Clash of the Nations

Last Christmas I wrote a recap of a hockey game between Canada and the United States in which I used this platform to highlight how great my country is at hockey. And while I don’t think the article was arrogant, nor have I changed my stance on Canadian hockey, I do think it would only be fair to give credit to my southern neighbors when that credit is due.

Last weekend my school, Trinity Western University, located in Langley, British Columbia, played host to four NCAA Division 1 basketball teams. The men’s teams from Boise State and Oklahoma joined the women of Wichita State and New Mexico State for a weekend of basketball against Canadian competition.

Once every four years Div. 1 schools are allowed to come to the Great White North for exhibition games on the Labor Day weekend. Schools usually jump at the chance because in preparation for the trip they’re given 10 practices and usually play three or four games while visiting, which is valuable considering that under NCAA rules teams aren’t allowed to practice or play exhibition games at this point.

My friends and I often refer to the Canadian Inter-University Sports basketball as ‘CIS White-Ball.’ While it is entertaining at times, CIS white-ball isn’t exactly a hot-bed for world-class athletes or eyebrow raising basketball. For some reason though, we always think that our team has a chance. We play all starters, wear our game jerseys (NCAA teams must wear their practice jerseys) and generally treat it like a Final Four game. We are also willing to overlook the fact that the NCAA team we are playing has not seen any game time up to this point, because to be fair, neither have we.

In the four years that I’ve attended TWU, we’ve played NCAA schools like Georgia, Pacific and Fresno State. None of those games were even close, with the exception of the Georgia game, which we pushed to double OT by playing all our starters while they played all freshman (we lost in double OT).

Yet for some reason as we welcomed the Broncos of Boise State and the Oklahoma Sooners to our gym, the crowds were large and buzzing with anticipation. Why you ask? Not because we have a chance to win; we know we aren’t going to win. That crowd is standing room only because Canada wants to see how we measure up. When it comes to basketball, we’re the little brother who’s getting better and gaining confidence by the year. But each year we step up to challenge the older brother, thinking we’ve finally caught up, believing that we now have arrived; only to get smacked in the mouth by players who are bigger, stronger, faster and smarter.

I was on the broadcast crew for Saturday and Sunday night and was thrilled to get an up-close look at the games, and weigh in my opinions on the encounter. The first match-up was the TWU women against the girls from Wichita State. Many remember the Shockers men’s team making a run to the Sweet Sixteen a few years ago, beating Chris Lofton and the Tennessee Volunteers in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The women from Wichita State handed our girls a loss of around 9 points. Not disgraceful for us, and certainly expected. However the Shocker women lost to the defending national champions in the CIS the following night. Simon Fraser University handed the Shockers a 13 point loss, and the following night the University of British Columbia beat the Shockers as well. This proves only that the women’s basketball programs in the NCAA are not as good as the two best women’s teams in all of Canada. Not a lot for us to brag about there.

Immediately following the loss to the Shockers, the TWU Spartan men took the floor against the Boise State Broncos. The Broncos, being known primarily for their prowess on the football field, were not expected to be a power house on the court. But in a twist of irony, the Broncos were formidable against the Spartans. TWU is a small team, and tries to play an up-tempo, high-pressure, run-and-gun system to create easy transition baskets and they shoot a lot of three’s. A great system, however there was one small problem with the Spartans system on this night. The Broncos play the exact same system. And they’re bigger and faster at every position.

The score was surprisingly close through the first quarter and a half and then the Broncos began to lay the smack down, as they say, on the Spartans. We were still surprised, although instead of being surprised at our success, we were surprised at how quickly we were decimated.

The funny thing is, every year we all seem to think our basketball team is going to be great. No matter how far away we are from winning our division, no matter what happens in the regular season, no matter how much roster turnover there is, even if our leading scorer and best player last year is red-shirting (which Brian Banman is doing this year) we still find a way to be excited about the upcoming season. We aren’t even good in our division, never mind our country, but we’re buzzing around the gym every September believing that this year will somehow be different. Did I mention there are two teams in our division that are consistently Top-5 in the entire country?

Anyways, the Broncos, led by 6’7” guard Tyler Tiedeman proceeded to dismantle the Spartans 108-77. This game was not as interesting as the following night’s proceedings against the Oklahoma Sooners, however it did produce one interesting story line.

The Broncos made the trip to New Westminster, British Columbia (home of Minnesota Twins slugger Justin Morneau) to play Douglas College, a school I had neither been to nor heard of, to play a team featuring an NBA-ready talent. Bol Kong is a 6’7” do-everything guard who is easily one of the top basketball players in North America. I was shocked that I’d never heard of him, and it turns out that Bol has been unable to get a permanent visa to play basketball in the United States. His high-school coach received calls from pretty much every major Div 1 program in the States, and even received a call from the Boston Celtics.

Kong dominated throughout, scoring 40 as Douglas College beat the Broncos 109-100, a further testament to the 19-year-old’s abilities. He’s certainly an intriguing player, not only because of his immense skill, but also due to the potential nickname. I think ABC and ESPN could find creative ways to over-hype a King James vs King Kong match-up.

Sunday night the Spartans opened the doors of the David E. Enarson Gymnasium for the Big 12’s Oklahoma Sooners. As I scanned the line-up for the Sooners, I recognized only one name: Longar Longar. The 7-footer from Sudan is an absolute giant and when he settled in the defensive zone with his arms spread out it seemed like he could touch both sidelines. Nonetheless, I thought our team had a decent chance against the Sooners, seeing as how Hollis Price and Taj Gray have long since graduated. Also, it turns out they used to call Hollis Price ‘HP’, which is an obvious and hilarious nickname. Price is playing in Lithuania now, in case you were wondering.

Mike Houck, the very kind Associate Media Relations Director from Oklahoma, came over to me to introduce himself and inform me before our webcast. “I recognize Longar, but who else should we watch out for,” I asked him. “Well, that guy there, Blake Griffin, was a McDonald’s All-American last year and has a double-double in every game since we got up here,” Mike said casually. I asked Mike how the Sooners did against the UBC men, who were the number one ranked men’s team in Canada for most of last year. I began to re-think my position on the Spartans success when Mike informed me that they had thumped the Thunderbirds handily.

I got curious. “So where do you guys think you’ll figure in to the Big 12 this year?”
“We picked up a magazine in the airport on the way here that ranked us 8th,” Mike told me. “But we think we’ll be around the middle of the pack.”

I’d be shocked if the Sooners finished 8th. The aforementioned Griffin is an absolute monster at 6’10” 230 lbs, and he highlights a big, strong group that should dominate the inside against most Big 12 teams. Griffin scored team high’s with 18 points and 11 rebounds while only playing 26 minutes of basketball. Throughout it looked as though he refused to be stopped by any man, rebounding and scoring at will.

Canadian basketball is improving (Steve Nash!), but still has a long way to go (Jamal Magloire!), and we certainly didn’t need to have America come up here and smack us around to prove that point. All we needed to do was watch the FIBA Americas tournament. Live and learn.

So what did little brother learn this year? That hockey might have let our head swell a little, but that’s okay, because basketball has brought it right back down to size. At least until Canada plays the U.S. this Christmas. The other thought I had? Maybe it’s time to bring a big-time college football program up to play the Canadian Universities. Just to see how bad the blowouts could be. Somebody call Charlie Weis.