'There's no NCAA kid better': Dave Smart on Phil Scrubb, Thomas Scrubb after Carleton Ravens win again

Between any Canadian baller whom TSN will be talking up during its coverage of that other hoops tournament and the Brothers Scrubb, Dave Smart will take his guys.

With Phil Scrubb scoring 28 points and handing out 10 assists to secure tournament MVP honours and Thomas Scrubb fulfilling his usual role as a 6-foot-5 left-handed Swiss Army Knife with his own double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds, the Carleton Ravens played near-perfectly in a 93-46 title-game win over rival Ottawa on Sunday in front of 3,917 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. That wraps up a 5-for-5 run during the siblings' Ravens tenure, which they should be allowed to savour before people debate their ceiling in the cutthroat pro basketball world.

"It's a little weird to think about this being our last game," said Phil Scrubb, who totalled 88 points across Carleton's three wins. :It was great to win with this group. We wanted to give it our best. We made some adjustments all throughout the year. Every time we lost we came back with a different focus. We lost three [starters] last year and a few other guys stepped up

Carleton actually lost twice in the regular season for the first time since 2009-10, the last time it failed to win the national title. Ottawa's two-point win on Jan. 10 hardly looked like an upset at the time. Two weeks later, the Ravens lost again, on the road to Windsor.

"All that happened throughtout the season, going through some adversity, it really made it satisfying to play our best at the end of the season," Thomas Scrubb said. "We've been fortunate enough to go undefeated in a few seasons. This season, with multiple tough games and multiple bad performanes, there was a different chip-on-our-shoulder feeling. We know teams want to beat us, always, but we weren't used to teams thinking they were better than us.

"It just felt natural that Phil and I had success together," he added. "Just seeing the success he had from the start [winning CIS rookie of the year in 2010-11 and his first player of the year award in 2011-12] just made me want to be on his level."

As for what level either Scrubb can reach professionally, it's tough to say. Reaching the topmost echelon, the NBA, depends on being able to perform extremely well at one facet of the game. The Scrubbs' respected well-roundedness might actually be a drawback, especially since guards are always more abundant than wings at the next level. Smart has had a number of Ravens find good fits overseas and is bent on helping the Scrubbs navigate their way into the pros.

Smart: 'They're right there with any of the (Canadian) kids who play in the NCAA'

Both have played with the senior men's national team and could be in the player pool for the Pan-Am Games, which was also be in Toronto.

"We'll talk to [Team Canada coach] Jay Triano and figure out what's best," Smart said. "There's been a lot of people talking from different levels. It's hard to say what they should do. We have to see what the opportunities are and pick the best fit. It's got to be a good ffit.

"[For the Pan-Ams] it depends on who's available," Smart added. "Each of them can compete. There's some special talents, with [young Canadian NBA players] Andrew [Wiggins] and Anthony [Bennett] and Kelly [Olynyk] and Cory [Joseph] — I'm forgetting Tristan Thompson.

"They're right there with any of the [Canadian] kids who play in the NCAA. There's no NCAA kid better than Tommy or Phil. I'm not saying they're better than those guys but they're in the same league."

In the here and now, Carleton found a way to make it work this season while having two stars who prefer to let their games speak. One critical element of Carleton's success is that the on-court leaders are usually also vocal leaders. Players who stay the full five seasons tend to follow a progression from follower to secondary leader to primary leader.

With the Scrubbs, other veterans had to do the talking. That was essential to Carleton righting the ship after losses two weeks apart in January to Ottawa and Windsor. That marked the first time since 2009-10, the last season that Carleton didn't win it all, that they had multiple regular-season losses.

"We were not in a good spot," Smart said. "Phil was beat up [with a leg injury]. The personality of the team took over — [fifth-year guard] Victor Raso, [fourth-year]Gavin Resch. The Scrubbs' work ethic is unbelievable but Vic and Gav provided the personality. And Connor Wood, for whatever reason, after the Windsor game, he flipped a switch and played at almost an all-Canadian level.

"When it was the first semester when the personality was Dave Smart, we weren't playing very well, which speaks to my personality," Smart added. "When the players took over we started playing well. The Scrubbs will do anything for anybody. They're not vocal leaders but they'll fight for anybody but they don't want to be vocal guys and it's hard for others to be vocal when there's two guys that good. But Gav and Vic saw we needed that and that was a difference."

Thomas Scrubb captured his second consecutive CIS defensive player of the year award. The older brother was probably Carleton's MVP over the entire season. This weekend was a proof that Phil Scrubb is on a plane no CIS player might reach so long as the league doesn't have true scholarships. Scrubb became much stronger at driving to his right, but the 22-year-old knows he's not completely developed.

"I'll play anywhere I can get," he said. "I have a lot of things to work on."

For anyone wondering, the two don't play 1-on-1 very often, which makes sense since they play different positions. Both have their money on the same guy. 

"I think I'd win," Thomas Scrubb said. "If things go badly I can always take Phil to the post."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.