Thursday jot notes

It's 3:00am and I come to you in the middle of an all-night study session to check in.

Let's take a quick peak into our favorite teams and what they're up to this time of year. We'll quickly look into the SJHL, WHL, CIS and I've filled out my NCAA brackets.

-----

The Saskatoon Blades won a thriller infront of nearly 9,000 fans Wednesday night at the Credit Union Centre. Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant was in attendance and witnessed a shootout victory for the Blades over the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors.

The game meant nothing for the standings but boy was it good. The Blades will finish first in the conference and likely meet the Prince Albert Raiders in the first round of the playoffs.

-----

The final four remaining teams in the SJHL are preparing for conference finals which begin this weekend in both La Ronge and Yorkton. The Ice Wolves host the Melfort Mustangs while the Terriers host the Kindersley Klippers. Games one and two in each series will go Friday and Saturday nights.

-----

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women's basketball team is in Windsor gering up for a run at a national championship. They'll open the tournament on Friday against the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks. With a 32-3 record, the Huskies enter the CIS final 8 championships ranked second in the country.

-----

Ok, so I filled out two brackets ahead of March Madness. The first bracket I filled out as soon as the seedings were released. It was based purely on gut feeling and nothing else. In that bracket I have Ohio St, Duke, Louisville and Kansas St. in the final four.

In bracket number two, I didn't take to many chances and have all four number one seeds - Duke, Ohio St., Kansas and Pittsburgh - making the final four.

I have seven first round upsets in my first bracket and eight in my second bracket. We'll see where the chips fall soon enough.

*** I should probably note that I always tank my NCAA bracket and this year I am not in any pool or playing for any money. Probably a smart idea.

Monday morning water cooler

We've got some ranting, some questions, and some observations this morning as we start another week so let's get right to it.

We'll start by checking in with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and this past weekend's CIS National Championship tournament.

The Huskies knocked off Dalhousie and moved onto face the Carleton Ravens in the semi-final. This was a re-match of last year's semi-final in which the Huskies won enroute to their first National Championship in team history.

This year's semi-final was slightly different as th

e Ravens came out on top ending the Huskies bid to repeat as champs.

I hate to be this guy but I have to agree with several people who felt the Huskies were given the short end of the stick on several calls in that game. I'm not one to complain about officiating but on more than one occasion there were some obvious blown calls.

Former Huskies' quarterback Laurence Nixon was very heated as one can tell from some of his messages posted on Twitter during the game. Here

are some examples:

This is a complete joke, #cis you're a joke, these refs are completely one sided, if you wanted Carleton to win another title, congrats

GET OFF YOUR KNEES REFS!! #CIS THIS IS A JOKE!!!! CALL IT BOTH WAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #BS #BSREFS #IHATECISREFS #HATE

THIS IS THE BIGGEST LOAD OF BS I HAVE EVER WHITNESSED!!#CIS IF YOU WANT TO CROWN CARLETON, CROWN EM!! THESE REFS ARE G

ABAGE #fixed #final8

There are more and from other people but you get the drift. If you watched the game you'll know how bad it was and what we're talking about. That said, the Ravens are a good team and played some good basketball. At times it seemed as though they couldn't miss and they're offensive rebounding was very good.

-----

Here's congratulations to TWU for their efforts

in picking up a CIS silver medal.

-----

Moving onto the upcoming women's basketball championships and for some reason the U of S Huskies will enter as the #2 seed even though they are the #1 team in Canada. Do you understand?

We'll do our best to follow the women as they look

for their first gold medal in team history.

-----

Here's a tweet posted by PGA tour player Graham Delaet of Weyburn:

Wake up this morning to a busted out window I'm my car and a missing ipod. This isn't supposed to happen in scottsdale.

-----

This Tweet caught my attention from Team Canada goaltender Sami Jo Small:

SamiJoSmall Sami Jo Small

Glad to hear Billy and the men's sledge team is ok over in Japan. 2-1 win over USA with an 'earthquake' timeout during the game!

Have you ever heard of that happening before?

-----

Are you tired of Charlie Sheen? I know many who are sick of hearing about him and plenty who can't get enough. I fall somewhere in the middle. Ya, I don't really need to hear anymore about his tailspin but I still love tuning into re-runs of Two and a Half Men.

-----

The news of former Rider Kitwana Jones signing in Montreal came quietly last week. Speaking of the Als, do you think Porter and Green will be effective in the CFL? My guess is no but Jim Popp continues to keep the Als at the top of the league and it's hard to question his decision making.

-----

We're full of Tweets today and here's another:

jenniferhedger Jennifer Hedger

Did Matt Schneider really just suggest they bring back clutching and grabbing to slow the game back down and therefore prevent head shots?

Agree with him?

-----

Have you heard anything about Google's new social network Circles? I heard it was set to launch any day or maybe has already. Some think it will rival Facebook. Hard to imagine anything doing that right now.

-----

The SJHL playoffs are rolling along and now it's down to four. The top two teams in each conference have advanced and now Melfort will play La Ronge while Yorkton will battle Kindersley to see who moves onto the league championship. Both those series should begin on Friday.

-----

The Saskatoon Blades clinched first place this past week and are rolling right along heading into playoffs.

Sticking with the WHL for a moment and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has had a great week as he passed the 100 point mark on the season.

-----

Congratulations to the Alberta Golden Bears on sweeping the Calgary Dinos in Canada West men's hockey final. Both the Dinos and Bears will now prepare to head to Fredericton for the University Cup next week.

-----

Congratulations to my sister and the Saskatoon Blues ringette team on capturing the gold medal at provincials in Regina over the weekend.

-----

Did you fill out your March Madness bracket yet? I'm working on mine today. Check out twitter to see who I pick to win it all.

-----

Checked out the movie Hall Pass with Owen Wilson last week at the Galaxy. I give it two thumbs waaay up. It had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. Delisle Rebels head coach Ken Buyers was spotted in theatre checking it out and he gives it rave reviews as well.

We try to head to a movie at least once a week and we've been doing a good job of going each and every week. Any suggestions on what to see this week? I still want to see Sanctum.

-----

I'm not going to touch on Japan too much because you must have been under a rock to miss any of it. Turn to CNN for ten minutes to get caught up or simply watch all the amazing footage on YouTube.

-----

One last question before I go. How often do you get your hair cut?

I struggle with the frequency of getting a trim. Typically I wait until it's way too long and keep putting it off. What is appropriate? Once every two weeks? Three weeks? A month? More?

-----

Ok, that's all for this morning. Enjoy the sun as much as you can this week!

dd

Sick of winter yet?

Ross, Bailey recognized by Canada West

Canada West announced its year end award winners and all-star selections earlier today and Huskies' forwards Kyle Ross and Andrew Bailey were named second team all-stars.

This is Ross' second all-star selection as he was named second team all-star in 2009.

Alberta's Derek Ryan was named Canada West MVP as well as the conference's scoring champion.

The release including all individual winners can be found HERE.

Wees gets 2 games

The league has handed Weyburn Red Wing's forward TJ Wees a 2 game suspension for his check from behind at the end of Saturday night's game in Kindersley. The suspension was announced late Monday night on the SJHL website.

March 7- SJHL suspends Weyburn Red Wing TJ Wees two games after he received a major penalty for an incident that caused an injury during a game against the Kindersley Klippers March 6.

Monday morning water cooler

Good morning! Today's column is going to be a little different than in the past but just for this week. I'm going to start with a couple items and I'm going to keep adding to it as the morning progresses. I was up most of the night so I need some rest in between and it should help to break up the morning.

What did you get up to on the weekend? Among other things I took in game two of the SJHL's Sherwood Conference semi-final series between the Weyburn Red Wings and the Kindersley Klippers at the Hanger in Kindersley on Saturday night.

If you haven't heard by now, the game turned ugly late in the third period. With Kindersley up 9-2 and a delayed penalty coming up to the Wings, TJ Wees hit Klipper forward Jesse Mysiorek hard into the boards from behind. Needless to say the kid didn't look to good trying to make his way back to the bench. Wees received 5 minutes for charging and a game misconduct. At this point no word on a suspension from the league but I would hope/expect 2 or 3 games would be fair.

Immediately following the ensuing whistle, the two teams exchanged in some stick swinging at the players benches. It was fairly ugly but luckily nobody was seriously hurt from it anyway.

Weyburn head coach Dwight McMillan had an altercation with a Kindersley fan as he was making his way off of the bench and, yes, as per the rumors the police were involved but McMillan was not arrested as far as I know. Here is what we know from the league as of Sunday night:

March 6-SJHL suspends Weyburn Red Wing Lucas Ulmer and Kindersley Klipper Riley Down two games each after each were given a gross misconduct during a game in Kindersley March 5.

Those were automatic and are associated with the gross misconducts. We will likely see much stiffer penalties come down sometime today after the league reviews the game film (which I should add will be very telling). We'll see exactly how shorthanded both teams will be as the series shifts back to Weyburn for games three and four.

CKRM's Rod Pedersen has said this topic will be discussed this afternoon on the Sports Cage on CKRM. Check CKRM.com for times and tune in to likely hear some league reaction and more on what transpired.

-----

Here's a snapshot from Global Saskatoon's Kevin Jesus of the PAC prior to tip-off at the Canada West women's basketball championship Saturday. Kevin posted this picture to Twitter and I have to say that it's great to see the place packed. I think it should be packed every weekend with the basketball programs at the top of the country.

Congratulations to the women on winning the CW championship beating the Regina Cougars. The girls will be looking to improve on last year's bronze medal performance when they head to nationals.

The men will also be heading to nationals looking to defend their championship. This time, however, they will not be going in as Canada West champs after losing to UBC in the gold medal match. On the bright side they can soon forget about that loss if they win another national championship.

-----

The Huskies men's hockey team returned hom in the early morning hours from Calgary after their 4-1 loss in game three of their CW semi-final series. The Huskies had hopes of heading to nationals but fell just short. The story is in the post below. Don't worry, they're set up to be real good for the next few years.

-----

Congrats are also in order for Huskies' football players Jade Etienne, Braeden George, and Peter Thiel for their job in this past weekend's CFL Evaluation camp held in Toronto. Their testing results are two posts below.

Here's hoping each improved their draft stock ahead of the May 8th Canadian draft.

-----

Missed out on going to the movie 'Hall Pass' with Owen Wilson this past week. I'm hoping to hit it up on Tuesday. Is it any good?

-----

Thinking out loud: Has anybody else been putting in the office/living room/basement? Just me?

-----

Stay tuned there's more to come!

dd

Huskies' season ends in Calgary

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies saw their season come to an end Sunday night after a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Dinos in the third and deciding game of their Canada West semi-final playoff series.

For the second straight season the Huskies exit the Canada West playoffs in the semi-final. A year ago it was the Manitoba Bisons knocking off the hockey Dogs in three games and this year it's the Dinos.

The Huskies' season was up and down. The team got off to a so-so start taking an 8-6 record into the break but were hot out of the gate in 2011 going 8-1 in their first nine games to start the new year. New Christmas additions Matt Delahey and Derek Hulak appeared to fit into the line-up perfectly and the team was cruising. Their hot play had many in the conference picking the Huskies as the team to beat down the stretch.

The Huskies' five game winning streak was met by disaster. The team suffered three straight losses and only one win in their last five games heading into the post season as they fell from second to third in the Canada West standing losing home ice advantage in the process.

Although the Huskies won three of four meetings with Calgary during the regular season it was the Dinos who took two of three when it mattered most.

"In Canada West, when you only get a three game series, you don't have a lot of time to recover from things," commented Huskies' second year forward Brennan Bosch. "That first game I thought we played a real strong second period and were all over them and kind of took the game away and then we just had a little let down for maybe a couple of minutes and they kind of buried us. If we could have hung on and (won) that (first game) I think that would have been a big turning point in the series and in a quick series those things are really important."

Calgary took game one of the series on Mar. 4 by a score of 4-2 scoring three goals in 1:29 midway through the third period to take a quick 1-0 series lead. The Huskies would bounce back with a 3-2 win in game two on Mar. 5 before dropping the third and deciding game a night later to end their season.

The Huskies boast a strong group of returning players heading into next season including the teams top five leading scorers from this season. The team's top line should remain intact with Steven DaSilva, Kyle Bortis and captain Kyle Ross all eligible to return to the team in the fall.

Saying goodbye will be fifth year forward Jason Wagar. While Wagar is the Huskies' only fifth year player, it is expected that both forward Steven Gillen and defenceman Matt Swaby won't be back next year either as the two are set to graduate from the U of S this spring. Swaby and Gillen aside, only Ross and defenceman Jesse Zetariuk will be in their final year of eligibility next season giving the Huskies a very bright future looking forward.

"We've had a lot of the same guys for the last two years," noted Bosch, "and we've had pretty disappointing ends (to our season) the last two years where we felt we had teams that definitely could do some damage and we just haven't got it done so we just have to realize that it takes a lot and it's pretty tough to win in the playoffs.

"I think it starts in the regular season. You can't let games slip and you have to situate yourself in the best spot possible."

Head coach Dave Adolph has positioned this team to contend for the next several years and with the University of Saskatchewan hosting the University Cup in 2013 and 2014 this team has the talent to make a serious run at a championship the next three seasons and beyond.

A total of 15 players from this year's roster will still be eligible to return when the Huskies' host the second of two University Cups in 2014 including both goaltenders David Reekie and Ryan Holfeld.

For the present day Huskies it will be a summer wondering what could have been but also one of optimism thinking about what this team could accomplish 2011-2012 with such a large core of the team returning in the fall.

"It's pretty tough to pin point (what went wrong). You knew the guys wanted it this year after the way it ended last year but we've got to find an extra little effort or (some) timely goals to get us past this point that we're struggling with right now."

Huskies' results from CFL E-camp

Three University of Saskatchewan Huskies took part in the CFL Evaluation Camp over the weekend in Toronto. Receiver Jade Etienne and Braeden George, and linebacker Peter Thiel were among 53 football players who took part in the three day camp.

A player's draft stock and either rise or fall at the E-camp and Friday's interview portion and Sunday's on-field play can sometimes be the biggest indication of a player's true ability but the scouts can't ignore Saturday's testing results either. So, today we recap how the three Huskies faired in their individual tests.

Jade Etienne - Receiver (rank among position in brackets)

Bench press - 8 reps (8th)

40 yard dash - 4.66 (5th)

Vertical jump - 33" (7th)

Broad jump - 9'11" (6th)

Shuttle - 4.35 (t-6th)

3-cone drill - 7.19 (8th)

Braeden George - Receiver

Bench press - 17 (3rd)

40 yard dash - 4.88 (9th)

Vertical jump - 28.5" (9th)

Broad jump - 8'8.5" (9th)

Shuttle - 4.35 (t-6th)

3-cone drill - 7.09 - (6th)

Peter Thiel - Linebacker

Bench press - 18 (2nd)

40 yard dash - 4.90 (2nd)

Vertical jump - 32" (t-2nd)

Broad jump - 9'2" (4th)

Shuttle - 4.18 (2nd)

3-cone drill - 6.91 (2nd)

Looking at the numbers it would appear as though Peter Thiel had an excellent day of testing and it appears as though he did. Here's hoping that all three impressed in their interviews and on the field on Sunday.

SJHL award winners

The SJHL has released the names of its year end award winners and La Ronge Ice Wolves forward Travis Eggum has been named Player of the Year.

Here is the full list:

Leading Scorer/Player of the Year: Travis Eggum

RBC Jr A Scholarship: Tanner McCall - Weyburn

Top Goaltender: Russell Abbott - Notre Dame

Most Valuable Player: Marc Andre-Carre - La Ronge

Top Defenceman: Blaine Tendler - Yorkton

Top Rookie: Eli Lichtenwald - Nipawin

For the full list including bios and the list of All-Star teams, click on the following link:

http://www.sjhl.ca/files/SJHLAWARDWINNERS1011.pdf

Three Huskies set for CFL E-camp

Darren Dupont

The Sheaf

Three draft-eligible members of the Saskatchewan Huskies football team will put their skills on display this weekend at the Canadian Football League Evaluation Camp held in Toronto from Mar. 4-6.

Receivers Jade Etienne and Braeden George along with linebacker Peter Thiel will represent the Huskies at the evaluation camp in front of CFL coaches, general managers, and scouts who will evaluate the prospects ahead of the 2011 Canadian Draft on Sunday, May 8.

Etienne is the highest rated of the three Huskies at number 15 on the recent list of top prospects published by the CFL’s Scouting Bureau published in December. Players at the camp will be trying to improve their stock ahead of the next top 15 prospects list which will be published in April prior to the draft.

Etienne is coming off a career year with the Huskies catching 28 balls for a league-high 721 yards and six touchdowns in seven regular season games earning him first-team all-Canadian honors.

Braeden George caught 26 passes for 270 yards and three touchdowns this past season for the Huskies. Last May, George shone as member of team West in the annual East-West Bowl leading all receivers with eight grabs for 132 yards and the teams lone touchdown in a 12-9 loss.

Peter Thiel, the third member of the Huskies invited to participate in the evaluation camp, is coming off a stellar season of his own. The third year Huskies linebacker was in on 31 tackles and recorded one quarterback sack through six games with the dogs.

Canada West will be well represented at the E-Camp as a total of twelve players from Canada West teams will be in Toronto looking to impress including three Calgary Dinos who are all ranked among the top 15 prospects by the CFL’s Scouting Bureau. Slotback Anthony Parker(ranked third), wideout Nathan Coehoorn (ranked seventh), and running back Matt Walter (ranked 14th) rank among the top prospects along with Alberta kicker Hugh O’Neill (ranked 11th).

Regina’s Marc Mueller is one of only two CIS quarterbacks who will make the trip to Toronto joining Ottawa pivot Brad Sinopoli. Last year three CIS quarterbacks were invited including current Toronto Argonaut Danny Brannagan of Queen’s.

Of the 53 participants attending the camp a whopping 83 percent will be Canadian Interuniversity Sport student-athletes.

The 2011 Evaluation Camp begins on Friday afternoon with player arrivals and team interviews. Strength and flexibility will be tested on Saturday at the Park Hyatt Toronto Hotel and the weekend will finish up on Sunday on the football field at Varsity Centre at the University of Toronto.