Preview: 2010 Subway AUS Men's Basketball Championship

Courtesy Atlantic University Sport

SYDNEY, NS - The top-seeded Cape Breton Capers and second seeded StFX X-Men will likely have the largest contingent of vocal fans this weekend as the 2010 Subway AUS men's basketball championship tips off at Centre 200 in Sydney, NS.

Historically, the AUS men's basketball championship tournament has been hosted in Halifax for the past 28 years, 24 of those at the Halifax Metro Centre however, due to scheduling conflicts on four occasions, the event has been hosted at the Halifax Forum (1987, 1989, 1995 and 2003). The last time the Men's Basketball Championship was contested outside Halifax was March of 1981, when the tournament was held at the University of New Brunswick where StFX defeated Acadia by a score of 96-95 in overtime.

The 2010 championship gets underway Friday evening at Centre 200 with the quarter-final round and concludes Sunday at 2pm with the AUS Championship final.

EastLink TV will have live broadcasts of both semifinal duels and as well as Sunday's final. The broadcasts will also be available online at www.eastlink.ca/eltv/ELTV_WebCasting/.

Seeded No. 1 for the first time since 2006-07 are the hometown Cape Breton Capers (18-2). Also travelling to Sydney will be the No. 2 seeded StFX X-Men (18-2), No. 3 Saint Mary's Huskies (14-6), No. 4 Dalhousie Tigers (12-8), No. 5 Acadia Axemen (9-11) and No. 6 UPEI Panthers (4-16).

These same six teams have qualified for the AUS championship in each of the previous four seasons, with UNB and Memorial failing to finish in the top six during the regular season in each of those years.

Friday's opening round will see Acadia take on defending champion Dalhousie at 6:00pm in the opening quarter-final while UPEI will battle Saint Mary's at 8:15pm in the second game of the doubleheader.

Top seed Cape Breton, ranked No. 3 in the final CIS Top 10 rankings released this week, awaits the winner of the Acadia / UPEI game. StFX, who fell to No. 4 in the rankings following a season-ending loss to the Saint Mary's Huskies will play the winner of the SMU / UPEI quarter-final.

No team in recent years has had a stranglehold on The Read Cup, with a different school winning the AUS banner in each of the past four years. The last team to repeat as Atlantic conference champions were the StFX X-Men to brought the AUS title back to Antigonish three years in a row from 2003-04 to 2005-06.

Quarter-final #1: Dalhousie vs. Acadia

The Tigers will face the Acadia Axemen in the post-season for the fourth time in as many years. They defeated the Axemen 88-85 in quarter-final action last year, lost 83-75 to Acadia in 2008 (the 2008 Axemen went on to defeat the Carleton Ravens in the CIS semifinal in double overtime and lose to Brock in the CIS final), and in 2007 Acadia defeated Dalhousie 77-66 in the AUS quarter-final.

Defending champion Dalhousie took home their second ever AUS championship last year (1996 & 2009) at the Halifax Metro Centre after winning three games in three days, including a thrilling one-point semifinal victory over the Cape Breton Capers and a 72-60 triumph over StFX in the final.

The two squads faced each other four times in the 2009-10 regular season, with each Dalhousie taking three of the four contests. The Axemen picked up their lone win over the Tigers in the final regular season game of the season last weekend, winning 68-62 at home.

Fourth year guard Simon Farine (Toronto, ON) led the Tigers in scoring once again this season with and average of 21.8 points per game. Farine, named the Alexander Keith's MVP of the championship last season, also led Dalhousie in assists (5.40 per game) and steals (2.20 per game). Fourth year forward Joseph Schow (Medicine Hat, AB) was the squad's top rebounder (7.5 per game) and also chipped in 14.9 points per game.

Also keep an eye on fifth year guard Andrew Sullivan, who ends his five-year career as a Tiger with 391 career assists, the second most in the history of the Dalhousie program (Shawn Mantley had 407 assists during his five-year career from 1989-90 to 1993-94). Andrew's 391 assists rank 14th all-time in AUS history.

For the Axemen, watch for 2008-09 AUS Rookie of the Year Casey Fox and fifth year forward Alexander Traikov to lead the way.

Fox, a native of Halifax, NS, led the team with 15.4 points per game during his sophomore season, while Traikov, the 2008-09 AUS Student-Athlete and Community Service Award winner, contributed 14.7 points per game and grabbed 7.8 rebounds per game.

Justin Boutilier, a 6'5" sophomore forward from Niagara Falls, ON, also chipped in 10.5 points per game while the rookie duo of Owen Klassen and Anthony Sears each made major contributions in their freshman seasons with 10.5 and 13.7 points per game respectively. Klassen was also the top rebounder among first year players with 7.6 boards per game.

Quarter-final #2: Saint Mary's vs. UPEI

Saint Mary's and UPEI are also familiar foes as they square off in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth straight year. All three previous encounters at the Halifax Metro Centre have been close affairs with the Huskies winning the match-up in 2007 (67-64) and 2008 (65-63), and the Panthers ending SMU's season last year with a 79-70 victory.

In their four regular season battles this year, Saint Mary's won each of the four games by at least a 10-point margin.

Saint Mary's head coach Ross Quackenbush relies heavily on the high-scoring duo of Joey Haywood and Mark McLaughlin who finished first and second, respectively, in AUS minutes played this season. Haywood, a third year guard from Vancouver, BC, led the conference in scoring with 24.4 points per game and his 488 total points scored this season are the seventh highest single-season total in league history. Will Njoku holds the SMU single season record of 505 which he set in 1992-93.

McLaughlin, a native of Dartmouth, NS, who has played in every game during his five-year tenure with the Huskies, wraps up his career with 1603 career points. He is just the seventh player is Atlantic conference history to score over 1600 career points, ranking him third in school history behind former SMU greats Brian Thompson (1679 points from 1987-88 to 1991-92) and Njoku (1662 points from 1990-91 to 1993-94). This year, Mark averaged 17.3 points per game, ranked third in AUS free-throw percentage (84.6 per cent) and fourth in AUS three-pointers made 47). His 363 career free-throws made and 158 career three-pointers made are also new school records at Saint Mary's. McLaughlin was the tournament MVP of the 2008 championship won by the Huskies two years ago in Halifax.

Also keep an eye on SMU's Ikeobi Uchegbu, the MVP of the Rod Shoveller tournament held at Dalhousie earlier this year. Uchegbu was the Huskies' top rebounder this season with 7.6 per game and also averaged 11.3 points per game.

While the UPEI squad finished in sixth place with a 4-16 record, the Panthers shouldn't be taken lightly. UPEI finished in the top 10 nationally in several categories, including: FG Attempts (5th), FG Made (6th), 3PT % (9th), Assists (9th), FG % (10th), and Points (10th). Four Panthers finished in the top 20 in AUS conference scoring this season with in Manock Lual, Matt Fennell, Nick Toews and Terrence Brown all averaging over 12 points per game.

Lual, a third year forward and co-captain from Ottawa, ON, also led the league in rebounding with 9.3 per game. Toews, a fifth year guard from Vancouver, BC, established a new UPEI record for three-pointers made in a game with nine last season at Acadia, while Fenell's 60 three-point field goals made this season were just two shy of the UPEI record set in 1998-99 by former Panther Scott Morisson.

Lastly, rookie Terrence Brown, a 6'1" guard from the Bahamas, averaged 12.3 points per game and shot 39.4 percent from 3-point land in just over 24 minutes per game while recovering from a broken hand.

The road doesn't get any easier for the quarter-final winners as the No. 1 seeded Cape Breton Capers and No. 2 seeded StFX await them in Saturday's semifinals.

The Capers, who haven't won the AUS banner since the 1994-95 season, boast the highest scoring team in CIS, averaging 95.1 points per game. Capers guard Jimmy Dorsey, in his first year with the program, led the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game and led the AUS in steals with 3.11 per game. Paris Carter, a fourth year player from Baltimore, MD, who played previously at New Mexico State University, finished second in team scoring this season with an average of 12.9 points per game.

Reigning AUS Defensive Player of the Year Phillip Nkrumah had another solid season for the Capers, finishing third in AUS rebounding (8.1 per game) and third in steals (2.55 per game), while chipping in with 11.7 points per game.

CBU hasn't won an AUS playoff game since the 2005-06 season, falling to the Dalhousie Tigers the past two years and losing to Saint Mary's in the 2006-07 semifinals.

The X-Men, ranked No. 4 in CIS, enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed and have received a bye into the semi-finals where they await the winner of the Saint Mary's and UPEI quarter-final game for their opponent.

The X-Men own a 1-1 conference record and 3-2 overall record against the Huskies this season. The Huskies recently handed StFX only their second regular season loss this past Friday at StFX, knocking them off 87-79. In the other regular season meeting, the X-Men easily handled the Huskies 95-59 in Halifax on Jan. 27th.

In exhibition play, the X-Men posted two wins over Saint Mary's, an 82-79 win in Halifax on Nov. 1st as well as an 82-71 win in Antigonish on Oct. 17th in the championship game of the StFX Invitational Tournament. The Huskies beat the X-Men in the championship game of the Dalhousie Rod Shoveller Invitational by a 71-66 margin.

The X-Men posted a 2-0 record over the UPEI Panthers this season, although both wins were high scoring affairs with close margins of victory. StFX had a 94-83 win in Charlottetown on Nov. 6th and a 91-85 win in Antigonish on Jan. 31st. The two teams did not meet in exhibition play.

The StFX squad will be looking to redeem their 72-60 loss in last year’s AUS final to the Dalhousie Tigers. The last time the X-Men won the AUS banner was the 2005-06 season. They have 12 total conference championship titles to their credit.

Leading scorers for StFX this season were reigning AUS MVP Christian Upshaw (19.5 points per game), Charlie Spurr (12.1 points per game) and Jeremy Dunn (10.7 points per game). Upshaw, a native of Halifax, NS, also led the conference in assists (6.00 per game). Alberto Rodriguez, a 6'9" forward from Havana, Cuba, was the team's top rebounder this year with 6.3 rebounds per game.

Regardless of the opponents, the AUS quarter-finals, semifinals and final match-ups should each prove to be exciting affairs.

Six teams. One weekend. One Champion.

2010 SUBWAY AUS MEN's BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
At Centre 200

Friday, March 12
Quarter-final #1: No. 4 Dalhousie vs. No. 5 Acadia, 6:00pm
Quarter-final #2: No. 3 Saint Mary’s vs. No. 6 UPEI, 8:15pm

Saturday, March 13
Semifinal #1: Winner QF #1 vs. No. 1 Cape Breton, 6:00pm (EastLink TV)
Semifinal #2: Winner QF #2 vs. No. 2 StFX, 8:15pm (EastLink TV)

Sunday, March 14
Championship Game: Semifinal Winners, 2:00pm (EastLink TV)

Note: The AUS Men's Basketball Major Award Winners and All-Stars will be announced Thursday, March 11, 2010.