It’s not an April Fool’s joke, although the University of Victoria Vikes are probably wishing it was. The Vikes, despite being the No. 2-ranked team in the country, will meet the Carleton Ravens dynasty in the quarter-final first round of the U Sports national men’s basketball championship tournament Friday at 7 p.m. PT in Edmonton.
How does this happen to the No. 2 seed? An upset in the Ontario semifinals, in which the former No. 1-ranked Ravens were stunned by the Queen’s Golden Gaels, saw Carleton tumble to the No. 7 wildcard seeding for nationals and a head-on collision with UVic in the opening round. That’s because U Sports honours the results of the conference playoffs and would not move Carleton into the top half of the draw. So what could have been a potential UVic-Carleton final on Sunday will be a Vikes-Ravens quarter-final.
Carleton is the two-time defending national champion from 2019 and 2020 (the 2021 tournament was not held due to the pandemic) and has won 15 national championships, including nine of the last 10. The Ravens long ago eclipsed UVic’s seven-consecutive national championships in the 1980s to become the greatest dynasty in Canadian university hoops history.
“Carleton has become the destination school for the top players in the country and also recruits from outside the country,” said UVic head coach Craig Beaucamp. “The Ravens have a formula and they stick to it.”
Beaucamp has been working on ways of stopping the Ravens since the shock opening-game draw was announced.
“As with every good team, you have to play strong defence and rebound well. You cannot give them put-back easy baskets,” said Beaucamp, who has guided the Vikes to their first U Sports national championship tournament appearance since 2015.
Beaucamp has been reassuring his charges all week. After all, UVic was 17-1 in the regular season and is 3-0 in the playoffs in its run to the sa国际传媒 West championship.
“The gap has grown smaller between Carleton and the rest of the teams and we view this as an open field,” said Beaucamp.
“You can’t control the draw. So let’s control what we can control, which is our preparation and execution.”
The Alberta Golden Bears lucked out in their sa国际传媒 West championship final loss to UVic. Alberta was undefeated before losing to UVic in the sa国际传媒 West final. The Golden Bears are ranked third and avoided Carleton by drawing Quebec champion and sixth-ranked McGill.
Ontario-champion Brock Badgers got the first seed and will meet wildcard eighth-seed Saskatchewan Huskies. The other quarter-final features Atlantic-champion and fourth-seed Dalhousie Tigers against Ontario runner-up and fifth-seed Queen’s.
