With all respect to the Alberta Golden Bears versus Calgary Dinos, Saskatchewan Huskies versus Regina Cougars or Manitoba Bisons versus Winnipeg Wesmen, it’s UVic versus UBC that is the greatest rivalry in sa国际传媒 West basketball.
It harkens to battles across the years involving Canadian national team players from Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski and Kelly Dukeshire to J.D. Jackson and Conor Morgan and Carol Turney-Loos to Carrie Watts.
The traditional regular-season closing set between the teams begins tonight at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver and concludes Saturday night in CARSA gym at UVic.
“Both teams have great traditions and great histories against each other and the players really enjoy playing in these games,” said UVic men’s head coach Craig Beaucamp.
Watts has seen the rivalry from both sides in the women’s derby as star player and assistant coach for the Thunderbirds and now Vikes head coach.
“It’s still an interesting feeling being in the visitors room at War Memorial but I don’t make too much of that,” said Watts.
This is about the current generation of players.
“What makes this rivalry so compelling is that a lot of the players from this province on both teams have played with or against each other growing up and all know each other,” said Watts.
The Vikes men (15-3) go into the set after suffering the biggest upset of the sa国际传媒 West, and likely entire U Sports season, when the previously U Sports national top-ranked Vikes were knocked off 86-83 by lowly UBC-Okanagan (6-14) in Kelowna last weekend as Vikes scoring star Diego Maffia went 3-for-19 from the three-point line, although he still leads sa国际传媒 West and all of U Sports in scoring with a 23.6 points-per-game average. The shock loss dropped UVic from the top spot in the national top-10 poll to No. 2 this week behind the Carleton Ravens.
“It proved there are no easy outs in sa国际传媒 West, especially on the road,” said Beaucamp.
“It was the last career game for five UBC-O seniors [UBC-O will not make the playoffs] and they were up for it and full value for the win.”
The U Sports national No. 8-ranked UBC Thunderbirds are 13-5 and on a nine-game winning streak.
“Most nights, we find ways to score, so defence and rebounding are the key pieces for us against UBC,” said Beaucamp.
“We have to string together some stops.”
Key to the non-scoring aspects of UVic’s game is veteran fifth-year American forward Dominick Oliveri, who leads sa国际传媒 West in rebounding with a U Sports third-best average of 12.4 boards per game.
The Vikes are guaranteed to host a conference playoff quarter-final next week at CARSA gym.
The UVic women’s team is 8-10 and has yet to clinch a playoff berth but can with one win against the Thunderbirds (10-8) this week.
“UBC is a scrappy team that is committed to the defensive side of the ball. We have to play through their physicality and execute against their pressure defence,” said Watts.
“We’ve had some great moments in games this season but have not yet put together a great game.”
Defending sa国际传媒 West scoring champion Ashlyn Day of UVic dropped to fifth in the conference this season with an 18.3 points-per-game average following fairly quiet games, at least by her standards, in last week’s 1-1 split in Kelowna against UBC-Okanagan. Abigail Becker and Kate Johnson, however, stepped up to make up the scoring slack.
“It’s good to know when Ashlyn is struggling, we can go to different places,” said Watts.
Brooklyn White has been effective on the boards with an 8.7 rebounds per-game average.
TIP-OFF: Move over Spartans of yore, U Sports has its own version of 300. The dynastic Carleton Ravens this week celebrated their 300th consecutive week in the men’s basketball U Sports national top-10 poll, dating to Nov. 7, 2000.
