It will be today’s dynasty versus yesterday’s dynasty in the first men’s basketball game to be played in the gymnasium that is part of the new $77-million CARSA complex.
The UVic Vikes will meet the defending CIS national champion Carleton Ravens on Oct. 2. The CARSA opening game will be part of the 2015 Guy Vetrie Memorial Tournament.
Between them, the Vikes and Ravens have won 19 men’s national basketball championships. UVic’s last of eight was in 1997, with seven coming in the 1980s, while the Ravens have won the last five national titles and 11 of the last 13 in a remarkable run under Dave Smart, who will be Jay Triano’s assistant coach when Canada begins Olympic qualifying play this summer for Rio 2016.
Carleton defeated Canada West-champion UVic 83-74 in March in the 2015 CIS Final Four national semifinals played at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, the former Maple Leaf Gardens, en route to its fifth consecutive national championship.
“We want to bring the McKinnon Gym tradition across to CARSA . . . this is a new beginning for us,” said Vikes head coach Craig Beaucamp.
“It’s a fresh start.”
Against an old foe named Carleton.
Meanwhile, the 2015-16 Canada West regular-season schedule was also announced. The first-ever conference games in CARSA will take place Nov. 13 when the University of Saskatchewan Huskies meet the Vikes in men’s and women’s contests.
Both will be rivalry games. The men’s game is a rematch of last season’s Canada West final won 70-67 by the Vikes over the Huskies in Saskatoon. The women’s game is a reprise of Saskatchewan’s 77-61 Canada West Final Four victory over the Vikes.
In a Canada West regular season highlight, the Vikes will host UBC Jan. 29-30.
“The Thunderbirds are our biggest rival and biggest draw, so it’s good to have them here for back-to-back games,” said Beaucamp.
The 20-game regular season opens for both UVic teams Nov. 6-7 in Langley against their Trinity Western Spartan counterparts. It concludes Feb. 19-10 at CARSA against the Brandon Bobcats.
The Canada West opening-round playoffs begin Feb. 26-28 with the quarter-finals March 4-6 ahead of the Canada West Final Fours March 11-12. The 2016 CIS men’s national Final 8 tournament is March 18-20 at UBC’s Doug Mitchell Arena in Vancouver. The women’s CIS Final 8 championship is in Fredericton, N.B.
FREE THROWS: Canada, with UVic women’s head coach Dani Sinclair as assistant coach, won the FIBA Americas U-16 women’s championships for the first time with a 72-71 overtime victory against Brazil in the final last week in Puebla, Mexico. “I think of how much pride and passion there is in playing for Canada and it was incredible to see how much support we received from across the country,” said Sinclair, in a statement. She is getting to know Mexico well. Sinclair was also Canadian assistant coach at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara . . . Canada West MVP and just-graduated Vikes centre Chris McLaughlin leads the Canadian men’s hoops team into the 2015 World University Games, which begin this weekend in South Korea.
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