Headlines to begin your September

-Canadian Interuniversity Sport football season kicked off last night, and we begin with an upset. Number 10 McMaster beat defending Vanier Cup champ Queen's 23-18 in what was, by all accounts, a thrilling game that featured one of the craziest plays we'll see all year, a 101-yard kick return by McMaster's Michael DiCore. Meanwhile, in a less publicized game, the GeeGees beat Windsor 23-14.

-The Canadian Journalism Project, jsource, drops a mention on the Toronto Sun/Pension Plan Puppets issue, which has miraculously made it two weeks without anybody ever having given it the suffix 'gate'. They linked back to a story where they criticized the Toronto Star for avoiding accreditation as well.

-Jose Bautista closes in on George Bell's 47 with his 43rd home run as the Blue Jays crushed the Devil Rays 13-5. The Jays put up a 10-spot in the sixth, but you probably didn't see that, because you probably didn't have Sportsnet One. You probably won't watch the Blue Jays today either, because you probably don't have Sportsnet One.

-In Cincinnati Red-land, Cuban Aroldis Chapman hit 103 mph on the radar gun in his Major League Debut. This somehow affects Toronto native, Joey Votto, who still leads the Major Leagues in OPS. The Reds are seven games up on the Cardinals and look to be a shoo-in for the playoffs.

-BC Lions defensive back and all-around CFL good guy Davis Sanchez will donate his game cheque from this week to the Tony Proudfoot foundation for ALS reserach. For a primer on the former Alouette diagnosed with ALS, here's a Bruce Arthur column from two weeks ago on the subject.

-Finally, the Canadian basketball team dropped their fourth straight at the FIBA World Championship with a 71-61 loss to New Zealand. You may have missed my ivory tower hemming and hawing from last night, which chronicled Canada's struggles in the fourth quarter. At least in this morning's game, they looked

Canada virtually eliminated from contention at worlds

It came down to a split-second, head-scratching decision by guard Denham Brown, but after a third consecutive game with a poor finish, the Canadian team at the FIBA World Championships find themselves at 0-3 and an almost inescapable hole after a 68-63 loss to the French.

The Canadian team has been bad in the fourth quarter this tournament. We can sugarcoat it as much as we like; 'It's a young team,' 'It's all a learning experience' and 'Heck--we weren't even supposed to be here anyway!'

Those are all valid points against Lebanon or Lithuania, where Canada fell into either foul trouble or poor shooting, but against France, with just seconds to go and down by three, Brown drove to the hoop for a layup instead of kicking the ball outside for a three-point play that would have tied the game. Perhaps Brown was thinking he could draw the foul, hence his awkward delivery.

It did not help that Canada was just 6 for 20 from beyond the arc in the game, including 0 for 6 in the fourth quarter, or that the team failed to make a field goal in the last 2:45 of the game, where Brown threw down a layup to give the Canadians a 60-59 lead.

An, err, out of shape Boris Diaw made a clutch three pointer for the French, and they held it together with better shooting from the line as the seconds ticked away.

For the geeks, here are the boxscores from Canada's first three games:

[Canada 63 - France 68]
[Canada 68 - Lithuania 70]
[Canada 71 - Lebanon 81]

By the time you're reading this, Canada will probably be playing against New Zealand. That will be on TSN2, and is Canada's best chance for a win down the stretch.

Meet Team Canada... no, no, the OTHER Team Canada

The Canadian team, ranked 19th in the world, for the 2010 World FIBA basketball championships in Turkey was officially announced Friday afternoon.

The full roster can be found at the Official FIBA tournament website.

There are some familiar names for hardcore fans in there. Andy Rautins, of course, started for Syracuse in the Big East last season and was drafted this summer by the New York Knicks. Joel Anthony, the only other NBAer on the roster came off the bench and played 16 minutes a game with the Miami Heat last season. The 28-year old post has played all three of his seasons there.

Rautins has had injury troubles in the lead-up to the tournament but it does not look like that will be a problem heading into the tournament.

Canada plays in Group D, with Lebanon, Lithuania, France, New Zealand and Spain. The top four teams after group play advance to the Round of 16, which will then lead to a single-knockout tournament until the final on September 12th.

Here's the Canadian schedule,

August 28th, 11:30 am EST - vs. Lebanon
August 29th, 9:00 am EST - vs. Lithuania
August 31st, 11:30 am EST - vs. France
September 1st, 9:00 am EST - vs. New Zealand
September 2nd, 9:00 am EST - vs. Spain

All games will be on TSN2, who broke down and got the TV rights to the tournament earlier this month. The network will also show the semifinal and final.

Hoser headlines, the Sunday morning update

The most important thing we can do on a Sunday, before we blast you with irrelevant news on Canadian sports figures throughout the week, is show you a picture of Jon Ryan, a punter for the Seattle Seahawks from Regina, Saskatchewan:

He's a great punter.

Here is Tyler Dellow of mc79hockey offering up how the NHL will ruin Internaional hockey, by elimination Olympic competition. Dellow is responding to a stupid Bleacher Report post from a Leafs fan who will back every move.

Simeon Jackson scored his first goal in the Coca-Cola Championship. That's English soccer for you North Americans.

Canada's representatives at the Little League World Series, from Little Mountain in Vancouver, won their opening game 4-2 against Panama. Apparently tacky pants were involved, but I don't have a picture.

Saint John's Matt Stairs hit for a record 21st pinch hit home run on Saturday. As the great Jonah Keri pointed out, CANADIANZ IN UR BASEBALZ, EATING UR RECURDZ

Finally, Something's Bruin has the definitive recap on the Pension Plan Puppets/Toronto Sun snafu that's being going on. You can find it here.

Basically, a newspaper from a major chain stole something from a blog. From where I stand, that decreases the value of my own journalism degree. I should sue. A newspaper writer is different from a blogger because he or she has already established a level of trust, and when a newspaper man does anything to lessen that level of trust, we are all affected.

But let's turn the subject. Don Cherry thinks that the Toronto Maple Leafs will make the playoffs, and the Phoenix Coyotes will return to Winnipeg within the year.

Finally, a good piece by the guys at Hoops Head North explaining the future of Canadian basketball and what we must do to get on top. After all, our own James Naismith invented the game. By the way, the FIBA World Championship will now be on TSN2.

That it? Stay patient for the updated Excitement Rankings later. I suggest sitting there and constantly refreshing the page.

Canadian basketball team prepares for worlds; Canada doesn't

Last night at the Air Canada Centre, the Canadian senior men's team defeated the French national team 59-68 in preparation for the 2010 FIBA World Championships.

The FIBA World Championships, unlike the IIHF hockey championship, is not played in season, thus actually attracts pretty solid teams. The Americans, for example, are sending Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Lamar Odom, Rudy Gay and Derrick Rose. The Canadians have a few notables; while Steve Nash no longer plays internationally, Joel Anthony of the Miami Heat and two Gonzaga University standouts Robert Sacre and Kelly Olynyk are playing.

So how come, for a pre-tournament game, just 2,652 spectators showed up at the Air Canada Centre?

In the wake of the World Cup and the Olympics where we sat through all kinds of faux-sports purely in the interests of national pride, having fewer than 3,000 people to support the National team is just week.

Heck--go to the FIBA.com website, and take a look at the broadcast carriers for the tournament: Click, and scroll down and you'll see that Canada doesn't even have a TV broadcaster for the tournament.

Phone calls to Rogers and TSN were, of course, not returned, but I was able to get in touch with somebody at the CRTC who said that while he had no idea what the tournament even was, there's a good chance that international basketball doesn't appeal enough to Canadians to get one of our major sports carriers to cough up cash to show the events.

"If it's expensive, they'll probably pass on it and show us poker and darts instead," he told me.

Canada had four channels which offered pretty much round-the-clock Olympic coverage. Canada had two channels which shut off their regular programming for a month to show us the FIFA World Cup. The idea that one broadcaster won't bite the bullet to show a dedicated [very] few the FIBA World Championships shows our major sports carriers their business-savvy more than it does their commitment to complete sports programming.