Bobcats draw favourable hoops schedule

Gil Cheung finally got his way.

When Canada West created a more cost-effective basketball travel schedule, it led to two years of the Brandon University Bobcats starting their basketball season with a challenging swing trip against Winnipeg and Manitoba.

This season, the Wesmen agreed to move their game up a week, so the Bobcats will open the season at home on Oct. 23 with just one game, then visit the Bisons the following weekend.

“It just didn’t seem fair that both teams get to load up on us and we have a one-day turnaround to play two of the top four teams in our conference,” Cheung said.

“That makes things a lot more level playing field to start the season.”

The Bobcats will start the pre-season with their regular Regina trip at the beginning of October, facing the host Regina Cougars, Lethbridge Pronghorns and University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves.

BU hosts Regina the next weekend and is trying to secure a few more home games before the regular season.

After the two single-game weekends, Brandon hosts Alberta, then has back-to-back road weekends against MacEwan and Calgary.

The Bobcats have a bye, then close the first semester against the Bisons on Dec. 4-5.

They are back in the Wesmen Classic on the last week of December, which, if nothing else, will help shake off any rust from a couple of weeks off.

The second semester is as light as it gets by way of travel, with a trip to Regina, then three home weekends with a bye in the middle, facing Lethbridge, Mount Royal and Saskatchewan.

The Bobcats close the regular season on Feb. 12-13 against the host Wesmen.

“Any time you can get back-to-back weekends at home is huge,” Cheung said.

As of now, the only player the men lose besides graduates Travis Hamberger and Sultan Bhatti is Darko Karac, who transferred to Nipissing of Ontario University Athletics.

They’ve added five for next year.

On the women’s side, coach Ilarion Bonhomme is looking for an import to replace Ella Averill, who transferred to Fordham University of the NCAA Division I ranks after a standout rookie year.

While she’s tough to replace, this exact situation was part of the third-year head coach’s recruiting pitch.

“I put her in contact with Fordham; it wasn’t no surprise to me. Me and Ella went through that process together,” Bonhomme said.

“I thought it could happen for her, she came here and put in the work, worked through some different adversities and obstacles and is going on to a tremendous opportunity. Yeah, it stings, but it wasn’t a surprise and I’m happy for her.”

Bonhomme is eager to start the new season after leading the program back to its first top-12 finish in the 17-team league since 2017.

He had the Bobcats ready to go from the jump last year, and even though they faced that challenging swing trip, they swept the Wesmen and Bisons on opening weekend to kickstart their run to a 7-13 finish.

“It’ll be nice to start early with that Winnipeg game. Last year, playing both those teams on one weekend, the girls had to be able to focus and execute on different game plans,” Bonhomme said.

“To not have to do that and just put all your focus into one team, it can be good for us and it’ll be similar to a playoff game.”

The most notable stretch on the schedule last year was four straight weekends against teams ranked in the U Sports top 10 to close the first half.

Brandon started 3-1 and headed to the break 3-9.

This time, the top-end teams are more spread out, with that stretch of six consecutive home games in January and February as a great opportunity to make a playoff push — albeit the last weekend is against the defending national champion Saskatchewan Huskies.

“Last year, I felt like we travelled every other weekend and barely had any home weekends back to back,” Bonhomme said.

“As much as the girls like to travel and see other places and get out of Brandon, get a little break from studies, it is good to sleep in your own bed and have a nice routine.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com