The Canadian College Basketball Dynasty You’ve Never Heard Of
Now they occupy a peculiar spot in the narrative of Canadian basketball’s rise. While their countrymen root for the Canadians starring on NCAA and NBA rosters, the Ravens are left playing with no full scholarships, no major TV contracts, and no real sense of universitywide support.
Yet their most pressing challenge comes not from their limitations, but from their strengths. When your most reliable tests are meaningless exhibitions, when national championships are the status quo, then what do you have left to play for?
Three years later, the tournament is set to go in an altered form. The lead organizers, Vin Martelli and Jonathan Mugar, will later today unveil The Basketball Tournament, a 32-team five-on-five bracket with a $500,000 winner-take-all prize. The event will not be televised, though TBT may decide to live-stream the championship game, Mugar says. The lead investors have had ongoing talks with several national networks, and if the first tournament is a success, they will kick around the possibility of a future television deal or Internet-only broadcasting. But for now, they just want to see their vision play out from March through June. “This has been years in the making for us,” Mugar says.
Any legal U.S. resident over 18 can participate, though eligibility and contractual barriers would obviously bar active NCAA and NBA players from playing in a tournament for money. But part of the fun is seeing what kind of teams thoughtful folks put together.
In the world of the NCAA, the nicest stories are also the most cynical. They’re cynical precisely because of their niceness, because their niceness makes them appealing and their appeal makes them salable and their salability makes them untrustworthy even when they happen to be true. Noah Vonleh has a grin that could make you believe in Christmas and a story that could make you believe in Nike copywriters.
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