Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Mustangs Lose 89-80 to Guelph Phoenix


Tonight Wed. Dec. 30th the Guelph Phoenix defeated the Mustangs 89-80 at historic Thames Hall on the campus of the University of Western Ontario. The Guelph Phoenix a Men's Club team who consists of many former great OUA and NCAA players (including former Mustangs Greats Matt Curtis '09 and Andrew Kwiatkowski '02) went on a 6-0 run to start the 2nd half which the Mustangs would never recover from. The Mustangs Andy Wedemire (pictured right) dominated inside and out scoring a game high 34 pts. Garrett Olexiuk chipped in 16ts and Ryan Barbeau 12pts. 
The Mustangs next game is Sunday Jan. 3rd when they take on Rochester Institute of Technology at 3:30pm at Alumni Hall during the 52nd annual High School Purple & White Senior Boys basketball Tournament Jan 2nd & 3rd (for tournament draw scroll down a few posts). 

Garrett Olexiuk Wins Annual Mustangs Poker Tournament


On Tuesday Dec. 29th at approximately 10:55pm, Garrett Olexiuk won the annual Mustangs Texas Hold 'em Poker Tournament.  All team members as well as the coaching staff battled for bragging rights to be this year's champion. The final table included rookie Greg Edelsward, coach Matt Tweedie (who hosted the event) and Garrett.  

Former Champions:
2007 Brett Lawrence 
2008 Brad Smith 
2009 Garrett Olexiuk (pictured right with the trophy)

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Mustangs vs. Guelph Phoenix Wed Dec. 30 7pm Alumni Hall


Mustangs will play the Guelph Phoenix, a Men's club team with many former OUA stars, Wed Dec. 30th at 7pm at Alumni Hall. The Phoenix feature former Mustangs Andy Kwiatkowski '02 and Matt Curtis '09. This will be a great tune up for the Mustangs as they begin OUA West league play Jan. 6 on the road vs. the University of Windsor.

Picture - Ryan Barbeau  
  

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Western Athletics Top 10 of 2009: #7 Men's basketball team run to CIS Nationals


For link Click Here 
From Andy Watson 
LONDON, Ont. - The Western Mustangs men's basketball team came within seconds of qualifying for the national final and unseating the eventual CIS champion Carleton Ravens.

Senior guard Matt Curtis (Hamilton, Ont.) drained a pair of free-throws from the charity stripe in the closing seconds to give Western a 65-64 lead, before Stuart Turnbull beat Western defensive pressure to drain an unbelievable fade-away shot at the buzzer to spoil Western's efforts. Click here to read the full story.

The Mustangs lost to the Ravens in the Wilson Cup final at Alumni Hall, but experienced a huge surge in attendance, opening both sides of the gym for the Wilson Cup and the OUA West final against Windsor.

Guard Curtis is now coaching with the team, while forward Brad Smith is playing professionally in England. 

The CIS Final 8 tournament is in Ottawa at the Scotiabank Place before returning East in 2011.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Western's Top Ten of 2009 - Brad Smith Goes Pro

Western Athletics is running a Top Ten of 2009. Recent mention of Brad Smith and his Pro deal in the UK. Click there

Friday, December 18, 2009

Happy Holidays


On behalf of the Backcourt Club and the 2009-2010 Mustangs
Happy Holidays

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Player Profile

David Harder #8

Player Position: F

Height: 6'5 

Academic program Sociology

Year in Program 2

Year on Team 1

Personal goal for this season: National Championship

Team goal for this season: National Championship

Hometown: Copenhagen

High School & Coach: Falko

Club Team: SISU Basketball

Proudest Basketball Moment: Danish National U20 Championship

Career Ambition: Get a degree, and maybe a masters after… live a happy life

Family Members: Mom, Dad, Sister

Favourites

NBA team/Player: Carmelo

Sport Other Than Basketball: Squash

Meal: Mom’s chicken with peanutbutter sauce

Subject in School: social science

Lucky Number: 22

Movie: Resevoir Dogs
Musical Group/ Artist: Pink Floyd

Brief quote on the experience of being a student & playing basketball at Western It is a tremendous opportunity to get an education, play basketball, see the world and have fun all at the same time.

Monday, December 14, 2009

52nd Annual Purple & White Senior Boys Basketball Tournament


The 52nd Anuual Purple & White Senior Boys High School Basketball Tournament will take place January 2 and 3 2010 at Alumni and Thames Halls on the campus of the University of Western Ontario. Below is the Tournament Draw. Stay tuned for a tournament preview coming soon.....
Jan 2nd
@ Thames Hall
Game 1 9am Cambridge Southwood vs. London Oakridge
Game 2 10:30am Stoney Creek Orchard Park vs. Sarnia St. Christopher's
Game 3 12:00pm Tecumseh St. Anne's vs. London St. Thomas Aquinas
Game 4 1:30pm Hamilton Bishop Ryan vs. Ottawa Ashbury
Game 9 3:00pm Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6
Game 10 4:30m Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6
Game 11 6:00pm Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8
Game 12 7:30pm Loser Game 7 vs Loser Game 8
@ Alumni Hall
Game 5 9am Branford North Park vs. London Banting
Game 6 10:30am London H.B. Beal vs. Sarnia Northern
Game 7 12:00pm Dundas Parkside vs. London Wesminster
Game 8 1:30pm Oakville St. Thomas Aquinas vs. Windsor Riverside
Game 13 3:00pm Winner game 1 vs Winner Game 2
Game 14 4:30pm Loser game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
Game 15 6:00pm Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4
Game 16 7:30pm Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4
Jan.3rd
Championship Semi-finals 1:30pm
Championship Final 5:30pm
Consolation Semi- Finals 12:00pm
Consolation Final 5:30pm
**Note: Western vs. Rochester Institute of Tech 3:30pm Alumni Hall
Admission $3 per game
Day Pass $5
Tournament Pass $8

Friday, December 11, 2009

Former Mustang Alex Brzozowicz Honoured as Academic All-Canadian


On Thursday December 10th at the Great Hall on the campus of the University of Western Ontario, 101 Western student athletes were honoured as academic all-canadians, including former basketball great Alex Brzozowicz. The recognition was for the 2008-2009 academic year. 
Alex spent two seasons with the Mustangs (2007-2009) and is a graduate of the  Richard Ivey Business School.  Alex was also honoured in 2008-2009 for his academic prowess as he was selected as the OUA West's Ken Sheild award winner and also selected as the inaugural winner of the Boydell Award of Excellence (honouring excellence in Basketball, Academics and Community Service). 

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Brad Smith Experience: Part 3



I would love to say its beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in England, but I would be lying. Despite the most ridiculous amount of Christmas lights this one house has on my street, you could never tell. Rain, rain and more rain is all that is happening here, and it is pretty depressing at times. It does make you appreciate a nice sunny day a little more though. Times have been pretty tough for my team and I, we have still yet to win a regular season game. We have been very close, losing to a buzzer beater a few weeks ago (which brought back a horrible feeling), and our losing margin is only 8 points. Hopefully, we can get a couple of wins to close out the first half of the season. Personally, I am doing my best to help the team, averaging 27 points (first in the league) and 9 rebounds (third). We are headed to Plymouth this weekend, so hopefully we can find a way to win.
Went to London this past weekend and had a great time. Got to see pretty much everything there is to see. It is a pretty incredible city, everything is so close and compact which makes it easy to see and visit everything. Plus their subway system (or Tube as they call it here) is really incredible and makes it very easy to get around. Also, got to go to the Maple Leaf Pub, which was their take on a Canadian bar. It was very funny and interesting to be in there. Hockey night in Canada was on from Saturday night, and the Leafs were getting destroyed by the Bruins, which didn’t surprise me. They only had Sleeman on tap, which was a bit disappointing. Other than that, I am getting very excited to come home for Christmas to see my family and friends. I am also looking forward to get back to Western to see everyone and practice with the team, maybe throw some elbows around like old times (sorry Andy, Garret in advance). Hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays, take care,
Brad Smith.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Player Profile

Joshua Windsor #10

Height: 6'4

Player Position: Forward

Academic program: Social Sciences

Year in Program: 2

Year on Team: 2

Personal goal for this season: Better my game every day.

Team goal for this season: National Championship

Hometown: Hamilton

High School & Coach: Bishop Ryan, Kevin Daly

Club Team: Blessed Sacrament

Proudest Basketball Moment: 2008 OBA Champions

Biggest Role Model: Parents / Brother

Career Ambition: Get a good job.

Family Members: Dad- Joseph, Mom – Jola, Brother - Nate

Where do you see yourself in 10 years: Making the best out of whatever I have.

Favourites

NBA team/Player: Lakers/Kobe Bryant

Sport Other Than Basketball: Baseball

Meal: BBQ Ribs

Subject in School: Psychology

Lucky Number: 10

Movie: Serpico
Musical Group/ Artist: Eminem / Jay-Z

Favourite quote/ saying: The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.

Brief quote on the experience of being a student & playing basketball at Western - It’s been great to be able to experience things most people never get a chance to, and have it take me places where I would have never been if it weren’t for basketball.


Monday, December 7, 2009

Mustangs Host Local Club Teams For Skills Clinic



The Western Mustangs hosted the St. Thomas Shock and the London Ramblers U10 boys teams this evening in a skills clinic at Thames Hall. Coach Campbell introduced himself and the Mustangs players, then put the local players through some foot work and ball handling skill drills to get the players warmed-up. Mustangs players then instructed the kids in three station groups: primary offence, 2 on 0 passing and deny defence. After the skills stations the Mustangs players took on the local kids in several 5 on 5 games to see how the kids would match-up. To finish the evening Garrett Olexiuk and Andy Wedemire competed in a dunk competition (Garrett won with a toss off the backboard two hand tomahawk jam).
The Mustangs would like to thank the coaches and parents of the Shock & Ramblers and of course the players from each team for their attendance.
Watch Rogers TV Thursday for their piece on todays skills clinic
Pictured Right - Mustang Ryan Barbeau & London Rambler Jacob

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Captain's Blog


Well, the first half of our season is over now. We finished OUA Eastern conference league play with a mediocre 5-3 record. The past three months have been filled with many ups and downs. A winless weekend in Rochester back in October certainly marked our rock bottom. However, the team rebounded back from the October blues and found its second wind for the first half of league play. We opened the season with two convincing wins over Laurentian and York at home, which helped us get off to a good start in addition to gaining positive momentum heading forward. Although we dropped two games the following weekend to U of Ottawa, and the number one ranked Carleton Ravens, we left the nations capital having gained a valuable experience. Losing by only 11 points to the Gee-Gee’s and 8 points to the Ravens it is clear that we have to talent and athleticism to compete with the top teams in the country. As a team we must commit to defence and sharp offensive execution in order to achieve success at the highest level. The following weekend we bounced back with 2 monumental wins, the first coming against RMC on Friday night followed by another against a tough Queen’s team Saturday afternoon. We knew this weekend would be huge for us and two wins would make all the difference as opposed to splitting the weekend going 1 and 1. Going into the half up by only 1 Saturday we knew it was going to be a fight coming down stretch. Thankfully, Coach Campbell’s inspiring halftime pep talk elevated us to the next level, as we went on to outscore Queen’s 26-14 in the third quarter which would ultimately decided the game.

This past weekend we travelled to Toronto to take on Ryerson and UofT. Unfortunately we came away 1-1, with a win against Ryerson on Friday, and loosing to UofT Saturday evening. Saturday’s loss was a real let down, mostly due to the fact that it was a game we were completely capable of winning. We managed to get away at the half with a 2 point lead, however, in the second half our defense crumbled. UofT has some big time shooters. We did a poor job a challenging their looks in the second half which ended up costing us the game.

So with OUA East league play in books its time for us to start preparing for the REAL season that’s ahead of us. I refer to the West as our real season because that’s when the real fun begins. The true rivalries go head to head, and each battle is taken a little more personally. As Christmas exams quickly sneak up on all of us, we’ve got this week off from practice to catch up school work and prepare for mid-year exams, in addition to refocusing mentally for the second half of the season that awaits us. That being said, we are still in weight room working on our strength, and our December schedule is peppered with mandatory practice times to ensure our endurance doesn’t slip.

I’m looking forward to OUA West league play and building on our success. Together the team will challenge each other and compete with one another everyday in preparation for victory. Have a safe and happy holidays.

All the best,

Garrett Olexiuk