With just four games remaining in the sa国际传媒 West basketball regular season, it鈥檚 difficult not to look at the big picture.
The University of Victoria Vikes women鈥檚 team has its post-season berth clinched while the men continue to claw away at their playoff opportunity. Both venture to Abbotsford to face the Fraser Valley Cascades tonight and Saturday with hopes of better positioning themselves.
鈥淵ou want to be running on all cylinders at this point and I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 a bad thing to be playing playoff-type games,鈥� said Vikes women鈥檚 head coach Dani Sinclair, whose 11-5 team tips off against the 10-6 Cascades at 6 tonight and 5 p.m. Saturday, followed by the men. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how impactful these games are and that鈥檚 what the games last weekend felt like.鈥�
The Vikes occupy sixth place in the conference with the top four earning a bye in the first round of playoffs. A total of 12 teams qualify, but it gets a little more complicated in that the sa国际传媒 West not only uses a team鈥檚 record to form the seedings, but also an RPI, which calculates a combination of winning percentages versus opponents鈥� percentages due to an unbalanced schedule.
The Vikes women鈥檚 RPI is currently at .5328 which is eighth.
鈥淚t鈥檚 only good for us to be playing in that kind of intensity and pressure,鈥� Sinclair said of the stretch drive in which her Vikes will have to close out the season at home next weekend to a solid 15-1 Winnipeg team.
So there is obviously little wiggle room, although the Vikes are playing host to nationals and have the berth solidified.
The men are in an entirely different position, tied for ninth (points wise) with four other teams. UVic is 7-9, identical to Mount Royal, Regina and Fraser Valley. Brandon is 7-11, having played two more games.
Like the women, the Vikes close it out at home next week to Winnipeg which is 10-6.
鈥淭hese are very important games that we need to take one game at a time. We will see how Friday night goes and then refocus on Saturday,鈥� said Vikes coach Craig Beaucamp.
鈥淭here is a lot of parity, right from the top to the bottom. Nothing is a given and you have to come prepared every night. It鈥檚 a precarious time of the season, most of the student-athletes have been going at it for five or six weeks in a row now.鈥�
This clash will prove pivotal as the Vikes look to create some momentum after their first weekend sweep at home last Friday and Saturday.
鈥淲e know they can score and they have had some very good results in the second half of the year, knocking off Alberta and playing Calgary really tough,鈥� Beaucamp said of the Cascades. 鈥淲e are going to have our hands full, we have to play well on the defensive side of the ball for sure.鈥�
The bottom line is, both the Vikes and Cascades men鈥檚 team have work to do.
鈥淲e need to play with the same energy we鈥檝e been playing with, but with a different understanding that we鈥檝e got to protect the paint a little bit better,鈥� said Cascades coach Adam Friesen. 鈥淭hat was a takeaway from last weekend [a split against Thompson Rivers]. UVic tries to grind it out and games like that come down to a possession here or there. Whoever wins the battles in the paint gives themselves a better chance to win.鈥�
