Ravens close in on U Sports history
Young squad will take its best shot at winning eighth straight national title
Dave Smart walked up to the podium earlier this week at the Scotiabank Centre and accepted his ninth U Sports coach-of-theyear award.
One day, that award may very well be named after him because of what he has accomplished as head coach of the Carleton Ravens since he took over the program in 1999.
It’s incredible. It’s something sports fans only get to see once a generation.
So many fans of this era are obsessed with team dynasties. There’s often a debate over what can be considered a sports dynasty.
There’s no questioning the Ravens’ dynasty, which may sit alone among all of Canadian university sports.
The only question still remaining is if they can build on that dynasty and make even more history.
This weekend, Carleton is aiming to set a Canadian university record with its eighth consecutive national championship and the program’s 14th in the last 16 years.
Carleton has dominated this tournament year in and year out, but Smart never takes these opportunities for granted.
Some years, the Ravens are so strong, so deep with talent and experience it’s almost a foregone conclusion they’re winning another national championship.
But this year what they’ve accomplished as a team to reach this point may be even more impressive.
“Going into this year, I honestly thought it might be a bit of a rebuilding year,” Smart said.
“We’re a real young team. I knew we had talent, but you never know how a lack of experience responds. We’ve still got a group of games ahead, where that lack of experience needs to respond. Every step you take, experience comes into play more and more.
“The teams of the past have had a lot of success, and it’s no different than our other teams. These kids play hard, but we make a lot more mistakes.”
Carleton rarely loses. In the last 10 years, the Ravens have compiled a 203-7 record in regular season play. They were 23-0 this season and won another Ontario University Athletics championship.
You might think, ho-hum, another dominant season. But this year the Ravens have been pushed and tested, and they’ve continued to find ways to keep winning.
When you win as much as Carleton does, there are standards and expectations, and this younger version of the Ravens have handled those pressures well.
In the tournament opener on Thursday night, the Ravens were pushed hard by the No. 8 seed Acadia Axemen. It took a big run in the fourth quarter to finally break the game open.
When they face the Ryerson Rams on Saturday in the U Sports Final 8 semifinal (5 p.m. ET), they will be pushed even harder.
Carleton is led by second-team all-Canadian Eddie Ekiyor, who scored 25 points in the win over the Axemen, along with third-year guard Yasiin Joseph, fifth-year centre Cam Smythe and third-year guard Munis Tutu.
Many of Carleton’s younger players are learning that winning culture on the fly and they ’ve handled the immense pressure to win well.
“We’re starting two second-year and two third-year guys and one third-year guy has only played one year for us. We’re incredibly young,” Smart said.
“What they’ve accomplished is quite impressive for their youth and I don’t think it gets appreciated as much as it should if they weren’t following the Scrubbs (Phil and Thomas), Kaza Kajami Keane and Connor Wood.
Smart isn’t about to rank his national championship wins in an order of which is most impressive, but if the Ravens are to win their eighth straight title and make history — it would be fair to say this may be one of Carleton’s toughest and most impressive championship runs.
Semifinalists Ryerson, Calgary and McGill are all very experienced. They have experience playing big games and playing against Carleton in this tournament before. No doubt they ’d love to be the school that ends Carleton’s run. But will they? Carleton faced a tough test in Acadia in the tournament opener and it’s only going to get tougher for the Ravens from here.
So far, this young team has found ways to battle through their inexperience. Will they continue to do it as the stakes get higher at the national championship?
“There’s a good chance we could lose this weekend. There are so many experienced teams in this tournament. But I know the kids are going to play as hard as they can,” Smart said.
“We’re the No. 1 seed in this tournament, but the experience factor will come into play. We’re going to have to find a way to come through all of it when that adversity comes.”