WINNIPEG – The No.5-seed UBC Thunderbirds (14-6) begin their run at a 12
th Canada West Championship on Wednesday when they take on the No.12-seed UNBC Timberwolves (9-11) in the play-in round of the new, five-day tournament to determine who takes the conference crown and goes to the U SPORTS Championships.
Canada West has adopted a different playoff format this year, inviting 12 teams to a pre-determined location for a four-round single-elimination tournament, rather than having higher seeds host playoff games as they did last year. The University of Manitoba is this year's host, with all games to be played in Winnipeg. The top four teams get a first round bye as the rest play in the four-game play-in round on Wednesday, followed by the quarter-finals on Thursday, a day off on Friday, then semi-final Saturday and Championship Sunday.
"We're going in with the mindset like this is an Olympic qualifier," remarked UBC Head Coach
Kevin Hanson, already a six-time Canada West champion. "Every team is good, you play multiple teams in a short period of time. You're not going to change a whole lot of what you do, our philosophies are in place, it's more about refining what you do. Your key guys have to be your key players in this tournament in order to move on."
While the 12 teams that qualify are determined by regular season record, the conference has also chosen to re-seed them entirely by
RPI, an unfortunate development for UBC. Were the seeding determined by record first with RPI as a tie-breaker, much like in Canada West volleyball, the 'Birds would have been the No.4-seed and avoided a play-in round game altogether. As it is, host Manitoba was seeded ahead of them in fourth, despite winning one fewer game, and will be waiting as a difficult second round test for the T-Birds, should they get through UNBC.
UBC is entering the playoffs on a high, coming off of a dominant drubbing of the U SPORTS No.5-ranked Calgary Dinos 107-75 in their regular season finale, marking the 'Birds' highest scoring output of the year.
"That was a pretty good game to head into the playoffs with, everyone's feeling pretty good about their shot," reflected Hanson, whose 363 career wins are the most among active men's basketball coaches in all of U SPORTS. "I think we did some good things, obviously hitting 15 threes in a game is going to give you some big bonus points. Everybody in this tournament can really play some defence, so scoring is going to be crucial. I think that this year we have some of the best teams we've seen in the conference in a long time. It's going to be some great basketball being played."
While Hanson praised the defensive ability of all of this year's playoff teams, none held opponents to a lower field goal percentage than his group over the course of the regular season. The T-Birds were also top five in Canada West in rebounding margin, blocks and net efficiency.
"On that side of the ball we're focused on defending the pick and roll game," commented Hanson. "That's probably the one tactical thing that we've got to improve upon and out of that get points in transition. I think that's what we did last week, we were successful at getting our stops and turning those stops into some easy buckets. Our guys really seem to catch the flow when that's working for us."
UBC's first opponent is a familiar one in UNBC, as the teams split two-game series in Prince George just a month ago. The T-Wolves are middle of the pack in most offensive categories, but they are aggressive defenders, racking up the second most steals in the conference.
"They're a really solid team, they've got some guys who can score, they've got good size, they've got athleticism, they compete really hard," said Hanson "There are no easy games and we're going into this one in a do-or-die situation, so you can't take anybody lightly and we certainly won't be taking them lightly. Splitting with them during the regular season certainly brought some extra attention to this game from our guys' standpoint."
Tip-off for the T-Birds' tournament-opener on Wednesday is set for 6:00 p.m. (PT) at Investors Group Athletic Centre in Winnipeg. If the 'Birds are playing on Thursday against the host Bisons, that game would also have a 6:00 p.m. (PT) tip-off and their potential semi-final would be at 4:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday.
UBC will be looking to reach Sunday's 6:00 p.m. (PT) Gold Medal Game in order to ensure their spot at the U SPORTS Championships, hosted by Laval from March 8-10. Stream all the action from the Canada West playoff tournament live or on demand on
Canada West TV.
