Ryerson Rams top seed for men’s CIS basketball championship tournament

OTTAWA – The Ryerson Rams were named the top seed in the Canadian university men’s basketball championship tournament on Sunday, the first time in the program’s history.

The Final Eight will be hosted by the University of British Columbia for the first time since 1972. The national tournament gets under way Thursday at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre with the gold-medal final on Sun. March 20.

Looking for their first W.P. McGee Trophy title, the OUA champion Rams are joined in Vancouver by the No. 2 and reigning five-time national titlist Carleton Ravens (OUA finalists), No. 3 Ottawa Gee-Gees (OUA bronze medallists), No. 4 Calgary Dinos (Canada West champs), No. 5 McGill Redmen (RSEQ champs), No. 6 Dalhousie Tigers (AUS champs), No. 7 Thompson Rivers WolfPack (Canada West finalists) and No. 8 UBC Thunderbirds (Canada West bronze medallists).

Thursday’s quarter-final matchups include Thompson Rivers vs. Carleton in the opener, followed by Dalhousie vs. Ottawa, McGill vs. Calgary, as well as host UBC vs. Ryerson in the nightcap.

A year after claiming a program-best CIS bronze medal on home court, the Rams earned No. 1 status thanks to a 73-68 win over Carleton in Saturday’s Wilson Cup final, good for their first-ever OUA title.

Ryerson tied Ottawa for the best record in the country during the regular season with a 17-2 mark and spent four weeks atop the national rankings earlier this winter, also a first in team history.

For the second straight year, Ottawa received the at-large berth (wild card) following a vote by a committee of CIS coaches. The Gee-Gees, who competed in the last two CIS finals, settled for bronze at the OUA Final Four this weekend but were ranked in the top three nationally the entire season, including six weeks at No. 1.

Carleton holds the all-time mark with 11 W.P. McGee Trophies and hopes to move to within one of Victoria’s record streak of seven straight titles from 1980 to 1986. UBC is the only other program among this week’s contenders to have claimed the CIS banner in the past, its triumphs dating back to 1970 and 1972.