{"id":55052,"date":"2019-04-01T11:35:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T15:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=55052"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:03:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:03:34","slug":"mens-basketball-celebrated-city-hall","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/mens-basketball-celebrated-city-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball Champs Celebrated at City Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Basketball Champs Celebrated at City Hall\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

The Carleton Ravens men\u2019s basketball team opened its season with convincing wins over NCAA competition in August, and closed it with a resounding 34-point national title game win<\/a> on March 10 over the defending U SPORTS champion Calgary Dinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along the way, the Ravens racked up a 22-1 regular season record and won the Wilson Cup as Ontario University Athletics (OUA) champions. Then they ran the table at the Final 8 tournament in Halifax to reclaim the national championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the Ravens\u2019 14th<\/sup> U SPORTS championship since 2003, the latest milestone in a historic run of success. On March 27, the Mayor of Ottawa hosted a breakfast in the team\u2019s honour at City Hall to celebrate the team\u2019s achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Carleton's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis breakfast has become a tradition, and 2019 was another great victory by the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team,\u201d said Mayor Jim Watson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFourteen championships is a remarkable achievement. The city is very proud and the Carleton University community, which I am a proud member of, is also very, very proud of you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Watson, it was especially sweet that the final win came over the University of Calgary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI lost a Grey Cup bet with the Mayor of Calgary, and the losing mayor had to raise the opposing team\u2019s flag and wear their jersey,\u201d he said. \u201cToday is the day we’re doing it, so it\u2019s a small comfort to me that you thrashed a Calgary team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Mayor<\/figure>\n\n\n

A Nearly Unblemished Record<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Though the Ravens had a nearly unblemished record and ended their season as champions, the 2018-19 squad faced plenty of challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were a lot of ups and downs this year, as far as coming together as a team,\u201d said assistant coach Jean-Emmanuel Jean-Marie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Biniam
Biniam Ghebrekidan receives a Certificate of Commendation from Mayor Jim Watson and Rideau-Vanier Councillor Mathieu Fleury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the year, we came together by guys believing and buying in. In the national championship game, the guys really came in firing from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ravens were motivated by the fact that they were playing the defending champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that is what really sparked the guys, and gave us that drive to finally really put it together for a game,\u201d said Jean-Marie. \u201cWe were up by a lot, and sometimes you expect teams to fall back a bit when they\u2019re up, but the guys were trying to prove something to each other \u2014 to prove something as a team, after all the adversity we went through this year.\u201d
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\"Carleton's<\/figure>\n\n\n

New Leadership Roles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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This off-season, long-time head coach Dave Smart will assume the role of Director, Basketball Operations<\/a> at Carleton, and three graduating players will be moving on: Mitch Jackson, Troy Reid-Knight and Mitch Wood. (Women\u2019s basketball coach Taffe Charles will become head coach of the men\u2019s team, and a search is underway for a new coach for the women\u2019s squad.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had most of our players returning from last year,\u201d said Jackson, a fifth-year forward completing his business degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlayers like Eddie Ekiyor, Munis Tutu, Marcus Anderson, Stanley Mayambo, TJ Lall, and all of those guys. A few additions really made a big impact. Isiah Osborne transferred to Carleton and Troy Reid-Knight redshirted last year. They really stepped up for us. We started the season doing pretty well against NCAA competition, and we took off more toward the end of the season. We had a really good win against Ryerson in the OUA playoffs, and we really just rode that wave.  At the Final 8, we figured it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vice-President (Students and Enrolment) and University Registrar Suzanne Blanchard thanked the Ravens for their effort, dedication and the distinction with which they represent the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou are more than just athletes,\u201d she said. \u201cYou are ambassadors for the university. I want to thank each of you individually and as a team. You gave your best every time. It\u2019s also important to thank the coaches and the Carleton Athletics team, who are always there to support the team and work toward these accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Carleton Ravens men\u2019s basketball team opened its season with convincing wins over NCAA competition in August, and closed it with a resounding 34-point national title game win on March 10 over the defending U SPORTS champion Calgary Dinos. Along the way, the Ravens racked up a 22-1 regular season record and won the Wilson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":55056,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[18],"cu_story_tag":[1928],"class_list":["post-55052","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-athletics-recreation","cu_story_tag-athletics"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/55052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/55052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97853,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/55052\/revisions\/97853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=55052"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=55052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}