The Lakehead Thunderwolves are drawing huge crowds in their cozy gym these days. With a capacity of about a thousand, the Thunderwolves are playing an exciting brand of basketball and are the hottest ticket in town with with a league-leading 7-1 record. The nationally-ranked #10 Thunderwolves will now head into the snakepit which is the OUA West schedule where they appear to be the favourites. They meet McMaster for two huge games this weekend at home.

The McMaster Marauders stumbled against the best teams in the East despite facing Toronto, Ottawa and Carleton all at home. Keenan Jeppesen has been the linchpin for this team all season but they need to get more scoring in their half court offense from the likes of Tyrell Vernon, Scott Laws and Cam Michaud. The possible addition of 6'9" Terry Licorish would be a huge boost to the McMaster offense. McMaster defends extremely well but must get their fast break going like it was back in October when they ran teams off the floor. This team needs to be focussed and unified if they are to make an uphill run at the OUA West title. They get league title contenders Lakehead and Windsor in three out of their first four games coming up.

How surprising was it not to see the Carleton Ravens at #1 in the CIS rankings at the break? That position belongs to the UBC Thunderbirds who are currently undefeated and rule the roost from the left coast. Led by All-Canadian candidate Josh Whyte, the Thunderbirds have had a cozy home schedule but are deep, talented and have great balance between offense and defense. They will definitely be in Ottawa come March and are the best team in a well balanced Canada West conference where S.F.U., Trintiy Western and Fraser Valley will be looking to knock them off their pedestal next year.

HIGH SCHOOL

Parity is definitely the word in Ontario basketball this year. Many of the GTA's traditional powers have come back to the pack because of heavy graduation losses and defections to prep schools south of the border. The road to Quad "A" OFSAA is wide open with any one of seven or eight teams in contention. A dark horse candidate out of Durham Region is J. Clarke Richardson H.S. which won the St. Francis Xavier Rimrocker tournament in Mississauga. Coach Mike McFetters has a strong squad led by point guard Courtney Dawkins and two elite scorers in 6'5" guard Aaron Redpath and power forward Leon Alexander 6'4". The Richardson squad needs to get past traditional powers Pickering H.S. and Pineridge H.S. and if they prevail, could go in as a top six seed at OFSAA.

Peel Region's Northern Conference (Brampton) is the most well-balanced league in the province this year. d'Youville, Campion, Notre Dame, Ascension and Sandalwood give this league the best depth top to bottom in Ontario. Whoever survives this bloodletting will represent Peel Region well at OFSAA and should get a very good seeding in March.

The most intriguing high school team in Ontario are the Loyola H.S. Hawks of Oakville. The Hawks have won four tournaments and have knocked off several of Toronto's finest teams. They have only lost to conference rival Holy Trinity and a strong case can be made that they are the best team in Ontario right now. They are not very big except for centre Mike Adams at 6'8" but are extremely skilled, have good quickness and outstanding balance on the perimeter with 6'2" Rohan Boney, 6'0" Troy Stevenson, 6'1" Adam Persutti and 5'11" point guard Mike L'Africain. This is a homegrown team and everyone lives within the Loyola catchment area. Their outstanding grade 10 shooter Peter Rusic 6'3" is out for the season with a knee injury. The Hawks are the heavy favourites this year for the Triple "A" OFSAA title and have the same balance and skill set as last year's St. Matthew's team out of Ottawa. Oakville has not had much success provincially except for T.A. Blakelock in the mid 1970's, St. Thomas Aquinas 1995-97 and of course Aquinas' win at Double "A" OFSAA recently. The Hawks will be at the Silver Fox tournament in Hamilton and the All Catholic tournament in St. Catherine's in early February.

THE RECRUITING TRAIL

Thornhill centre Stefan Nastic is currently the best senior prospect in Canada. The 6'11" Nastic is getting bigger, stronger and has a great feel for the game. At the Xavier RimRocker, he drew scouts from Georgetown, Marquette, U Cal Berkeley and Northwestern. Nastic is a superb student and can pretty much choose any high-major program he wants come next spring.

Oakville's Abbey Park centre Chris McLaughlin 6'9" is drawing attention from schools all over Canada with his sweet shooting touch and strong athletic ability. University of Victoria, U.B.C., Windsor, Western, Ottawa and McMaster have all taken note of his strong performance in league play including a 41-point outburst against Bishop Reding. McLaughlin is intrigued by playing university ball in the Vancouver area but OUA schools are working hard to keep him home come next year.

Sarnia St. Christopher's swingman Joe Rocca 6'3" has exploded on the provincial scene this year with several 30-point plus performances. Rocca is strong and aggressive and is a handfull for any high school defender to contend with. He is a good student and could come out this year. Windsor and Western are heavily involved and he is the best prospect to come out of Sarnia since Andy Wedemire led St. Pat's H.S. to an OFSAA title in 2005.

Stefan Cikvalj, a 6'4" swingman from Bluevale C.I. in Waterloo is the best senior prospect in CWOSSA this year. Stefan is a 90% plus student and a superb scorer. He has interest from several Ivy League schools.

The University of Western Mustangs are hoping to raid the Hamilton public school ranks this year and are heavily involved with Stoney Creek, Orchard Park H.S. forwards Taylor Black 6'7" and Satar Wahidi 6'6" as well as Bishop Ryan forward Cody Mazza 6'5" and Parkside guard Quinn Henderson 6'3". There is very little senior talent in the London area this year and the Mustangs have to go outside their traditional recruiting areas to find the talent they need.