By Eli Shupak
Perhaps the recent report out of Carleton University which recommends abandoning the school’s 54-year-old football program had something to do with the quality of officiating seen in the Ravens basketball game last Sunday against Ryerson.Maybe the refs were trying to save another Carleton team from becoming vulture food.
The report was produced by Carleton’s athletic director Drew Love, who says that the school must only compete in a few selected sports where it can field competitive teams.
Whatever the officials’ agenda was in that contest, it had Rams’ basketball coach Terry Haggerty still steaming as the team arrived back into Toronto just before 3 a.m. Monday. The game had been delayed two days by Mother Nature’s ferocious winter blast.
In a game where four Rams’ starters fouled out, Carleton won on the strength of 40 successful free throws from 53 attempts, and defeated Ryerson 88-76.
The Rams were assessed 34 fouls, double Carleton’s 17, and shot 16 to 26 from the line. Ryerson was also assessed three technical fouls.
“It was an absolute joke,” Haggerty said.
“They had one guy who shouldn’t be doing games anywhere and two other guys that were quite weak.
“It’s hard to justify to our players why the hell we even make the trip. As a group, we’re just totally annoyed at the situation that this can’t be resolved in the Ontario East (conference) with the officials. You’re recruiting athletes based on this being a high caliber of basketball.”
While Haggerty said that not all of Ottawa’s officials were bad, he said the crew assigned to the game was obviously biased.
The Rams have showed in recent weeks that they can compete with any team in the country, but that’s only applicable when the team receives competent officiating.
Ryerson jumped out to an early 17-4 lead, before what Haggerty calls “the foul parade” began.
“You can’t tell me overnight that we went form having 14 to 15 fouls against Victoria and Brandon (two of the country’s upper-echelon teams), to having 34,” Haggerty lamented.
“And Carleton’s so much better than us that they had only 17 fouls, I don’t think so.”
With the weekend loss, Ryerson drops to 3-4 in conference play, while Carleton improves to 5-4.
The Rams game scheduled for Saturday at Ottawa against the Gee Gees was postponed and hasn’t been re-scheduled yet.
Things don’t get easier for Ryerson with the division-leading Laurentian Voyageurs (8-0) in Kerr Hall on Friday night at 8 p.m. Ryerson hosts York Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m.
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