When it comes to the opening round of any playoff tournament, very rarely does the most anticipated game, and maybe the most engaging matchup, feature the top and bottom placed teams.
Usually, there's too much of a talent gap between the teams for the contest to be interesting. Usually, people are expecting a one-sided bloodbath.
That's not the case tonight.
As the top-seeded Ryerson Rams and the No. 8-ranked UBC Thunderbirds prepare for their clash in the CIS Men's Basketball Final 8 quarterfinals, scheduled for 8:00 p.m. (PT) this evening, UBC head coach Kevin Hanson noted that the strength of the CIS this season means that despite the disparity in seeding, there isn't much, if anything, separating the eight participating teams.
"The top teams from the conferences, if you look down the statistics, were all very similar in all categories offensively and defensively," said Hanson. "The top teams from each conference are coming here – there's not a weak team here, there wasn't an upset heading into the tournament. I think it's one of the toughest tournaments one through eight coming into this year."
UBC guard Jordan Jensen-Whyte (Calgary) admitted that while their might be some underdog stigma attached to the 'Birds, especially against Ryerson, who finished third in the country with an average of 89.3 points-per-game and feature a pair of OUA First-Team All-Star guards in Aaron Best and Adika Peter McNeilly, it can't affect the way that they prepare or attack the game.
"The underdog status is going to be applied regardless – people see eight versus one, and see the numbers, and it's going to come," said the 6-foot-6 combo guard. "We just have to take care of stuff that we know we're good at and we're going to do our best offensively and defensively, hopefully come out with the win tomorrow."
With both teams very effective in transition, Jensen-Whyte points to the physical mismatch between the two teams as an area the 'Birds need to take advantage of.
"We're a bigger team, so we're going to try and put that ball inside, and do some work down there."
As for host team, UBC is projecting a full house for the Thursday night matchup against the Rams, with an excess of 5000 people expected to be on hand when the 'Birds tip off at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
Outside of the matchup on the floor, the crowd could be one of the game's deciding factors, notes Jensen-Whyte.
"It's going to be huge. They've been promoting this for a while now, and it's great to have them at our back, knowing that we're doing this for Vancouver, doing this for Canada. It's going to be massive having them all here."
Ryerson head coach Patrick Tatham, recently named the 2016 CIS Coach of the Year, noted yesterday that the home court advantage might to UBC's detriment, causing undue pressure on the team heading into the tournament.
Hanson quickly laughed the notion off, saying "I absolutely love it, because the pressure is all on them. I'd rather be number eight than number in this tournament going in as the host seed. I think they've got something to live up to – people are expecting them to be a great show."
Thunderbirds forward Conor Morgan chimed in on the challenge of playing the number one seed, noting the mindset the entire locker room has going into the game.
"I think our team, we feel we're as good as anybody. I think it's a tough eighth seed for Ryerson to draw. We'll see what happens [tonight]."
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