All things remain possible as a hectic Canada West basketball regular season hurtles toward its conclusion. Despite a rather muffled season at 7-11 in conference, the University of Victoria Vikes men’s 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 Canada West games. Two victories for the Vikes against a good Wesmen squad (12-6 and among seven Canada 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.
“We control our own destiny,” Vikes coach Craig Beaucamp said.
“It’s very simple. We need to win. It’s not really that complicated. Sometimes you talk about must-win situations and it’s just a figure of speech. It’s reality for us. We have to have our best effort this weekend.”
Beaucamp knows where his young team stands, both this weekend, and in the long-term.
“This was a development season for us. I would like to extend it for this group, and build from that,” 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’s 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’s opponent — Winnipeg leads Canada West at 16-2 — likely back for the nationals.
“We would like to finish the regular season on a high note,” 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.“We have very intense internal competitions,” Sinclair said.
Tonight and Saturday are the final Canada West regular-season games for graduating UVic players Jenna Bugiardini from Hamilton, Ont., Jenna Krug of North Vancouver and Nicole Karstein from Kamloops.
“The emotion [for the graduating players this weekend] is a little less because we know we are moving on,” 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.
