goes through the roof. SMU football in the late 80s. Acadia, SMU, and St. FX basketball periodically. Nova Scotians want a team to get behind but athletic success has been hard to come by for 20 years.

It would mean a de-facto 2 tier system in CIS. There will obviously be great resistance to this by small established schools (Bishops, St. FX, Acadia) that don't have the size or clout to be part of the top division. You'd also see the end of traditional rivalries and it would splinter an already weak league. I'd prefer trying to boost the profile and support for varsity basketball/football across CIS. It needs to be run more professionally and attempts made to market and close the gap with the NCAA.

There's an old guard at many Canadian universities that stubbornly want to keep varsity sports as low key and periphery as possible. They look upon sports with scorn and worry about losing clout on campus. It's a legitimate concern that academics might one day play second fiddle to athletics due to its revenue generating potential for a school but purposely stunting varsity sports is inexcusable. Why should Canadian kids have to leave Canada to pursue their athletics career? We should be providing those opportunities at our own universities.

Worth noting that after their last game, the Raptors have moved up past OKC to fourth in the overall NBA standings... (still second in the east though)

this is the first time i've opened this thread to read its contents but one post did make me wonder how people in this country think broadcasting works in Canada..

just as an FYI, yes, cable networks are free to be established anywhere in Canada (i.e. APTN Winnipeg) BUT the CRTC determines what networks can actual broadcast in this country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadi...ons_Commission

The CRTC mandate is to "..upholding its responsibility to foster a national conversation". and Toronto has a history of getting certification for 99% of English national networks in this country, Probably due to being closest proximity to centre of Canadian English population and has been established long ago as a national broadcast centre.

FYI Back in the 1980's when the CRTC originally opened up cable networks to have the country's first all-news television network in Canada, a company in Edmonton applied to have the all-news network in the country but guess where the CRTC allowed the network? ..Allarcom did try to appeal the CRTC's decision but to no success..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBC_News_Network

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wester...Communications

My alma mater, Dalhousie University, just upset #3 Ottawa to make the Final 4. I believe that's the first time in school history so I have to give them a shout out. They will meet national powerhouse #2 Carleton in the Semi. #1 Ryerson meet #4 Calgary in the other Semi. Hot damn! Bring it back to Scotia!

:fireworks: :cheerleader: :cheerleader: GOTIGERSGO :cheerleader: :cheerleader::fireworks:

http://s1.ticketm.net/tm/en-ca/dam/a...011_CUSTOM.jpg

Calgary Dinos 98
Ryerson Rams 87

Carleton Ravens 76
Dalhousie Tigers 66

Best showing ever for Dal and a bit of an upset in the other Semi. I think most thought this was going to be Ryerson's year. I guess I'll pull for Calgary as I'm tired of seeing Carleton take it.

Only 2100 showed up for the Final 4 Semis in Vancouver but college basketball is a new thing in this part of Canada. It will need a number of years before it's as big as it is on the east coast. Basketball has been culturally important in Nova Scotia for decades but hosting the Final 8 for ~ 20 years in a row helped a great deal as well. The Final 8 always does well when it's in Halifax.... even when the local teams get bounced.

They should keep the Final 8 in host cities for 2-3 years in a row to build its visibility. It's one of the best sporting events in the country, affordable, and fun. Canadians are largely oblivious to it which is a crying shame. It doesn't help that the CBC devotes tons of time to covering the NCAA tournament but doesn't even mention Canada's own tournament. Aren't they supposed to be our national broadcaster? Covering Canada should be their first priority.

I've been going/watching for 30 years. When it's in your city go check it out. If you like basketball, you'll like this event.

Did anyone catch the raptor game last night?

Norman Powell is ridiculous, he will be the biggest star the Raptors ever had..

• Video Link

Raptors go small and Crush Indiana!!!

I watched the Jays games, i should have watched the Raptors though. Looked like an amzing game.

Well the Raps did give you an hour and half grace time..

Great comeback win. Need to finish off the Pacers friday night.

I watch every game. Last night was depressing at first, but somehow they managed to pull it off in the end.

What's fascinating is the mind game at work. The Raptors have played only one really good game so far, and the rest of the time they've mostly stunk, but the plain fact of their superior talent has managed to carry them through this series.

But that won't work in future rounds. Lowry and DeRozan need to play like all-stars, and both of them need to be scoring 25 points or more for the team to be successful.

Toronto Raptors Charity Basketball

We the North!

What a relief. They almost blew it there at the end. They looked good for about a quarter's worth of the action, and to be honest, Indiana lost this game more than Toronto won it. It was Indiana's to take at the end, and they almost did.

Norm Powell has been a revelation as a rookie. Terence Ross has flamed out like he did in the playoffs the the previous two years. DeRozan is inconsistent, and looks like he's good for maybe three decent performances out of seven.

But the biggest story is that Kyle Lowry's elbow is hurt really bad, and he's a shadow of the self he was during the regular season. He's sort of making up for it with some smart play and good passing, but this team isn't going to go anywhere without him hitting big-time threes and dominating in the fourth quarter.

I will not be surprised if Miami wins in four games. I'll be disappointed, but not surprised. I will be surprised if the series makes it to six games. Of course, there's a chance that getting to the second round really will be like getting a monkey off their back, and they'll actually start to play as good as they did for stretches during the regular season. Who knows?

My prediction? Miami in 4 or 5. I hope I'm wrong (that wouldn't surprise me either) and I eat my words!

Raptors still rank higher than Miami in the standings so fingers crossed!

It's been a long 15 years but we finally made it to the 2nd round!

He should brace that elbow up. Still good on them for getting to the second round.

DeRozan needs to pass the ball!!!!

Keep Powell and Corey Joe on the court longer as well.

Technically, we in southern Ontario are the 'deep south' but I agree with the sentiment. Nunavut, NWT, and the Yukon are the North. Everything else in this country is the 'south'. :cool:

Technically, the only NBA teams north of Toronto are Minneapolis and Portland. "We the North" is fully, 100% accurate and appropriate in the context that it is being used.

Yeah, that's the way I see it too.

Although it's always a bit weird in the Canadian context to hear people in other instances mention randomly (without any other info) "the South" and expect you to think of a place like Alabama right away.

Though if you go up to Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay, "the South" in usual conversation is Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor, etc. Even Ottawa counts.

In Rouyn-Noranda, "le Sud" is Montreal, etc.

But in Montreal, "le Sud" is Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico.

And in Montreal, "le Nord" is the Laurentian mountains resort area (St-Sauveur, Tremblant, etc.)

If a Montrealer tells you, "j'ai un chalet dans le Nord", he's referring to a place he can easily drive to after work.

Glad the Raptor won after almost blowing it. I don't like the idea of Ujiri signing Derozan to a long term contract paying $25 million per year. He is simply not someone a team can rely on to lead them on a deep playoff run. Not worth it at all.

The Raptor already made a mistake signing useless Terrance Ross to an inflated contract. Hopefully, they don't compound the situation with Derozan.

Miami are the favorites and they should win in 5. I wish the Raps had a gamer like Wade...

Terrance Ross and his contract are gone, but they will likely have to give up a pick to get rid of him.

Signing him to a $50 million dollar contract was a big mistake.

Ross's contract will be cheap once he new bloated salary cap kicks in. Plus, Ross, with all his warts is still one of the higher ratio 3-point shooters in the league. If you cab shoot 3s at a top level in the league you will always get paid well.

Derozen will get re-signed and then traded. Masai apparently does not make players walk. Always signs them and then trades them down the road.

With Miami...

It is actually a better match up for us. Miami struggles to score and aside from annoying one on one match-ups (Whiteside vs JV could get ugly) Raptors have way more peices, better bench, better offence.

Raptors played tight and nervous all series. They should be more relaxed now with the first round ghost gone now. Let us not forget Miami looked very ordinary for most of the sweiws versus Charlotte. Niether squad is looking consistent.

I've kind of given up on boring hockey this yr esp with cdn teams being absolutely terrible.

Got back into NBA and have to say these playoffs are next level. Raptors are so inconsistent but eager to see them advance to the eastern finals before being taught a good lesson from the Cavs. Really hoping to see the Spurs eliminated tonight! And GS is still out of this world - still can't believe the shots Curry's consistently making. Been watching the NBA since the mid 90's, have never seen a player pull these kind of shots off and he's doing it consistently.

Bliss.

I was wrong about a lot. Not surprising.

He redeemed himself in this series. He's got his three-point shooting down, but those drives to the basket are tantalizing. We want more! Terence Ross is going to be a major talent if he develops to the point where he can consistently finish at the rim.

Against Miami he had three really good games, three decent games and one crap game. So, better than my pessimistic prognosis.

He's mostly back to his regular self. He had four great games out of seven against Miami. But he's going to need to be great every game against Cleveland if Toronto is going to have a chance.

Words eaten. The problem with predictions is that they're always about the future. Some people know more about the future than others.

Thank-fully Raptors fever hasn't swept through Vancouver cause I despise the NBA, but I will pull for the Raptors making it to the finals because it would be very disruptive to the NBA establishment.

My excitement is a little tempered because of the damn Western Conference. What's the best scenario for the Raptors here? Make the finals and get absolutely embarrassed? Put up a valiant effort and still lose? This isn't like hockey where you can out work a vastly superior team and win. Talent wins in the NBA.

We the mother-effn' North! :rock:

Unfortunately, I think it ends there. The Cavs will be next to impossible to beat.
But it was a good run. The boys should be proud and Toronto is a buzz.

Raptors have chance to influence another generation of fans: Mudhar

^^ I guess Raptors have finally excised their demons after Fifteen Years since Vince Carter's botched last minute shot in chance for entrance to Eastern Conference final..

The irony of it all is that had Lebron James still played for the Heat, Toronto would never have made it this far, guess Raptor's should thank Lebron before he dispenses Raptors to the curb..

I know absolutely nothing about the players on the Raptors team but having seen Lebron play live with Heat in PHX, you really get how incredible a force he is.. :worship:

Congratulations to the Raptors for making the Conference finals. Hoping they can take a couple of games from Cleveland and make the series interesting.

Whaaaat??? It hasn't even started yet so it ain't over. Toronto did beat them 2 out of 3 in the regular season and they have a new energy now that they beat Miami. Don't count them out yet.