Some goals are so outlandish, so impossible, so laughable, that it’s better to call them hallucinations. Spoken aloud they sound like something inspired only by peyote, or mescaline.
Roy Rana had such a vision once. The head coach of the Ryerson Rams imagined that the downtown school with the high school-sized gym and no significant athletic tradition — let alone basketball tradition — would be playing to win the national championship on their home court in five years.
He imagined it after his first year on the job six years ago, taking over a Rams program just a few years removed from winning one game in two seasons. Not that anyone noticed, or particularly cared.
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But Rana, who made his bones as a high school coach at Eastern Commerce just a few miles east of Ryerson’s downtown campus, knew that Toronto was seeking a program that reflected the city’s culture and the city’s game.
Toronto was undergoing a basketball boom with a pipeline of talent heading to the NCAA D1 ranks and even the first round of the NBA draft, and Rana felt it was time the city’s universities got in on the act and that Ryerson was just the place.
Not all visions come completely true.
What Rana saw in his mind’s eye was winning a national championship – Ryerson’s first – on his home floor.
Saturday night at the school’s spectacular, nearly brand new home court at Mattamy Athletic Centre, sight of the old Maple Leaf Gardens, they fell just short in front of a raucous, sold-out crowd of 4,056, many of them wearing bright yellow in honour of the home team.
Against the Ottawa Gee-Gees they led the consensus No. 2-ranked team in the country (though the No. 3 seed at the ArcelorMittal CIS Final 8) 45-36 at the half and they even weathered an Ottawa storm in the third quarter to fight back and tie the game with just under four minutes left on a triple by Adika Peter-McNeilly.
At that moment it really seemed that as crazy as Rana’s dream was, it just might happen.
The building was full. It was loud. The event – in no small part due to Rana’s determined efforts to create coverage and put on a first-class show when the media came – was clearly what Rana wanted it to be: A Toronto basketball success story, complete with the home team getting the girl in the end.
They fell just short. Peter-McNeilly fouled out on the next possession and the Rams high-powered offence went dry.
Instead of winning a title on their home court, the Rams lost their chance to play for one.
But Rana couldn’t help but think about how close they came to pulling off what was unfathomable even five years ago.
“I take it personally that this event was a special one for Toronto and tonight was a special night,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ve had a CIS basketball game like that [in Toronto] in a long time … to see this type of support, to see this kind of energy for Ryerson?
“When I got here we’d have 150 people in the game and we’d have to beg them to come. To see this kind of support from our students and our community is pretty special. I just wish we could have won and kept it going.”
On Sunday afternoon it will be the Gee-Gees trying to complete their own vision quest as they meet the top-ranked Carleton Ravens for the national championship. The Ravens are gunning for a fifth straight title and 11th in 13 years under head coach Dave Smart.
Carleton downed Victoria 83-74 behind 29 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds from All-Canadian Phil Scrubb, who along with his brother and fellow All-Canadian Thomas will be striving for their fifth national title in five tries.
Last season Ottawa lost to them in Finals. To avenge that loss they’ll need to slay CIS basketball’s biggest, scariest dragon.
But that’s the Gee-Gees’ thing.
“Why, who’re we playing?” joked Gee-Gees head coach James Derouin, who freely admits that in the five years he’s been at Ottawa he’s only ever been concerned with beating Carleton. If that led to a national championship, so much the better.
They had their chance last year but couldn’t pull it off in Ottawa at the Canadian Tire Centre when Carleton won 79-67. The two teams have split their past four meetings.
If the Ravens have an edge it might be that they were at their hotel, watching the game on television as Ryerson pushed the Gee-Gees to the limit.
But Derouin wasn’t having it.
“The short turnaround was something we went through last year, I’ll be honest, last year we were unprepared for it, we got stuck at the Canadian Tire Centre late and there was all kinds of problems [getting food], and then we played even earlier last year,” said Derouin. “We’re prepared for this situation, we’re prepared to play Carleton, we’re prepared to make the finals and we’re ready to go … luckily we know the opponent, we know them pretty well.”
Ottawa-Carleton has all the makings of a dream final for the national championship. Just not the one Roy Rana had in mind five years ago, one that was so crazy it almost came true.