sahayman@watcgl.UUCP (Steve Hayman) (03/07/84)
Here are the final Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union mens basketball rankings together with the pairings for the 4 regionals leading up to the Final Four in Halifax March 15-17. #1 - Victoria Vikings (These guys are invincible, it seems) 2 - York Yeomen (One of the great playoff choking teams of all time) 3 - St. Mary's Huskies (Strangest mascot in Canada. Lump of purple Jello) 4 - Waterloo Warriors (Best band and fans anywhere) 5 - Brandon Bobcats 11 - U. of Prince Edward Island Panthers 6 - Western Mustangs 12 - Brock Badgers 7 - Lethbridge Pronghorns 13 - McGill Redmen 8 - Calgary Dinosaurs 14 - Ottawa GeeGees 9 - Winnipeg Wesmen 15 - Dalhousie Tigers 10 - St Francis Xavier X-Men 16 - U of New Brunswick Regional Pairings - March 8,9,10 West Regional at Calgary: Victoria vs Dalhousie Calgary vs Winnipeg Midwest Regional at Waterloo: Western vs UPEI Waterloo vs McGill Mideast Regional at Ottawa: York vs St Francis Xavier Brandon vs Ottawa East Regional at Fredericton: St Mary's vs Brock New Brunswick vs Lethbridge Some thoughts - UPEI is the surprise team of the final 16. A week ago no one thought they were worth getting excited about, but they knocked off Acadia in an AUAA semifinal and played even with St Mary's in the AUAA final. It's been a while since the Panthers were ranked. York (#2) got shafted a bit by the selection process. They'll have to get by #5 Brandon in their regional and they probably weren't expecting to run into anyone higher than about 7. Waterloo's regional is ideally set up to feature a rematch of the recent division final between Waterloo and Western, won by Western in triple overtime. The Warriors should have their collective acts together this time and will be helped enormously by the presence of a very vocal home crowd. Western lost to York last Saturday by 18 points but still moved up from #8 to #6. Waterloo didn't play last week but moved to #4 from #5. This makes me think that the regionals were set up before the rankings were determined....but clearly some teams don't belong in the same league as Vic, York, St Mary's and Waterloo. Victoria just gets better and better. The nucleus of their team is members of the Canadian national team, which beat the USA last year at the World University Games. Nobody wants to play Vic. Except in the final. Greatest potential for upsets - Brandon could (and I hope they do) knock off York in the Mideast, PEI could surprise Western and UNB might shade Lethbridge, but the final four should be the top 4. This is the first year the CIAU has gone with 4 regionals and it will be interesting to see what develops. Not everyone is thrilled with this structure. How's that for a change. No mention of Purdue or Indiana anywhere. Steve (Waaaaaaaa-riors! Fork York!) Hayman University of Waterloo Warriors Band "One of the Bands in Canada" watmath!watcgl!sahayman