VANCOUVER – The wait is over! After sitting idle last weekend, the UBC Thunderbirds kick off their 2022-23 Canada West basketball campaign this weekend with a home double-header against their Northern foes, the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves (0-2). War Memorial Gym will once again be a hot-bed of activity as Erin McAleenan's crew takes to the floor both Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm.
 
"We've been lucky, especially with such a young team, to have a long preseason this year. But we're excited to finally be able to get into some league games," said McAleenan, the second-year head coach who is happy with the speed, character and athleticism that her 2022-23 roster can produce. "When we're at our best we're pushing the ball and running in transition creating open, uncontested threes, or shots at the rim, within the first eight seconds of possession. We're a very unselfish team and any one of the five players on the floor at a given time can be a scoring threat for us. Our returning players from last season have improved a ton, and we're going to play an exciting brand of basketball."


 
The 'Birds youth is still their calling card, as only three of their rostered players have more than two seasons of experience at the U SPORTS level: Azalya Forstbauer, Hailey Counsell and Emily Martindale. But McAleenan hopes to weaponize that youth, and is confident in the fact that a season's worth of experiences from 2021-2022 will bode well for her team.
 
The head coach adds, "10 of our 16 players are now well-versed in how we do things, and especially when it comes to B.C. based opponents. That familiarity is going to help us. The results last season may not have been what we wanted, but we were in almost every single game we played. Now, being a year older, and a year more experienced and understanding our competition, ourselves, and how consistent we need to be with our training and our day-to-day performance – I like our chances."
 
The UNBC Timberwolves enter the weekend with an 0-2 record on the young season. They dropped a pair of home games last weekend to Trinity Western. They finished the 2021-22 campaign with an 8-10 record and will undoubtedly be a team that UBC will be fighting with all season for playoff positioning.


 
 "They have two international players (Alina Shakirova and Svetlana Boykova) in particular that are difficult to defend," observed McAleenan. "They're a team that runs a lot of good halfcourt sets, and can slow the game down in order to get the ball to either of those two players in scoring positions. For us it will be about managing the pace of the game, creating chances for ourselves in transition while also forcing them to play a fast brand basketball."
 
Tickets for both games this weekend at War Memorial Gym can be purchased here. You can also catch all of the live action via Canada West TV.