Day One at the Ontario basketball playoffs

Here we go, the first day of basketball, and lots of it at these provincial Quad-A high school senior boys' games. Yes, March Madness has come to Oshawa.

After three days of this, and I have already seen seven of nine games played at this fabulous facility, I won't want to see a basketball game for a long time. Trust me. And I'm only at one of four playoffs going on simultaneously across the province.

Whether you call it Durham College or the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, the place is huge and a great spot for basketball. Only one complaint, when officials blow the whistle in one gym, everyone tends to hesitate not knowing if it's in the game we're all watching.

Now, very important point. Yes, we were told the championship is Wednesday at 6 p.m. But organizers, convinced they had a great format, changed the time after coaches wanted a late start to the final. It's now at 8 p.m. Good luck fighting the traffic to get here. By the way, we weren't informed until Monday morning, and yes, the paper was already in your home, school or office.

Now to the hardwood, Pickering coach Mike Gordensky said he was worried about St. Thomas More of Hamilton. Despite a 13-point lead, Pickering saw it evaporate and the No. 12 school from Steeltown beat the No. 1 team 55-53. Yes, Pickering was without 6-foot-6 MiKyle McIntosh. Remember, he had the one game suspension for two technicals in the Durham region final that caused a stir with lots of people.

Hold on, this strange double-knockout playoff can still see Pickering win the gold medal — with four wins in two days. It'll be tough. Other upsets, well, if you call it that, No. 10 Beal of London beat No. 9 St. Michael's of Toronto 70-53 and the private school boys had a few words under their breath because one of their top players, George Mason, was ruled ineligible. He switched from Orillia and even his former school said the transfer was fine. No reason given, but a letter is apparently in the mail.

And No. 14 Notre Dame of Welland had a surprise for No. 8 St. Edmund Campion, a 51-44 win. The rest went according to plan, even though Eastern Commerce got an early scare trailing at halftime to Toronto's Pope John Paul II. So, here are the matchups for Tuesday. Win and move on. Lose and get an early start to the March Break.

Pickering plays Oakwood. Yes, I hear the ums and ahs. That winner will play the successor of the Richardson vs Campion game. Yes, more people think this will also be close.

St. Marguerite d'Youville plays St. Michael's and the winner will wait to play the survivor of the Pope John Paul II/Ross vs Mother Teresa playoff. Still with me?

Vaughan plays Bluevale and Eastern Commerce meets St. Anne. Both those winners meet in a quarterfinal. Beal plays Notre Dame and the other quarterfinal spot will be the winner of St. Thomas More versus St. Matthew/Nantyr Shores.

That's it for now.

Comments

[LOSSA fan]

Actually Dave, it's much easier to get out east for 8 p.m than 6 p.m. Good move on part of tournament officials.

[Paul Lawson]

Anyone but Eastern Commerce winning, please .

[Jim Maloney]

I am really disappointed in the Toronto Star for not naming the game officials who screwed things up in the LOSSA final. They also screwed things up for Pickering. Sure hope the officiating is better at the Ontario playoffs than what we saw in the LOSSA championship.

[David Grossman]

Just some updates from late Monday games.
Check my blog above and you'll see that St. Thomas More now plays Nantyr Shores - who sent St. Matthews packing with a 68-40 Monday night win.
Also Monday night, Pope John Paul II gets another shot at Toronto District Colleges league champion and rival Mother Teresa. Pope John Paul II, facing elimination, beat J.F. Ross of Guelph 64-57.
The matchups are now set.

[VanStone]

I think it is a real slap in the face for this young man George Mason.
Alright, so he switched schools from Orillia to a private school in Toronto.
Plays the season for his high school and then is told to sit at the OFSSAA playoffs. If what I read is correct about his former high school in Orillia supporting him, then someone please tell me - and George - why wasn't he allowed to play.

[Eddie The Hoop Fan]

What kind of surprised faces and excuses will be out there when a team not from the almighty city of Toronto wins the basketball championship. I will be rolling in laughter.

[Andy]

They should have this final on a Saturday and build an event around it but the people at OFSAA don't get it.

[Louis]

I have been a regular reader of your blogs and enjoy them very much. What I find is that people are getting caught up in the parity basketball stuff when what they should be examining is the sport is falling part. Fewer kids playing. Not enough qualified teachers to coach and a reluctance on the part of some schools to use community coaches.

[Pat]

I find it interesting from your story that Eastern Commerce could have played at Single-A but elected to play Quad-A. The people at Loyola in Oakville could have played Quad-A against the better teams and chose to go for a gold medal at Triple-A. Then you have the Double-A schools . It's a mess. Pick and choose time. Maybe give all the schools a medal or do the right thing - one Ontario championship and use the March Madness format with big and little schools.

[chris starkey]

To VanStone: the OFSAA transfer policy says that when you switch high schools, you are ineligible for OFSAA sports until proven eligible (there are about 20 different ways to become eligible). It doesn't matter if the former school supports the move.
If you don't qualify for OFSAA eligibility, your local Association (eg: TDCAA) might allow you to play, but you would not be able to play in the OFSAA tournament or any OFSAA-sanctioned events. My guess is that George knew at the beginning of the season that he would be ineligible for OFSAA.

[Geoff Sura]

Hey Dave where is your love for Sir Sandford Fleming? Despite your blog stating "likely won't happen because the GTA really doesn't have a school of less than 500 students that will walk away with the Single-A classification title" and "gold medal possibilities in three of the four", Fleming has quietly made its way to the A semi-finals tomorrow by decisively winning its first 3 games. Are you ever going to respect the small schools? Our 380 kids have already won a league football title. Will a an OFSAA medal get you to open your eyes to whats goin on in Jungle?

[Mr. Blair Johnson]

Isn't Mr. Starkey the guy who likes to talk on these various blogs so much about OFFSAA and wrestling. Well, Mr. Starkey, can you explain why the OFFSAA wrestling results did not appear in the newspapers. I have a nephew who wrestles and his name wasn't in the paper. I checked the Toronto Star, the Hamilton Spectator and several other papers on the web and my paper in Barrie. There was absolutely nothing. I even called Mr. Grossman at the Star and he was kind enough to inform me that despite his efforts to get them no one bothered to call him or even send the results to him so he would put them in the paper on time. I guess that's what happened here at the Examiner. Maybe call your friends at OFFSAA and get them educated before you continue your campaign trying to show how sophisticated you think you are on other things. Yes, I am very disappointed like many other relatives and friends and probably athletes as well.

[chris starkey]

Thanks for all the compliments, Blair. There is more than one person at OFSAA that can tell you that I am not one of their fans on many issues. All I do in these blogs is to inform. It is David's job to point out OFSAA's flaws (his job is made easy!) and his readership/listenership increases when he does. Sometimes the challenges are fair (people not doing their job properly) and in other cases they are not (people are doing their job properly).
I have no idea why there was a delay in getting the results of the wrestling tournament out. You would need to go to the website, find out the contact people in Tillsonburg and ask. I would also ask the people at the Examiner if they requested the results as well. Did the Examiner or the Star send a reporter to the championships? If not, they are telling you how important the information is to them.
If people REALLY want up-to-the-minute results, they go to the OFSAA championship website (except for the day before the 8 championships were about to start and the OFSAA site was down). Newspapers probably need the information 8 hours before press time (David, please correct me) but the internet is instant. I don't know when the results went on the OFSAA wrestling site, but I know that they were there before they appeared in any newspaper or news website. If a paper really wanted to stick it to OFSAA, they would put a link on their website to the OFSAA results webpage (with a disclaimer like "here is the webpage where, like us, you WON'T find the results".
I am one of many who would like to hear a live show on the FAN590 with a debate between David Grossman and Doug Gellatly (OFSAA Executive Director) because the thing that bothers me most about OFSAA is that they are not doing anything to defend themselves or their championships convenors...they are just letting everyone take shots at them.