Change is a good thing, go ask yo momma.

Sorry, listening to the old school station on Sirius right now and I guess it’s getting to me.But we seem some slight shuffling in the rankings this week and, just for the sake of having something new to read and write, that’s a good thing. Although there’s a couple of teams who took a slip this week who might disagree.

But right on time Run DMC’s “You Talk Too Much” came on the radio, undoubtedly a clue that it’s time to move on to the poll. Last week’s rankings in brackets: 

1. (1) UBC Thunderbirds (6-0) — No better way to hold down top spot in these rankings — and in the Pacific Division — than sweeping your arch rival, on the road to boot. If it’s possible, we’re more impressed with UBC than we were last week.

2. (3) Calgary Dinos (5-1) — The Dinos got to stay at home and proceeded to put 97 on a Brandon team that is supposedly concentrating on defence. The Dinos are averaging 92 points per game in their five wins this season. The only red flag to speak of? There isn’t one. They’ve surrendered 80 points just twice this season.

3. (2) Victoria Vikes (4-2) — We’re forgiving of the failure of the Vikes in their first big challenge of the season but this road trip to Regina and Brandon this weekend better produce two wins if they’re to stay in our top three.

4. (7) Fraser Valley Cascades (5-1) — Yeah, we’d have been shocked to learn they’d be this high if you told us at the beginning of the year, but the record is still hard to argue with. The toughest part of the schedule — and we mean tough — is still waiting in the wings. In the meantime, Barnaby Craddock apparently has his team playing confidently.

5. (11) Lethbridge Pronghorns (3-3) — Yes, you are reading this right. The Pronghorns are much improved from a year ago and they held court against the Great Plains. What were we going to do, put them below the two teams they fed this weekend?

6. (4) Brandon Bobcats (2-2) — The Bobcats should be thanking us for putting them this high. But we still believe they have the ability to be considered among the top half of the conference (having to make that statement alone is shocking). Hosting UBC and Vic this weekend will give them a chance to earn their stripes back.

7. (5) Simon Fraser Clan (2-3) — We were all set to move SFU up a notch, maybe two, and then it couldn’t close the weekend at home and gave Saskatchewan its first win. Seems like the same confusing Clan we’ve come to know, lo these past few seasons.

8. (6) Regina Cougars (2-2) — Given Brandon’s slip up in Alberta, the Cougars had a golden chance to make claim to the Great Plains. Instead they were actually worse than BU and are now a combined 6-18 on the road since 2006-07.

Disclaimer: On a local television broadcast earlier this season, David Larkins told Jeremy Sawatzky that he thought it was a down year in the Canada West this season. Only three weeks into the season and basically two-thirds of the teams in the conference are proving that statement accurate. There are maybe three teams that we believe could honestly show well at nationals and that might be a stretch. … With that said, we have no idea where to slot anyone that follows. We introduce you to the Mendoza line of the Canada West. The organizers reserve the right to move it around as they see fit throughout the season.  

9. (12) Manitoba Bisons (2-4) — We can’t believe it either but the Bisons are moving up almost by default, and a win over TRU, which was the one factor in putting U of M ahead of the Pack. Rick Suffield is calling it quits after this season and maybe — just maybe — this team can rally for its coach in his lame-duck year. In this year’s Great Plains, anything is possible. 

10. (10) Alberta Golden Bears (1-3) — Still not entirely sure what to make of this Alberta team, but one thing we feel confidently in stating is that if there’s any team in this group that will make a jump up (Trinity Western are you out there?) it’s the Golden Bears. We won’t doubt a Don Horwood team, but these guys are getting close. 

11. (8) Trinity Western Spartans (1-4) — A team that has grossly underachieved through Week 3. Yes there has been some flux in the roster from last season, yes the schedule has been a testy one so far, and of course there’s a new first-year coach, but we’re not buying it. This team should be a lot better off than what it is right now. 

12. (12) Thompson Rivers WolfPack (2-4) — Because they already have nearly as many wins as they did last season (3), the WolfPack get a small measure of love here. They closed the road trip off with a win over Winnipeg, insuring that they wouldn’t fall back into the space they occupied for all of last season. 

13. (14) Saskatchewan Huskies (1-3) — Give credit where credit is due, the Huskies got on the board with a tough road victory to close out the weekend. Still, with Lethbridge playing well early, the Huskies might go into calendar-watching mode pretty soon: Y’know, circling the games you have to win just to make the post-season.

14. (9) Winnipeg Wesmen (1-5) — The largest fall of the week goes to the team that couldn’t hold it down at home and now its one win (vs Calgary, Oct. 25) might go down as the biggest “huh?” of the season. Not sure where that came from. Why is it a team from my hometown always feels the need to occupy one of these bottom three spots?

We’re big on coming up with new features here at The Scrum so let’s see if we can’t keep this one going for at least a week or two.

Each Friday we’ll highlight a few standout efforts from around the CIS and crown them with Feeds of Friday.

What’s a feed? Feed is anything and everything. It is a greeting (Feed, what’s up?), it is an exclamation (you sank that 40-foot hook shot? Feed.), it is a verb (I’m gonna feed the VLT). Someone who feeds a lot, is a feeder. And this is a good thing. Someone who dropped 30 on RMC will be said to have “fed the Paladins last night,” while conversely someone who turned the ball over 12 times “got fed.”

So tonight we honour the first of the Friday Night Feeders. Be proud you made the cut. Work harder if you didn’t.

FED:

Danhue Lawrence, Lethbridge (vs Regina): 32 points, seven rebounds, five steals, 5-for-7 3FG as the Pronghorns hand the Cougars their first loss.

Melina Wishart, Ottawa (at Western): 23 points, five threes in women’s team win over Mustangs.

Allaine Hutton, Toronto (vs McMaster): Game-high 31 as Varsity pulls out three-point win over Marauders.

Kimberly Lee, Waterloo (at Queen’s): Twenty-one points, 11 rebounds and four threes for the senior shooting guard as Warriors prevail in OT.

Darrah Bumstead, Laurentian (at Brock): Nineteen points, 18 rebounds in a losing cause.

Kiraan Posey, Lakehead (at Ryerson): 18 points, became all-time Thunderwolves/Nor’westers leading scorer with 2,366 points.

Greg Surmacz, Windsor (vs Carleton): 28 points, 15 rebounds. Lancers hand mighty Ravens a loss in season opener.

Mitch Leger, Queen’s (vs Waterloo): Six-foot-6 junior had 26 points and 10 boards.

Didi Mukendi, Brock (vs Laurentian): Homegrown freshman made a big debut for the defending national champions. A 6-foot St. Catharines, Ont., product had 24 points, 10 rebounds, seven steals and six assists.

Dany Charlery, Brandon (at Calgary): Too bad the Bobcats can’t stop people from scoring. The senior swingman had his 29 points, six rebounds and five steals go for naught in a 97-87 loss at the Jack.

Nathan Dixon, Manitoba (vs Thompson Rivers): The diminutive transfer from Lakeland College had 34 points, six rebounds and six threes, all career highs in the CIS.

Chris Laurie, Fraser Valley (at Winnipeg): Had 17 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks as the Cascades outscored the Wesmen 25-5 in the fourth quarter and came back from a 53-37 deficit after the third.

Jacob Doerksen, Trinity Western (vs Saskatchewan): Almost single-handedly responsible for the Spartans’ first win of the season with 38 points, 14 rebounds, five steals and four blocks.

Showron Glover, Saskatchewan (at Trinity Western): Huskie newcomer has 33 points, eight rebounds and five steals. BUT (see below) …

GOT FED:

Showron Glover, Saskatchewan (at Trinity Western): Fourteen turnovers, a CIS high this season.

RMC men’s basketball: vs Laurier, L 100-35

Carleton men’s basketball: at Windsor, lost its season opener for the first time since 1999.

Brandon women’s basketball: Hoped to continue the good vibes from a win over Manitoba last weekend. Instead trailed by 21 at the end of the first quarter and gave up an ugly 97 points in a loss at Calgary.

Lethbridge women’s basketball: Posted two quarters in the single digits and stayed winless in an 88-40 loss to Regina.

So I came to work today to find a press release in my email from Chris Zuk, the University of Manitoba’s sports information director, announcing that Manitoba Bisons men’s basketball coach Rick Suffield has decided to step down from his post following this season.

Without trying to sound self-absorbed, I like to stir the pot, analyze, scoop, dig in and uncover things in stories when I can, but this isn’t one of those times.

There is no secret that the Manitoba Bisons men’s program has struggled immensely since the turn of the century. Since the Great Plains Athletic Conference merged with the Canada West University Athletic Association, the Bisons have not had a winning season and only once got within two games of a .500 season. In those nine seasons, Manitoba is 51-135. It’s not how a coach usually likes to go out.

And Suffield would likely prefer to go out on a better note, although the team around him this season doesn’t seem equipped to do that.

I will not attempt to read Suff’s thoughts and interpret them here. All I’ll say is that 23 years is a long time to coach as it is but there are a lot of embedded frustrations with coaching in a conference/division like the Great Plains, at least previous to the merger.

Just say you’re a coach of a CIS team and you play in the same division as a perennial powerhouse. Annnnnnd let’s just say that more than a few people believe that said perennial powerhouse hasn’t always been completely on the up-and-up. And let’s just say that pretty much every season you had to deal with this pink elephant in your division and let’s just say that almost every season ended with you losing to the aforementioned. That might get to wear on you eventually, no?

I’ve known Suffield since I was in junior high and I took camps at the U of M with Suffield and his assistants and players — Peter Young, Elliot Unger, Darryl Baptiste and Paul Bryant among them. As a high school senior, Suffield let me of all people volunteer at that same camp as a coach even though there was no evidence (and probably still isn’t) that I should have anything to do with teaching anyone the game of basketball. When the Bisons visited Brock University and I was covering BU for the student paper, Suffield remained accessible and helpful to a guy he had no reason to be. And when that reporter eventually applied for a position at a newspaper closer to his hometown, he was a help there too.

Someone told me today — with no malevolence intended — that they wished Suff had gotten out a while ago and maybe that would have been for the best. There is more than one reason why the Manitoba Bisons haven’t been a winning program in the past decade. I’ve heard people say Suffield didn’t care to make the same kind of commitment to recruiting and building his program that other coaches did and, if that’s true, it’s a fairly recent development. You don’t stay in a dead-end job for two decades because you get some perverse enjoyment out of losing. I can, however, see how that fire and desire might seep away year after year with losses piling up.

The Canada West conference benefits from having as many competitive teams as possible and the University of Manitoba benefits from having a program that gets its name out there on a larger scale than just on its own campus. But I like familiarity, especially when it is a familiarity I can connect back to when I was a kid. So, unapologetically, I will say I’m disappointed to know Rick won’t be coaching the Bisons anymore. He probably deserved a more impressive line of results all things considered, although 400+ wins and a CIAU coach of the year award is nothing to scoff at.

Just from me, here’s to Suff finding enjoyment in life post-coaching and to the Bisons finding the results they seek. Hopefully everyone’s a winner.

Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.

The great John Sebastian penned the memorable lyrics above in 1976 — a lot of greatness was created that year — and it is with the dulcet tones of Sebastian’s “Welcome Back” now pulsing through your brainwaves that we bring back the Totem Poll, one man’s neanderthalic assessment of Canada West men’s basketball from top to bottom.

While Sebastian intones that the names have all changed, only a few have in this case. The Brandon Bobcats, Winnipeg Wesmen, Alberta Golden Bears and Manitoba Bisons have all lost significant pieces and are hopeful they’ve found the right replacements. The Lethbridge Pronghorns, UBC Thunderbirds and Victoria Vikes are among those who have a glut of returnees.

And yes the dreams — to be seen atop these most sacred and random of rankings — still remain. So let’s see where they all fit, last season’s final rankings in brackets:

1. (3) UBC Thunderbirds (4-0) — One CIS assistant coach told me in the pre-season he thought the Thunderbirds were going to run away with the Canada West and they’ve certainly shown early on that they’re capable of it. Impressive road thrashing of Alberta plus home victories over an improved Trinity Western squad have the Birds with an early wing up in the Pacific.

2. (4) Victoria Vikes (4-0) — OK, UBC doesn’t have control of the 6-Pac all to itself. The Vikes have resumed their role as the team that won’t let you score 50 points. Defensively sound and veteran-filled, the Vikes are joining the Birds in separating from the division.

3. (2) Calgary Dinos (3-1) — The Great Plains Division has taken the heat as the weakest in the conference for a few years now but maybe the Central is wrestling those dishonours away. If so, the Dinos will coast to the first-round bye. However, that loss in Winnipeg, which really wasn’t as close as the score indicated, is not one that sits well with us.

4. (1) Brandon Bobcats (2-0) — A two-game pre-season doesn’t allow for much in the way of gelling and the new-look Cats showed that. Ugly for much of their season-opening win against Manitoba, the Bobcats looked more the part of conference heavy-hitter on Saturday. Still a number of concerns with this team but once again they’ll have the raw talent and athleticism to hang with most anyone.

5. (7) Simon Fraser Clan (1-2) — For a few years now the Clan have been the Cooper Manning to Eli and Peyton in the Pacific. But with Greg Wallis in his fifth year and a large crew of SFU players another year older, the Clan may no longer have to be just “that other team” in the west.

6. (9) Regina Cougars (2-0) — The Cougars got a chance to open the season in-division and at home, and they responded by beating the stuffing out of the Wesmen. Jeff Lukomski dropped 25 in each victory and if the junior gunner is prepared to be a threat every night out, the Cougars are going to make a serious case for themselves as Great Plains contenders.

7. (10) Fraser Valley Cascades (3-1) — Yes, the Cascades have a better record than the team two spots above them and more wins than the team one spot above them, but we’re skeptical about the quality of wins thus far (at Thompson Rivers, vs Lethbridge). But the schedule shapes up so that we could be looking at UCFV in seven- or eight-win territory by the break.

8. (11) Trinity Western Spartans (0-3) — Let the outrage begin. Yes, we’re putting a winless team up here because strength of schedule this early on means something. A home loss to Simon Fraser isn’t exactly what you would want to see from a reloaded TWU team, but road losses at UBC mean something. i.e., they mean more than winning one game against someone soft.

9. (8) Winnipeg Wesmen (1-3) — Dave Crook’s team became very different as soon as Erfan Nasajpour graduated. Now the Wesmen are relying on a collection of recruits from Winnipeg high schools who are now suddenly the leaders. Nick Lother takes over Erf’s spot and the likes of James Horaska, Mike James and Peter Lomuro are no longer allowed to watch and learn.

10. (5) Alberta Golden Bears (0-2) — Another team that will need a select few to carry big loads, the Bears aren’t as intimidating as in years past but they’re not walkovers either. Conference coach of the year Don Horwood would really earn that nod this year if he got this team anywhere near the Dinos at year’s end.

11. (14) Lethbridge Pronghorns (1-3) — A record of 1-17 a year ago means there’s only one direction for the Pronghorns (especially after they’ve already equalled their win total). Very little turnover from last season’s young bunch so Mike Connelly’s rebuilding mode might just pay dividends in the near future.

12. (14) Thompson Rivers WolfPack (1-3) — TRU overhauled its staff. Out as head coach is Nevin Gleddie, in is former UNB head man Thom Gillespie, who was short listed for the Brandon job before settling further west. The Wolfpack are hoping they get the results of Gillespie circa 2004 and not the results of Gillespie circa every year after that.

13. (12) Manitoba Bisons (1-3) — The Bisons and Wolfpack both sport victories over Lethbridge so the No. 11 spot should probably be more accurately labelled 11a, 11b and 11c. The Bisons haven’t been relevant in a while and there’s not much sign that they will be any time soon. Newcomers Nathan Dixon and C.J. Wicker will be interesting to watch and Myron Dean has quietly developed into a pretty solid player, but the loss of last season’s top three scorers (and five of the top six), including Isaac Ansah means the Bisons are going be going uphill all year.

14. (6) Saskatchewan Huskies (0-2) — Oy. We knew the Huskies would take a hit when Andrew Spagrud wore out his eligibility, but the bigger picture says the Huskies are even thinner. Troy Gottselig and Clint Unsworth are the only returnees who averaged double-digits minutes last season and they weren’t major impact guys in the first place. Adding Showron Glover gives them someone to score the ball and freshman Nolan Brudehl is a legit addition.

Another thing the NCAA does that the CIS doesn’t is award pre-season all-conference and all-American honors. Because most people don’t know a thing prior to seeing teams and players play, I’m not sure this is even a good idea. Yet on a slow Saturday morning my “better judgment” certainly isn’t going to stop me from posting my Canada West pre-season all-conference awards.

They mean nothing, they’re likely way off the mark and the season technically already started. Fun times.

Here’s first team, second team and honourable mention:

FIRST TEAM:
Greg Wallis, Simon Fraser: A fifth-year senior and very possibly not actually a human being. A beast on the boards, a workhorse and almost a guarantee for 20 a game. A 20-10 guy on most nights.

Dany Charlery, Brandon: The Bobcats lost Yul Michel and Adam Hartman to graduation so now it’s on Charlery to put the team on his shoulders. As athletic as anyone in the conference and a straight up menace to defend basically any time his feet are moving.

Jacob Doerksen, Trinity Western: Still feels odd typing those two words after Doerksen’s name but the Victoria transfer should step up and lead a Trinity team that most expect to be resurgent. Another guy that will shoot a high FG%, get his 20 a game and grab his share of boards.

Chris Dyck, UBC: Another in what has become a pretty impressive line of pure scorers out at Point Grey. A fifth-year senior, Dyck doesn’t carry the Birds like Casey Archibald or Kyle Russell did, but he is most certainly one you scheme for when you face them.

Henry Bekkering, Calgary: The Taber, Alta., product is 1 and 1a with brother Ross. Not without flaws, he’s a guy who gets by with tremendous athletic ability (if you hadn’t heard) and even after a poor night from the field you can look at his boxscore and wonder where his 16- 20-point game came from.

SECOND TEAM
Ross Bekkering, Calgary: Different game than bro … but not that different. Elevates and dominates and is likely a lock to average a double-double or at least very close.

Brent Malish, UBC: While you’re watching Dyck shoot you out of your zone, don’t forget the 6-foot-6 junior Malish can do it too. Second on the team in scoring last season and the T-Birds leading rebounder while also shooting a team-high 41 per cent from three.

Mitch Gudgeon, Victoria: A steady fifth-year leader, Gudgeon — along with fellow fifth-year senior Tyler Hass — is the backbone of a Victoria team with visions of a Pacific Division title. He won’t blow you away with flashy lines, just a steady day at the office.

Jeff Lukomski, Regina: Now a junior, Lukomski has to shake some of the inconsistency that plagued him at times during his first two seasons. When he’s on, he’s one of the best shooters/scorers in the conference. When he’s off … moving along.

Showron Glover, Saskatchewan: By no means a household name in the Canada West. Yet. The Fresno, Calif., native is a much-needed addition to a Huskies squad that lost a signifcant piece of its core to graduation. He’s going to be known very soon.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Tyler Fiddler, Calgary: The super-soph from Calgary, Fiddler has guard skills with big-man height. Shot 35 per cent from three as a freshman and, as a 6-foot-9 swingman type, should improve on his 8.8 ppg in Season 2.

Tristan Smith, Fraser Valley: The sophomore from Gardenia, Calif., has big-time scoring abilities but is streaky as well. The Cascades were, and still are, hoping to make a move up in the Pacific this season but the loss of star freshman Joel Friesen to an ACL injury that will cost him his season means Smith is one of the guys who has to pick up the slack all that much more.

Tyler Hass, Victoria: Hass is the other half of the veteran tandem with Gudgeon and an equally critical factor in the Vikes success. A fifth-year forward, Hass will go out, block some shots, score double digits and quietly get his work done.

Danhue Lawrence, Lethbridge: Joined the Pronghorns after Christmas last season and still led them in scoring averaging 17 a game. Having that experience, plus a full training camp behind him should mean the Toronto native can step into an even bigger role.

FRESH AND CLEAN: THE NEWCOMERS
We’ve already mentioned Glover and he’s likely the most intriguing newcomer to the conference but here’s a few other names to keep an eye on making their debuts in Canada West:

C.J. Wicker, Manitoba: The Bisons haven’t tapped the United States a whole lot lately, but they’ve got a good one in the 6-foot-4 swingman from Saginaw, Mich. He played JUCO prior to joining the Bisons and ups U of M’s athleticism.

Donovan Gayle, Brandon: A solidly-built 6-foot-4 forward, Gayle is a nice addition to the Bobcats because he wants to do the dirty work and plays into new head coach Keith Vassell’s high demand for defensive intensity. And he’s the athletic fit you’d expect in a Bobcat.

Andrew Lomond, Brandon: An intriguing prospect if he can get healthy. The 6-foot-8 Toronto product was a medical redshirt last season with the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs and the pre-season was supposed to his time to get back into playing shape after a knee injury cost him the entire year. But now he’s battling a shoulder bug, too, meaning the timetable for him to be back playing at a high level is still undetermined.

Joel Friesen, Fraser Valley: Yes, I know he’s not playing this season but this is a gun-jumping, false-starting rush to press proclamation. Friesen’s injury actually came at an ideal time — if he had to get injured that is — because he won’t lose his freshman year of eligibility and he can come to campus in 2009-10 ready to assault the conference. He’s legit and one of B.C.’s bluest of blue chips. We just have to wait a bit for it.

I graduated from Brock University in 1998.

Google, got bless those multi-quadrillionaires, is celebrating their 10th birthday by making available their very first index, allowing you to search their engine just as you would as if it were 2001. The Internet wasn’t really anything to write home about (unless you were writing about how cool it is to write home on a computer) and I, David Larkins, was a terrible, terrible “journalist.”

I don’t use that term to describe myself now and I certainly didn’t then. But one topic I attempted to tackle back in those days as an intrepid and ill-informed upstart writer for The Brock Press was the Canada-v-America university battle and the differences that lay between the NCAA and the CIS-formerly-CIAU.

And as I read back on my old pieces I expectedly cringed and shuddered at what I wrote because, after all, there’s never been such a thing as a good writer at a school paper. They’re all wretched, as was I. (I just accept that I was less wretched than most).

During those days with the Press I routinely lashed out at the (then-)CIAU and its inadequacies, yet the question of “what’s the difference between Canada and the NCAA” went unanswered, shocking considering the fact a 22-year-old sports writer with no ‘daily’ experience was the one tackling the pervasive dilemma.

But you know what? The answer became so utterly simple and obvious this week with a decision in Auburn, Ala., that slid under most headlines.

Auburn University fired its offensive co-ordinator for football on Tuesday, even though the Tigers are ranked No. 20 in the nation and destined for a bowl game, and likely a pretty good one at that.

That, my friends, is the difference. The Manitoba Bisons, defending CIS champions of football, are 2-2 and by no means setting the world on fire, but there’s no way in this world that head coach Brian Dobie is sweating his job, let alone OC Vaughan Mitchell.

Firings in the CIS are rare. In fact, longtime Brandon University head coach Jerry Hemmings was “dismissed” by the school in 2004 but any announcements that came from the school were curiously devoid of anything that remotely resembled the term firing. You can count a handful of other schools and other teams who have used the same evasive maneuver over the years. That’s what Canada does: When someone is fired, no one ever says so. There’s just another coach in the position when the new school year rolls around.

As rare as it is for a university coach to get fired in Canada it is even more rare for a coach to get fired in the middle of a season. So much so that former Trinity Western head men’s basketball coach Stan Peters filed suit against his executioners after he was dismissed in December of 2007. If this was the NCAA, it would have been a nationwide headliner. I guess TSN was covering the Maple Leafs at the time.

Auburn makes the decision to fire someone (not even its head coach!) and its all over sports news web sites with Tigers followers piping in left and right with their opinions on an issue that hit so perilously close to home for these football fans. Meanwhile, there’s only a handful of people in Canada who know who Mitchell is and an even smaller portion who would make the minimal effort to log on to a web site to voice any sort of judgement on his stature.

The CIS and NCAA are polar opposites and there’s no Coles Notes version that pointedly lays out the differences between the two. It’d be like doing a point-form analysis on the differences between bacon and umbrellas.

But Auburn University gave us a bit of a glimpse into the glaring differences on Tuesday: Its bold move made national news and, maybe emphasizing the differences that much more, hundreds of school supporters took the time to not only voice their opinions, but also managed to notice that there was actually something to have an opinion about.

You know, it’s easy — very easy — to ridicule, pile on and generally just kill the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this season with public opinion but oh what it must be like to cheer for the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

Wowee.

To recap the saga of the past 48 hours or so. Winnipeg DE Tom Canada was traded to Hamilton for MLB Zeke Moreno late Monday. Canada, in an interview that appeared Monday night on the Winnipeg Free Press web site, essentially said “uhhhh, no” and initially balked at reporting to the Ticats (understandable for about 40,000 reasons). Moreno, meanwhile, wasn’t elated about leaving Hamilton but reported to Winnipeg anyway and was holed up in a Winnipeg hotel room while the trade sat in limbo. Canada had been admitted to a hospital with complications in his spleen, an injury that would have killed the deal anyway. Canada’s objections were no longer even in play after the spleen stepped up.

Yet Tuesday night the deal went without Canada’s name on the papers. Moreno was a Blue Bomber and the Ticats, in turn, received the negotiation rights to DE Corey Mace. Now Mace is, by all accounts, a complete beast and one of the more treasured Canadian draft picks the Bombers have used (one of the few Canadian draft picks they’ve used, actually).

But Mace is on the practice roster of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and that move by the Bills is enough to suggest that they at least have some hope for him. This is not a Jesse Lumsden situation where the Ticats were questioned for picking the homeboy running back in 2005 because of his NFL aspirations. He was hardly a threat to make the league. Mace, meanwhile, is being kept around on the Bills’ tab, meaning the door is at least slightly ajar and the Ticats aren’t getting their hands on him in the immediate future.

So here are the Ticats, who have already got a jumpstart on the award for worst CFL operation of the 21st century, they of five coaches in the past five seasons and a loyal fan base shaking their heads, trading their best defensive player — easily one of the best in the league — away for a player they may never see north of the border.

In Winnipeg, Canada fans were outraged at the thought of shipping off one of the more loved players on the team, only a week after they had sent Charles Roberts to B.C. It was a little too much to take, apparently. But given what happened against Saskatchewan last weekend, the Bombers weren’t lunatics for making the deal. Joe Lobendahn, who has been brilliant in filling in at the MLB for Barrin Simpson, goes down with a knee injury and suddenly the Bombers second layer is playing a rookie from Sherbrooke at one of the most critical positions on that side of the ball.

In any sport, you deal from depth and the hand that was dealt to the Bombers was that they were suddenly painfully thin at the linebacker spot (OLB Ike Charlton was injured as well) while they had some wiggle room on their front four. Canada was an attractive figure to other teams, Moreno was on the board and the chance to get him is tough to pass up.

I picked up the Free Press today, its front-page lug teasing a story about the whole saga with the question “who got the best of the deal?”

Turns out I couldn’t find a story inside that actually answered that question, although I didn’t look too hard for it, admittedly.

No one should have to tell you the answer to such a painfully obvious question.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are close to my heart. I have a history with them within my family for the better part of five decades. The old championship teams of the late 1950s would convene at times in my grandparents’ house in Selkirk and our family continues to hold season tickets for the better part of the last three decades.

We obtained season tickets in the early 80s and the lineage from there has never broken. I’m still a proud Winnipeg Blue Bomber fan, and I can’t, and won’t, hide that. If you’re covering sports, you’re not good at it if you don’t admit that you have some allegiances.

When you cover a team, however, you need to put that aside and, hopefully, assess that group with an unbiased perspective.

When you live and work in a city like Winnipeg — there is truly only a small handful of media outlets working diligently on the local football team — perhaps that tight-knit relationship between the media and the subjects makes it difficult for anyone to really say their piece. These days, however, someone has to.

TV stations — especially local networks of any city — aren’t in the position to editorialize stories. Newspapers are granted the most space and liberty to unleash opinion and incite debate.

Still waiting for that to happen in Winnipeg.

Charles Roberts was dealt to the B.C. Lions late Monday night, ending a Bomber era that sends one of its finest running backs into the colours of another team. And all in the name of a shake up to try to right the wrongs of a 2-7 outfit.

Surely the Roberts deal is a wake-up punch in the face to those team members who still remain, a reminder that no one is untouchable, especially when playing like garbage. That doesn’t mean it’s not a deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic
kind of move.

Yet here are the Bombers 10 weeks into a CFL season that held such promise from the outset, wasting away in an embarrassing effort that smacks of the Jeff Reinbold era. Problem No. 1? This team, almost entirely the same from a year ago, fooled followers and media into believing that it was legit because of last season’s run to the Grey Cup game. Yet it’s not true when considering the same glaring deficiencies that exist now were also there last season.

The names have changed in places, but the picture remains the same.

Kevin Glenn is still the same quarterback who stares into the eye of one receiver — and one receiver alone — before releasing a pass. Ryan Dinwiddie is still raw and unrefined and Brian Randall is still .. not getting a look whatsoever. Timmy Chang, for heaven’s sake, was brought in this weekend, the Bombers essentially saying we’d rather roll the dice with a complete newcomer than give our third-stringer the slightest sniff.

And we’re still waiting for the one Winnipeg media outlet — just one — to step up and call it as it is: No more abstract terms, no more searching for answers, no more letting the players and coaches off the hook, no more “it’s one play here or there-” type B.S. And no letting it slide that the trade of Roberts is somehow going to make this team better.

We all know it won’t.

General manager Brendan Taman has battled to find the right mix but his latest efforts come off more as a guy trying to save his Tetris game: Quick moves and shuffles with no reason other than to stave off the end. Month after month has been spent trying to find a kicker and that’s produced absolute bubkus. A gigantic contract was handed to Glenn even though he hadn’t shown a consistent ability to be one of the league’s marquis pivots. And there’s been absolutely no sign of Winnipeg developing a future option at QB when it’s been painfully obvious that Dinwiddie isn’t the cure here.

As good as Taman has been in unearthing talent, perhaps this year’s rendition of the Bombers is the bleaching spotlight that exposes everyone, and he’s the head of it all.

A stalwart defence, a promising crop of youngsters and easily the best receiver stable in the CFL and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have two wins to show for it.

There’s failure on many levels and blind optimism everywhere. Would someone in Winnipeg please step up and say so?

The non-waiver trade deadline in Major League Baseball has passed and once again it is the usual suspects who are making all the noise.

The Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, Dodgers and White Sox all dipped their feet into significant transactions over the past couple of days but it was the Yankees who — big surprise — were the most active.

Active doesn’t always mean most successful but you’d be hard-pressed to argue with what the Yankees did in their attempt to stay competitive in the American League East. The Yanks ripped Damaso Marte and Xavier Nady from the Pirates, then shifted mediocre hurler Kyle Farnsworth to Detroit to get catcher Ivan Rodriguez who suddenly became quite valuable when the Yanks learned they were losing Jorge Posada for the season.

Yet, in terms of media hype, the Red Sox trumped what the Yankees did (and that’s not easy to do) with the assistance of Manny Ramirez and his very public trade demand. Sending Ramirez out of the AL to the Dodgers and getting Jason Bay back in return from Pittsburgh doesn’t seem like Executive of the Year type material for GM Theo Epstein, but the young gun deserves some love here. After all, he isn’t getting it anywhere else on the Internet.

Sportsnet.ca’s Scott Carson said the Red Sox “regressed” at the deadline while ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark put them in his “losers” column of deadline winners and not-winners. Stark’s opinion is a respected one but his logic for lumping the Sox into that category is pretty thin. Stark says the Sox lose “because this trade marks the end of a special era in the life of their team. They have a different aura now than they had a week ago.” He goes on to quote an unnamed AL GM as saying “I’ve seen what he does to pitchers. I’ve seen how he changes games. They’ll miss that. That’s all I can say.”

I can accept that but I’m not overly high on abstract arguments like “this ends a special era in Boston.”

But here’s why Epstein should be given at least a small tip of the hat: When your megastar goes into the media and says he’s ready to leave, that his team should trade him and that he’s not happy in his situation, it suddenly handcuffs the organization that is now being asked to make a move. If you’re hanging by your fingernails, you won’t often find a lot of opposing teams willing to lend an extra hand to pull you back up. The Red Sox parlayed Ramirez into a player who is, by all accounts, a good lockerroom guy and a positive influence with numbers that are only slightly lower than ManRam’s over the past two seasons. He’s younger, cheaper and he’ll be around next year too.

With all that being said, the Dodgers are also a team pleased with their stature now as they try to chase down Arizona in the NL West even though there is at least a 40 per cent chance that this blows up in their face. Does Ramirez suddenly make the Dodgers a World Series contender? Likely not but he makes them an intriguing team to watch over the final half of the season and easily one of the National League teams that you wouldn’t want to face in the post-season. I suppose that’s what Manny epitomizes: A big question mark.

As Stark writes: “No one knows what the Dodgers are going to get from their man Manny these next two months. Not Joe Torre. Not Scott Boras. Not even Manny himself. But it won’t be all good. We know that. Not when you have a slightly whacked-out man on a shameless money mission. Not when the manager has to figure out how to play five “regular” outfielders on one roster. And not, certainly, when Manny puts a glove on his hand.”

And that’s a WINNER in his column. So L.A. meet Mr. Ramirez.

The only other team with more things to juggle now is the White Sox who had Ken Griffey, Jr., greenlight a deal to the South Side that took him away from the Cincinnatti Reds.

(Quick side bar here: Listening to Bob McCown’s Primetime Sports yesterday with ESPN’s Dan Schulman on as a guest and it has forced me to plea with sportscasters around the continent to please, on second and ensuing references, just call him Griffey or, even, Griffey, Jr. Schulman, whom I really like, and McCown, whom I tolerate, went back and forth in a 10 to 15-minute interview and on 98% of references to the slugger insisted on referring to him as Ken Griffey, Jr., over and over and over. “This is not the Ken Griffey, Jr., of the Seattle Mariners, it’s not the Ken Griffey, Jr., that arrived in Cincinnatti hoping to resurrect that team, it is an older Ken Griffey, Jr., and I’m not sure that Ken Griffey, Jr., has the kind of impact that the White Sox believe they’ll get out of Ken Griffey, Jr. I don’t know why the White Sox are interested in trading for Ken Griffey, Jr., or where they even have a spot in their lineup now for Ken Griffey, Jr.” … My point is: We get it. He’s the younger son of Ken Griffey, Sr.)

Unfortunately McCown is somewhat right. (I hate it when people make logical points but do it in an annoying fashion that just begs you to disagree.) The White Sox are flush in the outfield, but Griff isn’t an everyday outfielder anymore, anyway. And they’re already set to go at designated hitter with Jim Thome, so the only spot that really seems logical for him is to split time with Paul Konerko at first base. So there isn’t a NEED for Griffey, Jr., but in the world of the MLB, necessity isn’t always the fuel that runs the machine. These are teams that have money to throw around and Griffey, Jr., is the type of player who usually inherits that cash. “The Aging Veteran Whose Legend Is Big Enough To Make Him An Intriguing Option To See If He Still Has Anything Left In The Tank Guy.”  OR TAVWLIBETMHAIOTSIHSHALITG for short.

The Blue Jays *yawn* stood pat and found no takers for … well, anyone. The team that was in need of offence the most didn’t make a push, once again proving that while the media and fans like to think they’re still in the race for a post-season spot, the Jays — and logic — are telling you differently.

See you in 2009.

Watched the ESPY’s on Sunday night and learned a few things other than the very obvious fact that we have way too many award shows and the only thing we needed less than more award shows was more people covering what people at award shows are wearing.

If an actual human being is at the far right of Darwin’s Evolution of Man chart, then entertainment reporters are the far left with sports reporters walking a little more upright. Although, when sports networks start setting up shop on or near a red carpet, that disparity becomes a little more blurred.

Now, that being said, there were some things to be learned from this year’s ESPY’s. And here, in easy to read point-form, are what those things are:

• America still loves a feel-good story: The Western Oregon-Central Washington women’s softball game won the Best Moment category giving every sports columnist in North America the chance to write the following:
> “The triumph of the human spirit…”
> “This is what sports is really about …”
> “The love of the game …”
> Any comparisons between “greedy” professional athletes and amateurs who “get it.”

None of this is to degrade the moment. Great moment. Just sayin’: These are the stories that pave the moral high road that a lot of columnists use to get to work.

• America doesn’t like snow: Want an ESPY? Skiers and hockey players need not apply. In fact, ice skaters, snowboarders, bobsledders, lugers, skeleton…uhhh skeleton-ers… you all can RSVP without feeling guilty too. Snow-sport athletes were 0-for-4 in categories that weren’t specific to their sports.

• Justin Timberlake is *glub* not all that putrid. Seriously: This isn’t going to go over well with the testosterone-loaded sports reader who sees weakness in a man who sings even a note higher than Johnny Cash. But the odd and dice-rolling decision to let N-Sync’s most (only) successful export host the show didn’t end up in mass failure. Sure, there was an uncomfortable song-and-dance routine in the middle of the show that didn’t have the over-the-top charm of last year’s LeBron James-Bobby Brown send-up, but all in all Timberlake was … Oh lord here I go … he was pretty good, OK? He was funny. There I said it. Get off me.

• Still searching: While all the PR types and image consultants finally found a way to make Peyton Manning likable and appear to have a modicum of personality, those same people haven’t found the cure for whatever afflicts brother Eli. One moment that showed it perfectly was early on when Timberlake riffed on Eli for finally “getting to see a naked lady” after his Super Bowl win and it took the younger Manning a good four to five seconds to realize he should at least fake a laugh. Um, he’s uncomfortable with being out in society it would appear.

• Greg Oden is the next Shaq: Yes, this revelation was big enough to title the whole dang post. The Ohio State big man may never play a game in the NBA and with his knee troubles already having wrecked his rookie year, there’s a 10-1 bet in Vegas that he won’t, but if he at least hovers around the Association he might just be able to take over Shaq’s role as “Lovable Big Man With Goofy Disposition Who Appears To Have No Personality But Is Actually Really Funny.” Shaq’s the best quote in the NBA and when the Diesel decides to walk away, Oden can move in. Keep your eye on this and tell me how right I was five years from now.

And finally …

• The Little Guy can’t win: I love ESPN. Go to its web site. Read its magazine. Curse my country because we have TSN instead. But the Worldwide Leader got off on the wrong foot with me during the broadcast, awarding the Best Upset award to the New York Giants, resulting in me actually groaning in disagreement and then feeling shame because I displayed a visceral human emotion elicited by the ESPY’s.

The Giants Super Bowl win over the previously undefeated New England Patriots (you heard about that game, yes?) won the Best Upset award over the likes of Appalachian State beating Michigan in the Big House, 38-1 shot Da’Tara winning the Belmont, and Fresno State beating Georgia for the College World Series.

First off, because horse racing isn’t a sport, I can understand Da’Tara not getting the ESPY oat bag here.

Now, because college baseball hasn’t ever garnered the same unconditional love, interest and attention as its post-secondary brother, it’s understandable that Fresno State’s victory didn’t quite register. Unfortunate as that is because the Fresno run to the CWS was arguably one of the great underdog stories in the history of sports: 33-27 unranked team? Check. Needed to win conference tournament just to get in the NCAAs? Check. No MLB draft picks in the post-season lineup? Check. Win SIX elimination games to stay alive? Check. Knock off Nos. 2, 3, 6, 8 to become first ever 4-seed to win title? Check, check, check, check.

Heck, their flight to Omaha was re-routed and landed 50 miles outside the city on their way to the tournament and they were even forced out of their regular stadium for practices because it was damaged when a stolen car had crashed into the blessed thing!

Buuuuut, maybe that’s too many upsets to qualify for the singular upset award.

Appalachian State? Going on the road as a 1-AA school to a stadium of 110,000 people to beat the winningest program in NCAA history should trump the Giants considering that two NFL teams are, for the most part, on even footing. No one even knew where they were from. Heck, watch the YouTube clip and the announcer pronounces the school’s name two different ways.

When AppState dropped the big M, it took mere minutes for the “greatest upset in sports history” arguments to begin.

It likely was. Just not on Sunday on a big stage when the big leagues get the big hype.

For this category, I’ll gladly take Coco Hillary over Plaxico Burress.