Gaiters Back from Sask

Graham Shootout @ U of Saskatchewan

Thursday vs. Calgary

BU       25   10   32   20  -  87
UC       23   10   22   22  -  77

After losing 3 games in a row for the first time in 2 years it was nice to get a win. We played hard in this game and did some things well, but we still have a lot of work to do. Our freshmen are starting to contribute on a regular basis and that will be key to our success. Not having Jeremy the last couple of weekends (and likely not having him at all this season) has necessitated that our young guys assume a significant role earlier than we expected.

1st year guard Sage Holder

1st year guard Sage Holder stepped up scoring a team high 17 points while fellow freshmen and Dawson grad, Jaleel Webb, scored in double figures with 10. Big Mike had 17 in 15 minutes and Majid had 12 pts, 6 rebounds & 3 assists. Freshman Dave Belanger also had 9 points.





Friday vs. Saskatchewan

BU       20   17   11   27  -  75
US       19   14   21   27  -  81

This was an exciting game with 5 ties and 9 lead changes throughout. Sask is easily a Top Ten team and are lead by a trio of All Conference/All Canadian type players. We did a pretty good job on each

1st year forward Dave Belanger

of them until their 1st Team All Canadian & California import guard scored 10 points in the final 3 minutes to secure their win.

Defensively we were decent at times, but still lack the consistency we are going to need heading into

1st year wing Jaleel Webb

league play. Offensively we are starting to figure things out and had a season low 7 turnovers in this game...4 times less than we would have in our game the day after!

Offensively we had great balance with 5 guys in double figures and 1 with 9 points. Big Mike had 10 rebounds while Scott Ring had 4 assists to lead us in that category.

Sask ended the weekend 3-0 with a 12 point win over Toronto and a 25 pt win over Calgary.



Saturday vs. Toronto

BU       14   20   12   11  -  57
UT       20   13   16   16  -  65

Well this game was simply ugly...19 first half turnovers compared to 7 total the night before. We were playing without Scott Ring, who we sat out with a possible broken hand after the previous game, and Jona Bermillo who received a charley horse to start the 2nd quarter. We were without our starting and back up point guards, but freshman Kurt Caro came off the bench and played very well in their absence. In fact, we were down 30-16 when Kurt came in and by halftime we were up 34-33.

The game was tight from there. No team ever had more than a 3 point lead until the final minute. With the scored tied at 55 and 2 minutes to go we called a timeout. Our guys executed well out of the time out, made the proper read and we found ourselves with a wide open lay-up...that we missed! UofT responded with a pump fake 3 point shot at the end of the shot clock on the next possession which they made! We responded with 2 more consecutive possessions of good execution leading to missed layups. That was the game.

4th year captain, Matt McLean

Matt McLean was one of the few bright spots for us. He missed the last week with a back injury and I  tried to limit his minutes in the first 2 games because of that. He felt ready to do more and his energy and competitiveness brought us back in this game. He also drew 3 charges in a row in the final 5 minutes of the game. Not sure if I have ever seen that.

A disappointing finish to the weekend, but there were a lot of positives. The challenge has been trying to get into a regular playing rotation. All our injuries are making this difficult. In the Calgary & Sask games we were definitely making some head way there, but that changed on Sunday. Regardless, we have 2 weeks to get healthier and clean up some stuff from a technical perspective. We have faced some of the best teams in the CIS in the past 4 weekends. With the improvement I have seen in our team against top competition I really feel we have a lot of promise and expect that by the end of it we will be a better team overall than last year. The experience our returning guys bring and the rapid improvement of our freshmen are key to this.

The new photos you see on the site are courtesy of our bball alum Blair Shier.  Blair made the trip from Vancouver to Saskatoon this weekend and has been providing us with great photos for a few years now. Very much appreciated!

Alumni Game this Saturday!

As previously mentioned we will be playing our Alumni on Saturday. Originally the game was to be played on Saturday afternoon at 1 pm. However, for the first time since 1994 we will be hosting a home football playoff game! That is fantastic news and exciting for all of us at BU.

With that in mind, we have moved the basketball game to 10 AM. This will allow us to play the basketball game and head outside to tailgate for a bit before the football game.

We hope that those attending the football game may come a little early to catch some of the basketball. The Alumni's line-up has not been finalized. If you are an alum who is interested in playing and you have not contacted Damon Thomas-Anderson or Doug McCooeye please let me know. (rgilpin@ubishops.ca). If you are not interested in chasing the young guys up & down the court, then keep in mind we will have a mixed Alumni scrimmage in February which would be much more to the liking of most of us!

Gaiters Struggle @ House-Laughton

Friday vs. Victoria

BU          10   15   20   13  -  58

UVIC     20   22   19   19  -  80

UVIC is likely to be a top 5 team in the first set of TOP TEN rankings and we definitely were going to have our hands full either way as were playing without Jeremy and back up point guard Kurt Caro due to injury. We started the game with seven 1st quarter turnovers. UVIC is an excellent defensive team, but the majority of those were unforced and we helped dig ourselves a big hole early in the game. In addition to that, UVIC simply played harder and better than us. It was our least inspiring performance of the weekend.

To make matters worse we lost a 2nd starter to injury in the 1st quarter. Matt McLean injured his back and would be out the rest of the weekend. His status for this week in Saskatchewan is questionable.

Saturday vs. Carleton

BU     11   13   15   16  - 55

CU     30   27   17   13  - 87

Despite the score I was relatively pleased with our effort and some of the execution. Based on our performance the night before and the fact we were playing without 2 starters and our back up PG this could have been way worse. Often when you are down 33 at the half to Carleton you lose by 50 or more! They don't stop playing hard, ever. So, to outscore them in the second half was a small victory for us at this point.

Carleton schooled us in the 1st half though making 11 of 17 three point shots. Any mistake we made we paid for. Our guys did a good job of making adjustments in the 2nd half offensively and defensively though. With our injury and experience situation we are simply not ready to beat a team like Carleton right now. Regardless, I really liked how our guys competed the whole time.

Despite the disappointment of starting the season 2-4 I am not overly concerned. We are learning to deal with adversity and are maintaining our team chemistry. We are being tested in a variety of ways, but we have the right people on our team and the right athletes to be able to get through this.When the smoke finally clears I am confident we will be back to playing the way everyone expects us to be.

Big Mike led us with 20 pts, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks  & 3 steals. Might have been his best game as a Gaiter as it was against the best CIS competition.  Onnex added 10 points.

Sunday vs. Lakehead

BU     21   17   14   18  - 70

LU     13   15   24   26  - 78

We let one slip away here. We built an 18 point 2nd quarter lead before we squandered that away. To build that lead we executed well offensively and defensively. Lakehead has a couple of 7 footers, but our bigs were still able to score inside and we were able to get pretty much what we wanted. Then a couple of things changed: they went to a smaller line-up with a zone defense, we got into foul trouble which only magnified our lack of depth due to injuries.  We struggled after that and by the end of the 3rd quarter game was tied. In the 4th Lakehead was able to take control of the game in final couple of minutes. Without a doubt a disappointing loss, but Lakehead is not a bad team either. They are young in some areas, but they play hard and do not lack talent. This was a game that we will definitely learn a lot from and it will change our season for the better in the long run. Onnex led us with 18 points & 9 rebounds. Jona & Mike added 16 and 15 respectively while Majid contributed 10. This Wednesday we head to the Graham Shootout in Saskatoon to face Calgary, Saskatchewan and Toronto. So, our schedule does not get easier, but our guys would not want it any other way.  Should get easier the following week when we face our Alumni though. I hope! I will keep you posted.

Gaiters Go 2-1 at Tindall Classic

Friday vs. Ryerson

BU       17  13   14   26  -  70
RU       23  27   23   22  -  95

Ryerson is without a doubt one of the better teams in the CIS, but we were not ourselves in this game. We were overly concerned with Ryerson's strengths and not focused enough on what we do well. As the head coach I will take total responsibility for that. Regardless, a good lesson was learned and I am happy it was learned in the first game of the year and not the last!

Defensively we were one of the better teams in the CIS statistically last year. That was not apparent in this game as Ryerson shot 53% for the game and had their way with us. We did not test Ryerson in anyway and they pretty much controlled game from the 2nd quarter on.

Not a lot of highlights to report on with this game from a BU perspective. 4 of our starters combined to go 4-17 from the floor...not winning games that way! 5th year guard Onnex Blackwood had a solid game offensively scoring 15 while 2nd year guard Jona Bermillo had 13 off the bench. Our international addition, 6'11 Majid Naji from France, had 17 and showed flashes of what we can expect from him. Majid has not played in a year and is not exactly in game shape yet, but he is very talented.

Saturday vs. Queen's 

BU       19   14   20   27  -  80
QU       17   14   20   21  -  72

After a brief identity crisis in the Ryerson game we were able to get back to what made us successful last season...our defense. Queen's had made 16 of 31 three point shots the night before vs. Manitoba and we knew we had to defend the 3 point shot. Our guys were more disciplined defensively and played with more urgency as we held Queen's to 7 for 21 from the 3 pt line in this game. We completed our defensive effort by out-rebounding Queen's 50 to 31 and really controlling our defensive backboard.

Offensively we had moments where we looked good, but also had moments where we were turnover prone playing a little out of control. It's early October and we are anything but polished offensively right now. We did have good balance though with 4 guys in double figures. Jona Bermillo came off the bench to score 24 second half points as he carried us down the stretch from the point guard position after Scott Ring fouled out. Jona hit some clutch shots and made 15 of 17 free throws. After being a non-factor in the Ryerson game, 4th year post Mike Andrews reappeared with 15 points, 10 rebounds & 4 blocked shots. Onnex scored 14 and played quality defense while Majid continues to impress with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. 4th year forward Matt McLean led us in rebounding with 11 and has really improved his overall game this year. 5th year forward Jeremy Leonard-Smith has been battling injuries for the past few months and is nowhere close 100%. However, he provided a great spark and help set the tone defensively along with 4th year guard Scott Ring.

Sunday vs. Manitoba

BU       14   20   18   17  -  69
UM        7   13   11   21  -  52

After defending pretty well vs. a high powered offensive team like Queen's the night before we had some confidence back in our defense. We played just as hard on Sunday and were able to hold Manitoba to 31 points for the first 3 quarters of the game. Offensively we continued to struggle at times, but it was nice to have our defense to fall back on.

After building our lead to 26 or 27 in the 4th quarter things got sloppy and Manitoba was able to cut the lead to less than 20 late in the 4th quarter. Despite that, it was good to finish the weekend on a relatively high note. I would not say our guys were overjoyed with the first tournament. As Scott Ring said, it was decent.  I think we are excited about getting a couple of weeks of quality practice in before we head to Carleton to face 3 outstanding teams in Victoria, Carleton and Lakehead.

Big Mike & Majid led us in scoring with 14 & 12 respectively. We had 4 others with 8 or 9 points in another balanced effort.

As previously mentioned, we are at the House-Laughton Tournament hosted by Carleton October 18-20. I will send out more information early next week on that. Included in that will be info on a BU Alumni reception following the Friday night game vs. Victoria. You can find more info on the men's basketball page at www.gaiters.ca.

I will keep you posted! 

Gaiters Open CIS Season in Kingston

We open up our CIS non-conference schedule at the Tindall Classic at Queen's University. We will face some of the top teams in the country in October and few are better than our first opponent, the Ryerson Rams. I am not sure it gets any easier as we face Queen's and Manitoba as well this weekend.

We hope to build on a break out season last year and will rely on a core of veterans and very nice freshman class. It has been a challenging September as we have faced a multitude of injuries thus far. We might not be as far advanced as we would like at this point, but we have a great group of guys to work with and by November we should be a team to be reckoned with. You can read a little more about our team at Northpole Hoops: http://northpolehoops.com/2013/09/18/nph-cis-team-preview-bishops-gaiters/

I will get a weekend review out early next week. Hope to see a few alumni, family & friends at the games this weekend!

Friday October 4th

4pm Ryerson vs Bishop's

Saturday October 5th

8pm Queens  vs Bishop's  

Sunday October 6^th

12pm Bishop's vs Manitoba