You won’t miss anything. You’ll still able to attend the Sweet 16 in Syracuse.

So why not check out the Canadian equivalent to the NCAA Tournament, which occurs the weekend before. The Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Tournament takes place March 17-20 at the Metro Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Since there is no professional basketball league in Canada, the tournament is the largest basketball event in the nation. That said, it is hardly a spectacle.

‘It’s not a big event in the sporting world in Canada,’ said Dan Horwood, who has won three national championships as the head coach at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. ‘Canada is not as big on sports like the U.S. If it’s not hockey or curling or the Olympics, there isn’t a lot of attention drawn to it.’

Out of approximately 50 Division I teams, called university level in Canada, 10 qualify for the CIS Tournament. The four conferences – The Canadian West, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic – get berths proportionally based on their sizes. For example, since Ontario has 18 teams, it gets four berths while Quebec gets a single berth for its five teams.

Once the teams are determined, a selection committee ranks the teams 1-10 based on their performance throughout the season. The top six teams get byes while the other four play against each other to fill out an even eight-team bracket. From there, whichever team wins the next three games wins the title.

It may not seem spectacular, but it’s the only style Canadians know.

‘I think we make the most of what we have,’ said Mike Melnychuk, a fifth year guard at Alberta, who was part of the 2002 national championship team. ‘I’ve had such a great career in Canada. I’ve loved every minute of it even though I had four or five Division I offers.’

Halifax has hosted the tournament for the past 22 years because its location guarantees a local team will be involved. Since most schools in the Atlantic Conference are near Halifax, one of them will make the tournament each year.

For every other championship event in the CIS governing body of sports, the host team gets an automatic bid because the event would otherwise draw a miniscule number of fans.

Due to the tournament, Halifax has become one of the few hotbeds for basketball in the country.

‘We’ve played there in front of 10,000 and the place is really hopping.’ Horwood said. The atmosphere can be electric.’

But in most areas of the country, the sport doesn’t register on the radar. Basketball does not receive the same type of coverage in the media. In fact, only the semifinals and finals of the CIS Tournament are televised.

‘Marketing wise we’re just way behind,’ said Les Barry, the head coach at Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba. ‘We just don’t promote the sport well enough.’

Part of what is standing in the way of Canadian basketball interest is the popularity of the American game.

Melnychuk said if you’re a Canadian kid who plays basketball, your dream is to make it to the Division I level in the states.

In terms of the CIS Tournament specifically, it is overshadowed by its American counterpart – the NCAA Tournament. Melnychuk said pools run as rampant in Canada as they do in the United States.

‘A lot of Canadians would identify more with the NCAA Tournament more than the CIS Tournament,’ said Craig Beaucamp, the head coach at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia. ‘We watch more American television here – that’s what people see most.’

Horwood said part of the appeal to Canadians with the NCAA Tournament has to do with the one-and-done mentality. Most of the playoffs for the endless hockey leagues in Canada involve numerous best-of-five or best-of-seven rounds. In those scenarios, one game does not hold as much weight.

It doesn’t help that the CIS Tournament occurs on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, when 48 of its the 63 games take place.

‘If we were smart, which we aren’t, we would try to go a week earlier,’ Horwood said.

Until two years ago, the CIS Tournament only included eight teams. The Final 10, as the tournament is known in Canada now, is in the second year of a two-year pilot program to include an additional two teams.

Although the decision translated into more money and more exposure, Harwood said the way the tournament is structured now is actually a step in the wrong direction. In the new system, the participants are selected solely on the outcome of the conference tournaments. In essence, the regular season holds little bearing.

That may be a small setback into what appears to be a growing interest in the country for basketball in the last 10 years. Harwood said that could be attributed to many factors, such as the Toronto Raptors franchise entering the NBA in 1998, Steve Nash’s success in the NBA and parents are finding how much cheaper it is for their children to play basketball instead of hockey.

But if you don’t go to Canada for the CIS Tournament to see if Carlton University, who is on a 74-game winning streak, takes home the national championships for a third straight year, you should at least cross the border that weekend.

Why?

Because CBS doesn’t hold exclusive rights in the nation for NCAA Tournament games above the border. Melnychuk said NCAA games can be seen on as many as three channels at once.

Imagine that for the first weekend of the tourney?

In lieu of picking individual games, we select the winners of each major conference tournament.

BIG EAST: Connecticut

SU coach Jim Boeheim said the Huskies were one of the hottest team in the country, and he’s right. UConn won nine consecutive conference games to end the regular season. The other two top seeds, Boston College and Syracuse, proved vulnerable in the last month of play.

ATLANTIC COAST: North Carolina

The Tar Heels finished their game on Saturday with an 11-0 run to defeat archrival Duke by two without guard Rashad McCants. UNC forward Sean May is an absolute beast – he scored 26 points and grabbed 24 rebounds. Duke and Wake Forest are simply not physical enough.

BIG TEN: Michigan State

Whoa! What about the Illini, you ask? Even though Ohio State ended Illinois’ perfect season on Saturday in a fluke 65-64 victory, the Spartans would have been the pick anyway. Quietly, MSU is in the top 10 in the country. They’re the balanced team that can knock off Illinois for real.

BIG XII: Oklahoma State

Toughest one to pick. The two teams in the top ten – Kansas and Oklahoma State – both lost last weekend. Top 25 teams Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech are also viable choices. That said, the Cowboys are the selection because of their Final Four experience of a year ago.

SEC: Kentucky

True, the Wildcats were yet another top 10 team to fall last weekend, in their case to Florida. But aside from Alabama, there are really no other contenders. Kentucky finds a way to play sound fundamentally this time of year.

Published on March 6, 2005 at 12:00 pm