The University of Victoria Vikes players know well in which conference the Wisconsin Badgers play women鈥檚 basketball. As part of a Canadian cable package, the Big Ten Network is readily available.
In terms of marketing, CIS athletes seem to have it drummed into them that the U.S. NCAA Division 1 is the gold standard of university sports. So, no greater challenge can be given CIS athletes than to match them up against NCAA Division 1 athletes.
The Vikes will get that chance Sunday when they play the Wisconsin Badgers in a women鈥檚 hoops exhibition game at 7 p.m. at CARSA Gym.
鈥淲e want to show them Canadians can play at a high level, too, and that not all the best basketball players are in the U.S.,鈥� said UVic shooting-guard Amira Giannattasio.
She pointed to a fellow hometown Hamilton, Ont., product.
鈥淜ia Nurse went to [NCAA powerhouse] UConn and is now in the Rio Olympics with the Canadian team,鈥� said Giannattasio.
鈥淐anadian players are of that calibre.鈥�
Case in point is that the Badgers have connections to two potential future Canadian Olympians. National U-18 team guard Kendra Van Leeuwen, who led sa国际传媒 at the 2016 FIBA Americas U-18 in Chile, is an incoming Badgers freshman from Brantford, Ont., while Dakota Whyte of Toronto, silver medallist with sa国际传媒 at the 2015 World University Games, graduated this past spring from Wisconsin.
鈥淪unday鈥檚 game gives our players a chance to understand they can play with anybody,鈥� said UVic head coach Dani Sinclair, who just got back from Spain, where she was assistant coach of seventh-place sa国际传媒 at the FIBA U-17 world championship.
鈥淭here is a perception out there of a divide between NCAA Division 1 and the CIS, but we have got a great product in the CIS. We want to shorten that gap and keep the best players in sa国际传媒. Sunday will be a great game between a great CIS program versus the NCAA Division 1.鈥�
This will be Sinclair鈥檚 first exhibition game against an NCAA Division 1 opponent in her five seasons of coaching the Vikes, who are building toward hosting the 2017 CIS national championship tournament at CARSA in March.
鈥淲isconsin is a bit of an unknown [7-22 last season] with a new coach [Jonathan Tsipis] and several new players,鈥� said Sinclair.
鈥淏ut we do know they are big, strong and athletic. This will be a good test for us as we start our journey from August to March.鈥�
Wisconsin will also play UBC and University of the Fraser Valley during its sa国际传媒 tour.
The Vikes continue their summer schedule Aug. 23-24 at CARSA with back-to-back games against a Japanese U-18 all-star team.
鈥淭hese are some of the best players in Japan in that age group,鈥� noted Sinclair.
The UVic Vikes men鈥檚 basketball team, which gave Tubby Smith鈥檚 Big Ten Minnesota Golden Gophers all they could handle in 2010, will play NCAA Division 1 UNC-Charlotte on Aug. 15 at CARSA.
VIKES NOTES: In a coincidence, the UVic men鈥檚 ice hockey team (which is club and non-varsity) plays the Wisconsin Badgers on Oct. 1 in Madison. . . . The Vikes showed off their 2016 Olympic pedigree during Tuesday鈥檚 news conference before announcing the Wisconsin-UVic basketball game: 鈥淲e have 22 former Vikes athletes, coaches and support staff who are in Rio. That shows the legacy of our sports program 鈥� that they have gone on to represent their country at the highest level,鈥� said Clint Hamilton, UVic athletic director.
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