'Twas The Night Before Tipoff

Yeah, yeah. I know the OUA completely dropped the ball on the basketball season by allowing two measly games to be played last week (Toronto 92, Ryerson 78 and York 106, Laurentian 97) but the season really gets underway Friday night with all 16 teams playing.

We at the Guelph Mercury already ran our season preview. And, in surfing the net, I see a few other newspapers gave their local teams some ink Thursday.

It seems the Windsor Lancers are reloading, not rebuilding as the cliche goes. They're going to have overcome the losses of Ryan Steer and Kevin Kloostra. I think having Greg Surmacz on the block helps, don't you? The 6-foot-8 centre received more votes as a pre-season all-star than any other player in the OUA.

"If the offence doesn't go through Greg, it should end up with Greg," Windsor coach Chris Oliver [told Mary Caton of the Windsor Star]. "He's our best matchup. Other teams have to do something to take Greg out of the game."

Way up in Thunder Bay, Kiraan Posey's the key to LU's success this season. Also, it seems Posey is poised to become Lakehead's all-time leading scorer. He needs five points to pass Dan Zapior's 2,339 points (conference, playoffs, exhibition included).

Posey was voted a first-team pre-season all-star by the OUA coaches.

In St. Catharines, the Brock Badgers are turning over a whole lot of roster. Gone from the defending national champs are Brad Rootes, Scott Murray, Mike Kemp, Rohan Steen and Dusty Bianchin. So, it's whole changes for the Badgers.

Bernie Puchalski of the St. Catharines Standard talks about point guard Joel Whitty from Ridley College and shooting guard Didi Mukendi from Denis Morris. But I'm telling you, do not for a second underestimate or forget about Owen White.

Ken Murray told me he likes his team. He's confident. Then again, when isn't he? He and I both picked his team to win the national championship last season. I'm not sure either of us will be making that bold statement this season, but Brock will be in the mix.

It's a massive youth movement at Queen's in Kingston. The Golden Gaels have plenty of new kids on the block. Ten players entering their first or second OUA season.

"I think we can be as successful as we were last year, and maybe more successful," said [head coach Rob] Smart. "It's hard to say how the other teams will shape up, but I think we're deeper than most teams and it's realistic that we can finish, second or third [in the OUA East] this year. We're still young, but we've got a lot of talent. And with some confidence, who knows what can happen."

He's right. The East Division isn't overly strong. Some coaches have told me bluntly "it's weak." There's Carleton, Ottawa and everyone else.

Comments

[Andrew Bucholtz]

Queen's will be interesting to watch this year. Smart's right on the depth and the weakness of the East, but their key factor in my mind is that many of their important players last year were rookies. This year, they've got a lot of skilled second-years, and the experience seems to have helped so far: the pre-season results were quite encouraging.