There are no drawn out best-of-sevens in university basketball playoffs. It will be directly to the point as the sa国际传媒 West hoops post-season begins tonight with single-loss elimination play-in games to advance to the one-game quarter-finals on Saturday.
The top-four men’s and women’s seeds are hosting three-team tournaments this weekend with the lower-two seeds meeting tonight for the right to face the host team on Saturday night.
sa国际传媒 West top-seed University of Victoria Vikes are hosting one of the men’s tournaments on Ken and Kathy Shields Court at CARSA gymnasium. The conference No. 8-seed University of Regina Cougars (10-10) are playing the No. 9-seed University of Northern sa国际传媒 Timberwolves (8-12) tonight in the play-in game at 7 p.m. with the winner advancing to meet the Vikes on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The brutal abruptness of losing in a one-game playoff is never far from mind.
“One-offs are a tricky situation. The best thing about getting a first-round bye this weekend is you can’t lose on Friday night,” said UVic head coach Craig Beaucamp.
The four tournament winners will advance to the conference semifinals next weekend at venues to be determined. The Vikes, if they advance, will host a semifinal at CARSA gym.
UVic, ranked No. 1 nationally in U Sports, is 4-0 combined against the Cougars and Timberwolves in sweeping both two-game regular-season sets against those teams. The Vikes beat UNBC 98-76 and 129-89 last month at CARSA gym and defeated the Cougars 82-78 and 91-67 last month in Regina.
“We have a lot of respect for both UNBC and Regina and have prepared this week for both teams,” said Beaucamp.
“It’s a pick-em [tonight in the play-in game]. Both are really well coached teams.”
Whether it’s the Cougars or Timberwolves who advance to play the Vikes, they will have to contend with sa国际传媒 West scoring-champion Diego Maffia of UVic, who comes into the playoffs following a blazing final regular-season weekend in which the incendiary shooting-guard scored a combined 73 points in the tight 90-82 and 94-92 overtime sweep of the arch-rival UBC Thunderbirds.
Two sa国际传媒 teams, meanwhile, will travel to the heart of the prairies to meet in a women’s quarter-final play-in game tonight in Regina as the No. 10 UVic Vikes (9-11) meet the No. 7 Trinity Western Spartans (12-8). The winner will play the No. 2-seed University of Regina Cougars (17-3) in a quarter-final game Saturday night.
Trinity Western swept the two regular-season games played in CARSA gym, 73-70 and 80-74, but the combined margin of victory for the Spartans was only nine points.
“When you have lost twice to a team, there’s obviously some hunger there on our part,” said Vikes head coach Carrie Watts.
UVic was 0-2 against the U Sports national No. 4-ranked Cougars this season.
