The Golden Age of Canadian basketball hasn’t been all that Canadian. Or at least not much of what we get excited about has happened here. It’s a story about natural resources being shipped away to be refined elsewhere.
A basketball brawn drain.
It’s largely been about how Canadians have done and will do when they venture in the United States, something that is a well worn though worthy theme as March Madness kicks off.
It’s understandable. We don’t have a home team to ink in our brackets, so we follow any team that has a Canadian with any meaningful role and as has been the case recently, there’s more than enough to keep it interesting and fun.
And later this summer and over the next few summers it will be about how the best Canadian basketball players compare with the best around the world. It will be the ultimate measure of our basketball boom: Can we be the next Spain or the next Argentina? Can we – maybe – pull off our own Miracle on Wood against the United States at a future Olympics or world championships.
But overlooked has been the state of sport here, at home, which is why the ArcelorMittal CIS Final 8 was worth paying attention to as it played out at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. The story ended like almost anyone would have predicted, which doesn’t make it any less dramatic in its own way.
The Carleton Ravens won in dominating fashion, blitzing the Ottawa Gee-Gees – ranked No. 1 or No. 2 all season and winners of two of the schools’ past four meetings – by a score of 93-46. The Ravens held the highest-scoring team in the CIS to a number they often get up in a decent half, just not against the Ravens, the best defensive team in the CIS.
Watching Carleton has become like watching a Mike Tyson fight when he was in his prime: you expect to see a knockout.
Phil and Thomas Scrubb completed careers — five title in five years — that should make them legends, and unlike CIS legends of the past the beauty of this digital, video age is that there will always be a way to compare them with who ever challenges them in the future.
Phil, the big, powerful, point guard, was the tournament MVP after averaging 29.3 points and 8.3 assists on 58 percent shooting, including 14-of-22 from the three-point line. Thomas, at 6-foot-7 the taller brother who can defend four positions, chipped in with 15 points and 11 rebounds a game, including a line of 20 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in the final.
Overall it was Carleton’s 11th national title in 13 years, and how they did it matters: An uncompromising focus on being the best they can be. No excuses. It seems so un-Canadian, which makes it even better.
It’s not always pretty to watch, as when Carleton head coach and chief dynasty maker Dave Smart spent a good portion of the second half on his feet imploring his players to play harder and smarter and be better even when up 30 and then 40. It was as if he saw the perfect game in sight and refused to allow it to slip from his team’s grasp by allowing Ottawa a face-saving, scoreboard cleansing, but otherwise meaningless run. The pedal remained down.
Which is the point: You don’t get to be to the level of consistent excellence Carleton has by picking and choosing when to play your best or coach your hardest. It’s how you do it all the time.
It’s what Vic Raso signed up for when he transferred from McMaster to Carleton to play his final two seasons, each ending with him as national champion. He came for the Smart snarl, but has been changed because the man doesn’t end at a curled lip.
“The guy you see you on the bench is this mean guy who’s screaming and yelling all the time,” said Raso, a coach’s son glowing with a gold medal around his neck, posing for pictures with family on the floor of Mattamy Athletic Centre. “But it’s because our relationships are so strong that it’s okay. We’ve made a decision together to be the best we can be and he’s going to help us get there. If he yells at you there’s a point to it. He wants us to get better.
“These have been the best two years of my life. I can’t say enough about what Dave had done for me,” said Raso, who is working towards an MBA. “Not just on the basketball court and what I’ve learned, but off the court. He’s one of the best people as well. He’s awesome. Me and him have gotten pretty close, I just love the guy.”
Smart’s influence has been felt on CIS basketball, which is significant because no matter how many of Canadians head south to test themselves in D1, many, many more will play the most important basketball of their lives in Canada at the university level. His success and his approach have forced other schools to raise their level and the immediate result is that the OUA is suddenly the best league in the country (Ryerson, the hosts, won the bronze medal). Other leagues are under pressure to keep up.
“The Carleton factor pushes us to be at that level,” Windsor Lancers coach Chris Oliver, who lost in the quarter-finals at the Final 8 but can take some solace in being the only team to beat both Carleton and Ottawa this year. “I don’t know if this is a consistent thing over time, but this year it’s been a wonderful thing that’s happened.”
The level is extraordinarily high, given the limitations of the CIS, where full athletic scholarships aren’t available and won’t likely be any time soon. Carleton routinely wins against visiting NCAA teams, even those bound for the NCAA tournament. Phil Scrubb averaged 25 points and six assists against D1 teams this year. His brother racked up 20 points and 12 rebounds.
So when Canada is getting all March Madness mad, heed Smart’s words: the best here can compete with the best Canadians there.
“There’s no [Canadian] NCAA kid better than Tommy or Phil,” said Smart. “I’m not saying they’re better than those guys but they’re in the same league.”
The beauty of it is that they got that way by staying here and working on their games in an environment where the best was demanded of them. They are better players because they stayed here. They have a legitimate chance to play at the highest levels in Europe, if not in the NBA.
The natural question as the Ravens dynasty heads into the middle of its second decade is how long they can keep it up?
The Scrubb brothers and Raso have completed their eligibility and even a program like Carleton should stagger after losing three starters, two of whom are the best two players in the country now and on the shortlist of best ever.
Smart sounds undaunted. He rebuffed a suggestion that this might be the time for him to look at opportunities in the U.S. himself. He spent most of the post-game celebration herding his young kids around the floor. Ottawa is where he wants to raise them, he says, so he plans on staying.
Besides, some guys like building things.
“It’s part of the fun of it,” says Smart.
The Ravens have here before, back when Smart’s nephews and program cornerstones, Rob and Mike Smart, moved on or when five-time CIS champion Osvaldo Jeanty graduated or CIS player-of-the-year Aaron Doornekamp finished up.
The program kept going.
“It’s a credit to the culture that we have at Carleton,” Raso said. “You’re held to the highest expectations every day. Dave holds us to that, we hold each other to that and when you do that and you have talent, good things are going to happen. Dave brings in the talent and the culture doesn’t change. It’s a great thing to be a part of. “
And worth celebrating.