The University of Victoria Vikes are the No. 2-ranked team in the country, and defending Canada West men’s basketball champions, but still have glowering memories of last year’s conference regular-season ending upset loss to University of British Columbia-Okanagan.
“We don’t have to look too far for motivation,” said UVic head coach Craig Beaucamp.
“UBC-O is athletic and big and they upset us last season.”
The Vikes went on to win the 2023 conference crown and advance to the U Sports national semifinals but that strange blip against the team from Kelowna certainly has UVic wary ahead of its two-game Canada West set tonight and Saturday on Ken and Kathy Shields Court at CARSA gym.
UBC-O is 2-6 in conference play while UVic is 5-1 in Canada West and 13-3 overall, with two of its losses against 2023 NCAA tournament teams Xavier and Penn State.
UVic had a longer-than-expected Christmas break when its scheduled pre-break conference games Dec. 1-2 against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack were postponed due to a tragedy in the TRU athletic program when WolfPack volleyball player Owyn McInnis was killed in a multi-vehicle crash near the campus and two other WolfPack volleyball players were left with serious injuries described by CBC as “life altering.”
The UVic-TRU games have been rescheduled for Feb. 13-14.
That makes for a busy second half of the season for the Vikes, who had their bye week before Christmas.
“It’s nine weeks of basketball in a row. That’s a challenge for sure, considering we had our bye week in the first half of the season,” said Beaucamp, whose team beat the University of Northern B.C. Timberwolves of Canada West 92-62 and 107-87 in non-conference exhibition games over the Christmas break.
“Our depth will help us through the busier second half.”
Meanwhile, the UVic women’s team (0-6 in conference) got morale-lifting 82-62 and 82-56 non-conference exhibition victories against the University of Winnipeg (1-7 in Canada West) over the Christmas break.
“Those were much-needed confidence boosters,” said UVic head coach Carrie Watts, whose team was aided by the return of Tana Pankratz from an injury that kept her out of the first half of the season.
“Getting back to winning has everyone feeling optimistic heading into the second half.”
UVic will be facing a UBC-O squad tonight and Saturday that is 4-4 in Canada West.
“It is a physical and gritty team that plays with tempo,” said Watts.
“We will have to be just as aggressive, physical and up-tempo.”
OFF THE RIM: Reports are the Canadian women’s basketball team will hold its pre-Paris Olympics training camp in Victoria if the favoured squad advances out of its qualifying tournament Feb. 8-11 in Sopron, Hungary. “Canada has a veteran team that has the experience,” said former national-team player Watts, who expressed optimism Canada will qualify. “[The potential pre-Paris camp] would be a great opportunity for local fans to see the best women’s players in Canada.”
