A week after eliminating the Winnipeg Wesmen from Canada West playoff contention, the UBC Thunderbirds look to do the same against the other school from the same city – the Manitoba Bisons. The T-Birds enter the weekend ranked fourth in the country, with the Bisons sitting in seventh in the latest U SPORTS rankings.
This is the seventh time in the last 10 seasons that the T-Birds have reached the Canada West Semifinals, as they aim to reach the gold medal game for the first time since they won the conference championship in the 2019-20 season.
"Hopefully we get a good game out of ourselves this weekend, and play the way we're capable of" said Thunderbirds head coach
Kevin Hanson. "We're looking forward to competing. The guys are hungry, which is a great sign. Any time this time of the year that you're hungry it's a great sign for any team."
The Bisons, meanwhile, are in the semifinal round for the fifth time, all in the last nine years. They're hoping to make just their second-ever appearance in the Canada West Final, following their loss to Alberta in the championship game of the 2016-17 season.
The players on the two teams are not too familiar with each other, having only played twice since 2018. Those games came in January of last year, when the T-Birds pulled out a pair of close wins at home. On the sidelines, however, Hanson and Bisons head coach Kirby Schepp have faced off more than 20 times over the last 15 years.
"I know coach Schepp quite well," remarked Hanson. "The things that they run make it very difficult for you from a defensive standpoint. You have to be very disciplined…we have to be on our top defensive game, handle their pressure and handle their defensive schemes."
The T-Birds relied heavily on their starters in their quarterfinal win over the Wesmen, with
Fareed Shittu,
Adam Olsen and
Nikola Guzina combining to score 58 of the team's 74 points, while
Brendan Sullivan dished a career-high 11 assists.
Shittu, for his part, earned Canada West Player of the Week honours as he scored a career-best 28 points on 10-15 shooting to go with 14 rebounds. In Shittu, Olsen (Canada West First Team All-Star) and Guzina (Third Team All-Star), the 'Birds have plenty of size and skill that they will hope to use to their advantage against the Bisons.
The T-Birds will need to defend the perimeter well, as the Bisons take the second-most three-point attempts of any team in the conference. While they shoot the exact same percentage from beyond the arc (31.8%) as UBC, 47% of the Bisons' shot attempts come from the outside, compared to just 34% for the T-Birds.
Manitoba finished the regular season 16-4 and first in the Prairie Division. They're coming off a nail-biter home win over Thompson Rivers in the quarterfinal round, as the Bisons came from behind in the fourth quarter to win 70-67. Canada West First Team All-Star Mason Kraus had 17 points and six assists, while Daren Watts put up 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists. The Bisons played a fairly tight rotation, with only seven players seeing more than five minutes of action.
The T-Birds are also coming into this matchup following a tight victory, defeating the Wesmen by just two points in a dramatic and exciting contest. Hanson believes the fortitude his team showed in that battle will provide a boost for not just this next game but also the other big ones to come.
"We've had a lot of close games this year, and any time you get a chance to work on your execution at the end of the game it's going to be a good learning process," he said. "We're obviously thrilled with that win and excited with the way we executed down the stretch. We can still clean things up, but it certainly gives you confidence."
If the T-Birds win this weekend, they will face either Victoria or Calgary in the Canada West Final the following week. Saturday's game tips off at 5:00 p.m. (PT) and can be watched live and on demand on Canada West TV.
