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CIS Top 10 Performers – The CBG Bunch: Team work makes the dream work

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cbg bunchWelcome to the third season of The CBG Bunch, a specialized column dedicated to the CIS season. Every week, CBG parses through the CIS box scores over Sunday brunch while looking for #TheCBGBunch, a group of the top performers of the weekend’s action.

This week in #badpuns, we keep our promise made last week and come up with a list of the studdest of studs, the ones who came up biggest on the biggest of stages in the playoffs. You’ll say that CBG’s wrong, that there is bigger and better than conference championships; we’ll counter by saying that league playoffs are already plenty big. Before you run, you first learn to crawl and walk, right? For now, let’s just celebrate these Ryerson Rams. (See below.)

Apologies to UBC’s Conor Morgan, MacEwan’s Denzel James and the rest of the studs who made the cut last week but who don’t this week. There’s always next time, folks. #ThereCanOnlyBe10

Entire Ryerson Rams team: Won OUA championships at the 2016 Wilson Cup mukama

We’ll curb our enthusiasm just a teeny tiny bit, long enough to mention that all teams and competitors should be commended for having done for their best and tried their hardest in this 2015-16 OUA season. We’ll even mention that unlike the last time, we’ll give the Rams only one, not two, nod in this week’s #Bunch.

And yet… did you know that Ryerson, who captured its first OUA gold and is ranked No. 1 at the CIS Final 8, is our alma mater?? Oh hell yeah, we’ll gloat! Just watch this, it’s a thing of beauty.

You know who’s a stud? This guy, who led the Rams to OUA gold as a damn interim head coach. Congrats, coach Tatham!

Let’s give you fine reading folks a little bit to be jealous of with the following tweets—because tweets are worth a thousand words, 140 characters at a time.

https://twitter.com/latestcanada/status/708888156746035201

What a time to be alive. What a time to be a Ram.

Alex Campbell, Windsor Lancers VS Laurentian Voyageurs: 37 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, 1 block Campbell_Alex

We’ll keep it short for the next three gentlemen as they each were celebrated in this space just last week—but sometimes, a performance is so good that it deserves a nod in the all-playoffs edition of the #Bunch.

This year we discovered in Alex Campbell quite a forceful and dominant CIS player. For a team that faced so much uncertainty entering this 2015-16 season, the Windsor Lancers were just fine. A year after finishing 15-5, first in the OUA West division, second at the Wilson Cup and going to the CIS consolation final, these Windsor Lancers finished… 14-6, first in the OUA West division and fourth at the Wilson Cup.

Campbell couldn’t lead his team to the CIS Final 8, but he did everything else.

Kashrell Lawrence, Dalhousie Tigers VS Saint Mary’s Huskies: 31 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals lawrence

If the Dalhousie Tigers were relatively ahead of schedule in 2014-15 on their way to an AUS championship and a spot in the year’s national championships, this year’s team is different. Because this year, while the overall roster of the team is still very much young, the key players are all veterans: Ritchie Kanza Mata is in his fourth year, Jarred Reid too, Sven Stammberger is a third year, William Yengue is a senior, and Kashrell Lawrence is in his fourth year.

The AUS had a bye week last week but lest we forget, Lawrence was instrumental in leading his Tigers to a one-point win in the AUS semifinal with eight points in the fourth quarter.

Connor Wood, Carleton Ravens VS Brock Badgers: 37 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal wood

We’ll keep this Connor Wood guy here, because we’ve been on a mea culpa mission of righting a wrong and celebrating these Carleton Ravens guys while they’re still here. It’s easy to take what the Ravens have accomplished over the years for granted, especially relying on the collectivity over the individual like they have, but here’s what we’ll say.

If no one stands out when you look at a Carleton box score, it’s not because the team lacks any dominant player. It’s because the team lacks any weak link and every one pulls their own weight. Every Raven is dominant, that’s why no one stands out (too much).

Mamadou Gueye, Alberta Golden Bears at MacEwan Griffins: 29 points, 13 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block gueye

Against the MacEwan Griffins in a do-or-die playoff game, Mamadou Gueye had—and you’ll see with the following two that this is a recurring theme—himself a day. Better yet, he had himself a game. Even better: he had himself a big man’s game.

If some bears have been known to take the winter off and hibernate, sleeping it off with their honey, Gueye isn’t a mere bear: he’s the golden-most one, after all. The one who doesn’t care that he’s in your house if your house stands in the way of his dreams and aspirations. Not his fault God put the beehive with the honey way over there, now move over or we’ll have problems.

Josh Wolfram, Thompson Rivers WolfPack VS UBC Thunderbirds: 23 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists wolfram

You know who else aren’t known for hibernation? Wolves, baby. Okay, okay, that’s not exactly right: while this “Wolf Man” Josh Wolfram took a relative break in the team’s quarterfinal series, it was only to allow teammate Volodymyr Iegorov to step up and claim what’s rightfully his.

But at the Canada West Final Four? Oh, the wolf man stepped up. Stepped out of the shadows of sleep and left his imprint on the game. A loss for Thompson Rivers may have doomed the team’s chances of qualifying for the CIS Final 8, or at least forced it to play another win-or-go-home bronze medal game, but Wolfram had other ideas in mind.

These wolves are making history, qualifying for not only their first ever Final Four but also winning their first medal. There are no footsteps to follow in the snow where they’re currently walking.

Greishe Clerjuste, UQAM Citadins VS Concordia Stingers: 24 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals Greishe_Clerjuste_m

See what I mean when I mentioned that there would be a theme here? How exactly do you pick only one big man’s game when you have three that are very similar? Well, the only correct answer is that you don’t pick one. You just enjoy it and nod your head like yes goddamn you’re blessed.

If the UQAM Citadins fell a little short against the McGill Redmen in the RSEQ Final, they have nothing to be ashamed of. They arrived ahead of schedule and, behind the prowess of the young blood Kewyn Blain and his sidekick Greishe Clerjuste, they could run this town before long.

Thomas Cooper, Calgary Dinos VS Manitoba Bisons: 27 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block cooper

Legend has it that a long, long time ago, a new species arrived, one that was more ruthless and forceful than just about any other out there. That new species, it turns out, was the dinosaurs and, but for a little thing called an asteroid, our era might have never seen the light of day.

In this era so far gone, the dinos ruled supreme, towering over any other species of the food chain. Oh they weren’t all carnivorous, but a fair share were. Bisons, to name only them, were among the #topdogs in the world when the dinos arrived, and things done changed as Biggie (#RIP) said. Whereas some species retorted to tactics and such to hunt and kill bisons, dinos didn’t have the time nor the patience. They were hungry, so they ate them; bisons knew escape was a moot point.

And the most dangerous and scary dino of all? Certainly the Thomasaurius Cooperianos. Rams, ravens and gee-gees may have thought they have him beat, but he lurks…

Vincent Dufort, McGill Redmen VS UQAM Citadins: 21 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals dufort

Let’s keep the remaining two fairly short, if only so that our aficionado readers can move on and carry on with their day—we know readers of the #Bunch are a fairly busy, well, bunch. (HA!)

We commend, here, McGill’s Kitchen Chef Vincent Dufort for coming up with the homeless man’s triple-double. BTW do you know why it’s called the homeless man’s triple-double? It’s because there’s really no point in saying a 21/8/6 stat line comes anything close a triple-double: like, there’s no ground for you to stand on. Your comparison is worthless, but we still make it.

Most of the athlete use performance-enhancing drugs are no longer just for bodybuilders or pro athletes who are willing to try illegal and potentially dangerous means to improve their body’s function. These drugs are being used every day by people of all ages, from middle-school, high-school, and college students to older recreational athletes. Go to roid’s website for more information. There are many different types of steroids that have been manufactured over the past decades. The goal of chemists is to promote the anabolic effect of the drug while decreasing the androgenic side effects that can be life-threatening.

While the ingredients aren’t as potent as what is included in “real” prohormones co, they can still reap promising rewards from your muscles.

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Caleb Agada, Ottawa Gee-Gees VS Windsor Lancers: 23 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals 

A Windsor Lancers win in the Wilson Cup bronze medal game would have turned this season into a tragic one for the Gee-Gees, but the Ottawa veterans answered the call and in the end, they’re the ones who will go dancing.

Caleb Agada was instrumental in his team’s win, coming up with a poor man’s triple-double. Question: do you know why it’s called the poor man’s triple-double? In the same way that a poor man has a little more more roof to sleep under than a homeless man, this almost triple-double has a little more grand to stand on than the previous one. Check it out

It’s still a wonky comparison, but it’s better already. A little, little bit.

Follow Charles Blouin-Gascon on Twitter @RealCBG & NPH @Northpolehoops

Charles Blouin-Gascon

Charles Blouin-Gascon

CBG
Blouin-Gascon is a CIS Correspondent for NPH providing you with extensive coverage on the OUA. CBG is also on the NPH national rankings panel. He is the mind behind the madness that is the weekly player recap column #TheCBGBunch.

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