The Ryerson Rams basketball teams have had great seasons, in some cases record breaking, and have netted themselves first round byes in theĀ Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoffs. Though the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) finals are just around the corner, the Rams cannot look too far ahead. The OUA playoffs begin this week.
Ryerson hosts the menās CIS final eight tournament in March and though that can seem to be the most important, the OUA playoffs are something the teams want to do well in.
Both menās and womenās coaches agree that there ways they can improve.
āWeāre certainly not content,ā said womenās coach Carly Clarke. āI love our pieces. I think weāre just so well-rounded. Weāve got strengths at every single position which makes us really, really tough.ā
Menās coach Roy Rana said he wants to work on the teamās defence. āWeāve just got to get better defensively,ā he said. āAs good as we are, I think we just need to be a little bit more consistent.ā
Both teams secured the number 3 seed in the OUA and get to sit out the first round. Finishing third means the teams will face the winners of the six versus 11 seed matchups.
The womenās team finished with a school record 16 wins in the 2014-2015 season. The womenās CIS final eight tournament is at Laval University in Quebec and Ryerson is not guaranteed a spot. The OUA playoffs are the only focus right now.
They will play either number 6 Ottawa or number 11 Carleton. These teams are top teams on the menās side but their womenās teams have records of 14-5 and 9-10 respectively.
On the menās side the Ryerson men face either number 6 Western, with a record of 12-8, or number 11 Laurier (7-13). The Rams men won all their games against these teams this season.

Ryerson’s basketball team isn’t guaranteed a spot in the women’s CIS final eight tournament. (Alex Lyle/Ryersonian Staff)
The womenās team had the second highest points per game (PPG) in the OUA. Keneca Pingue-Giles led the way in that regard with 17.5 points a game, fourth best in the OUA. Sofia Paska had 10.6 PPG and 5.5 rebounds to help the cause.
The top players on the menās side for Ryerson have had some good stats this season in the run-up to the playoffs. Jahmal Jones continues to lead the team with 17.2 PPG. Thatās good enough for tenth in the OUA. He says the team is thinking big.
āWeāre at the stage where losing is not an option now, so we have no choice but to keep winning,ā said Jones. āWe donāt know how (many) games weāve won so far, we just want to keep going and be consistent. Thatās all that matters.ā
Aaron Best had 14.6 PPG this season while Kadeem Green led the team in rebounds with 6.8 per game and had the OUAās third best shooting percentage, at 58 per cent.
The first round games that Rams teams will be waiting on take place Wednesday night. The Rams playoff games against those winners will be on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the MAC.
This story also appeared in The Ryersonian, a weekly newspaper produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism, on Feb. 25, 2015.
Writing, reading and watching sports is what I love to do. Being Sports editor for the Ryersonian was a great experience.
Connor graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism in 2015.