The top Canadian selected in the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft was a native of Edmonton.
On Thursday the Chicago Cubs drafted lefthanded pitcher Rob Zastryzny of the University of Missouri in the second round, 41st overall.
Even though Zastryzny was a native of Edmonton, he was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. In his senior year of high school in 2010, Zastryzny was the All-South Texas Pitcher of the Year, as he posted a 17-1 record, 0.20 earned run average and 198 strikeouts.
This past season Major League Baseball scouts were able to ignore his 2-9 record on the mound for the Universty of Missouri Tigers this season and focus on the fact he had a 3.38 earned run average.
According to University of Calgary Assistant Athletic Director Ben Matchett, Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton will join the Canada West University Athletic Association and Canadian Interuniversity Sport in 2014-15.
Like Mount Royal in Calgary, Grant MacEwan is moving from collegiate to university status on the Canadian sports scene.
Grant MacEwan University will participate in basketball, volleyball, soccer and cross country at that time.
According to the Canadian Press, Andrew Wiggins, quite possibly the second best Canadian basketball player ever, has chosen to play next season at the University of Kansas.
Wiggins, from Toronto, could be drafted first overall in the 2014 National Basketball Association draft. That would be the very first time a Canadian would have gone first overall.
Wiggins chose the Jayhawks over the University of Kentucky, the University of North Carolina and the University of Florida State.
James Naismith of Almonte, Ontario, who is considered the founder of basketball, was the head coach of the University of Kansas from 1898-1907 , before becoming the Jayhawks’ Athletic Director.
The University of Calgary Dinos might not have won the Vanier Cup this past season, but were the big winners on Monday in the first round of the 2013 Canadian Football League draft.
A total of three Dinos were drafted among the top five selections on Monday. Defensive tackle Linden Gaydosh was drafted first overall by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was followed by the Montreal Alouettes selecting linebacker Mike Edem with the third overall pick and the Alouettes selecting Steven Lumbala with the fifth overall pick.
A poor decision by former Edmonton Eskimos General Manager Eric Tillman is a major reason why Montreal had two first round picks in the 2013 draft today, while the Eskimos had none. On September 12, 2012, the Eskimos traded their first and fourth round pick of this year’s draft with kicker Derek Schiavone for kicker Brody McKnight.
One of the most interesting issues in the sports world today is the lack of attention women continue to receive when it comes to the sports media. Sure, women receive a significant amount of time on Canadian sports network, but it pails in comparison to the amount of time their male counterparts get.
A prime example was earlier this week. On Monday, the semi-final of the Women’s World Hockey Championship between the United States and Finland was not televised. When was the last time you saw either semi-final of the IIHF Men’s World Hockey Championship not televised? As far as I can recall, not for a very long time.
Then on Tuesday, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship between Connecticut and Louisville was no where to be seen on Canadian television either. While the Canadian television media used an enormous amount of resources to cover the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the women were basically ignored.
The University of Louisville Cardinals have won the NCAA Basketball Championship.
Monday night in Atlanta in a very entertaining basketball game, the University of Louisville Cardinals defeated the University of Michigan Wolverines 82-76.
While all the talk was about the amazing three point shooting by Wolverines one game wonder Spike Albrecht, who literally came out of nowhere to score 17 points, the play of Cardinals guard Luke Hancock deserves greater praise.
Hancock scored 22 points in thirty minutes of work while coming off the bench. He also scored 20 points in the Wolverines’ 72-68 thriller over the University of Wichita State Shockers in the semi-final on Saturday.
With the Cardinals winning Monday, it enhances the legendary status of Cardinals coach Rick Pitino.
Pitino became the first men’s college basketball coach to win the NCAA Basketball Championship at two different schools. Pitino previously won at the University of Kentucky in 1996.
The teams have been decided for the 2013 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Basketball Championship.
On Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia, the University of Louisville Cardinals defeated the University of Wichita State Shockers 72-68 in one Final Four semi-final, while the University of Michigan Wolverines defeated the University of Syracuse Orange 61-56 in the other semi-final.
Both games were excellent. The Cardinals, led by 21 points from junior guard Russ Smith and 20 points from junior forward Luke Hancock, came back in the last few minutes after trailing to the Shockers for many stages of the game.
The Wolverines meanwhile hung on to the victory and survived a strong Orange finish. Three Wolverines (Tim Hardaway Jr., Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary) all scored in double digits.
This weekend is an extremely significant one when it comes to the history of Canadian tennis. Team Canada is tied 1-1 with Team Italy in the quarterfinals heading into a key doubles match today and two singles matches on Sunday.
This afternoon (Saturday, Sportsnet, 4:30 p.m., joined in progress) Daniel Nestor of Toronto and Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver will take on the Italian pair of Paolo Lorenzi and Daniele Braccaili. It will be interesting to see how much energy Pospisil has in the tank after he lost a five set marathon to Andreas Seppi on Friday afternoon. Canadian head coach Martin Laurendeau ridiculously went with Pospisil over Jesse Levine, who is overall a much better tennis player.
Sunday’s matches are right now Milos Raonic versus Seppi (Saturday, Sportsnet, 3:00 p.m.) followed by Pospisil versus Fabio Fognini.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
We’re coming to the second busiest sports month of the year. April. Where has March gone? I know.
Anyways. It is a huge weekend for the Edmonton Oilers as they will be hosting their two western Canadian foes– the Vancouver Canucks tonight (CBC, 8:00 p.m.) and the Calgary Flames on Easter Monday (Sportsnet, 7:30 p.m.).
With 15 games left on the schedule, the Oilers are three points back of the St. Louis Blues for a playoff spot. That means every five games, they will have to pick up a point on the Blues, and hope they are slightly better than three other teams that are in front of them– the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
After a respectable week, Team Canada finished the round robin in the Women’s World Curling Championship with a respectable 8-3 record. However, the three teams they lost to in the round robin (the United States, Scotland and Sweden) will be the three teams they will need to beat to win their first Women’s World Curling Championship since 2008.
Ontario’s Rachel Homan’s first test will be the United States (Saturday, 6:00 a.m.). If they win that game, they will have to play Scotland in the semi-final (Saturday, 11:00 a.m.) and then Sweden in the final (Sunday, 6:00 a.m.).
This week on (the award-nominated) 15MOF we watch the Edmonton Oilers slip further down the standings and try to figure out what’s wrong, we look at a couple of big streaks in the NHL & the NBA (one of which just came to an end), and we look ahead to the main event at UFC 158 between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz.
In the GABBYs: Canadian baseball, bees, Brittney Griner, Brett Cook, Cuneyt Cakir and Beitar Jerusalem. The Punchline this week is the Indoor Football League!
The University of Alberta Golden Bears have eliminated the University of Calgary Dinos from the Canada West hockey playoffs with a 2-0 win at Edmonton Saturday night.
The Golden Bears won the Canada West men’s hockey semi-final series two games to none and will host the University of Saskatchewan in the Canada West Conference Championship next weekend in the Alberta capital.
On Saturday night the Dinos were shut out for the second consecutive game. In game one of the series Friday night, the Golden Bears won 4-0. Kurtis Mucha of Sherwood Park, Alberta made 29 saves in game two after making 26 saves in the Golden Bears’ game one win at the Clare Drake Arena.
The Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars have decided on coaches for the 2012 National Football season.
The Eagles have gone with a familiar face, choosing Chip Kelly, out of the University of Oregon. Kelly, an offensive minded coach should appease Michael Vick, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson, but the bottom line is will the 2012 Philadelphia Eagles be able to finish long drives?
This past season, they had no problem moving the ball between the 20 yard lines, but simply couldn’t finish drives.
It will also be interesting to see if Kelly is successfully able to make the transition from college to the pros with his offensive run and gun style. I recent years, Steve Spurrier lacked success in Washington and Nick Saban lacked success in Miami.
During my fourth year at the University of Calgary, I took a sociology of sports class. My professor at the time, Dr. Michael Atkinson, who is now at the University of Toronto, completely enlightened me of the growing problem of hazing in sports.
Ever since his excellent lectures on the subject, I have been a complete opponent of hazing and believe there is simply no place for it in society whatsoever.
This year the University of Dalhousie in Nova Scotia did a marvelous thing and suspended the majority of the women’s hockey team (all players except the rookies) for the CIS season after a hazing incident went out of control.
The top Canadian selected in the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft was a native of Edmonton.
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