All things remain possible as a hectic sa国际传媒 West basketball regular season hurtles toward its conclusion. Despite a rather muffled season at 7-11 in conference, the University of Victoria Vikes men鈥檚 team can still make the 12-team playoffs with one win against the University of Winnipeg Wesmen in their two-game closing set tonight and Saturday on Ken and Kathy Shields Court in CARSA Gymnasium.
The one-win scenario would require help in other sa国际传媒 West games. Two victories for the Vikes against a good Wesmen squad (12-6 and among seven sa国际传媒 West teams to have already clinched a playoff berth) would assure advancement to the playoffs for UVic.
But two losses to Winnipeg would guarantee UVic will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive year, after making the national Final Final Eight in each of the previous three years.
鈥淲e control our own destiny,鈥� Vikes coach Craig Beaucamp said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very simple. We need to win. It鈥檚 not really that complicated. Sometimes you talk about must-win situations and it鈥檚 just a figure of speech. It鈥檚 reality for us. We have to have our best effort this weekend.鈥�
Beaucamp knows where his young team stands, both this weekend, and in the long-term.
鈥淭his was a development season for us. I would like to extend it for this group, and build from that,鈥� he said.
The lone graduating Vikes player will be Grant Sitton, who evolved into a fine forward who can attack from the outside and inside. The American recruit from Washington state has seen the long and short of it in his previous two seasons with the Vikes, making it all the way to the U Sports national Final Four in his first season and missing the playoffs last season.
The UVic Vikes women鈥檚 team, meanwhile, has clinched a playoff berth at 12-6 and knows it will be advancing. Not only that, the Vikes will play well into March as the hosts of the U Sports national championship tournament at CARSA Gym.
Plan on seeing this weekend鈥檚 opponent 鈥� Winnipeg leads sa国际传媒 West at 16-2 鈥� likely back for the nationals.
鈥淲e would like to finish the regular season on a high note,鈥� UVic coach Dani Sinclair said.
Sinclair addressed how she creates a sense of motivating desperation (which the Vikes men know all too well heading into the weekend) among a group that knows it is guaranteed a berth in the national championships.鈥淲e have very intense internal competitions,鈥� Sinclair said.
Tonight and Saturday are the final sa国际传媒 West regular-season games for graduating UVic players Jenna Bugiardini from Hamilton, Ont., Jenna Krug of North Vancouver and Nicole Karstein from Kamloops.
鈥淭he emotion [for the graduating players this weekend] is a little less because we know we are moving on,鈥� Sinclair said.
Tonight's UVic-Winnipeg tilts begin with the women at 6 p.m. and men at 8 p.m. The Saturday game times are 5 p.m. for the women and 7 p.m. for the men.
