University teams thumb noses at college rivals.

(UPEI drops out of competition)

SOURCE: The Varsity (University of To- ronto)

by Blair Sanderson

TORONTO (CUP) — The University of Ottawa decided two months ago to replace Humber College with the University of Western Ontario 1n its upcoming men’s basketball exhibition tournament, but it made the decision official only two weeks ago, according to two coaches.

Neither Ken Olynyk, U of T Varsity Blues men’s basketball head coach, nor Mike Katz, Humber College Hawks men’s basket- ball head coach, had concrete proof as to when exactly host Ottawa made its deci- sion to rescind the original invitation to Humber. However, Olynyk said it was consistent with what he had heard from others within the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic

Union (CIAU).

McGill Univer- sity and the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) were originally scheduled to compete in the tourna- ment along with Humber and the Ottawa Gee-Gees. At least one of the two invited teams threat- ened to pull out if a college team was involved.

“T don’t think McGill was aware who was in the tourna- ment,” said Olynyk. “They were under the impression that it would be four CIAU schools.”

Katz had his suspicions that some- thing was wrong when he hadn’t spoken to the Gee-Gees between March and September of this year.

“T knew some- thing was up,” said Katz. “He [Jack Eisenmann, Ottawa men’s basketball head coach], capitulated to pressure from the other universities.”

Michelle Belanger, U of T Varsity Blues women’s basketball head coach, believes a major prob- lem exists because there is NO consequence to a team dropping out (in this instance either Redmen or the UPEI Panthers), of a tourna- ment after making a commitment.

“We don’t have fines when teams drop out,” said Belanger. “Humber should be compensated for the hole in their schedule.

“If the CIAU had a better organiza- tional system it would discourage teams from pulling out like that.”

3 yer

Eisenmann said he was fed up with discussing the contro- versy further (it made the front page of The Globe and Mail earlier this month), and wouldn’t comment specifically about McGill or UPEI, but said all the teams involved entered the tournament with their eyes wide open.

“When you offer invitations you offer to teams from ten different schools,” said Eisenmann. “I made it clear to all the other schools. They knew what was going on.”

While many university teams refuse to play college teams, schools such as U of T schedule exhibition games against colleges, usually local teams. The Raptor Cup, which the Blues will

again participate in this } December, is essentially

an unofficial city basketball champion- ship for Toronto-area universities and col- leges. Varsity will also play George Brown College in a pre-season game on Nov. 3.

“The whole impetus behind [the Raptor Cup], is creat- ing a Metro champion- ship,” Olynyk said. “It’s fun. They [the collegiate teams] want to attack us. We want to get after them.”

For Toronto- area universities it’s also more financially viable to play some of the strong college teams.

“Budgets started to shrink and that affected travel,” Katz said.

END

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