Bobcats to start, finish hoops season at home

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This article was published 20/06/2022 (1349 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon University Bobcats start and end the 2022-23 Canada West basketball regular season on home court.

The league released its full schedule on Monday, returning to the usual 20-game slate featuring four regular opponents and six that teams see every other year.

Brandon opens on Nov. 4 and 5 against Regina, then flies to Kelowna to play UBC Okanagan the following weekend.

“It was one of the reasons I was really excited to join Canada West, was the ability to go across four provinces, stretch halfway across the country to be able to play teams from all over the place,” said BU women’s coach James Bambury.

“It’s super exciting for our players. Outside of two, or three players, most of our players haven’t played a full slate of games, and haven’t played teams from all over the four provinces.

“… It’s kind of the experience they signed up for and are excited for and the one they finally get to participate in.”

Brandon gets its provincial rivals and Saskatchewan schools out of the way by Jan. 14, and has eight of 10 first-semester contests within comfortable driving distance.

Those matchups, including road games at the U of S and a home weekend against Lethbridge, feature the entire 2022 women’s final four.

“It’s what we expected and what we’ve been training all spring and summer for,” Bambury said. “We got a really good look at some of the best teams in the country and they happened to be … in our own personal division. Competing against the best all of last year will make a big difference for us next year.”

The second semester starts at home against UBC and Manitoba, then a bye and back-to-back Alberta trips to play the U of A in Edmonton on Jan. 27 and 28 and Mount Royal in Calgary on Feb. 3 and 4.

BU wraps up on Feb. 10 and 11 against the University of Northern British Columbia, which the men beat and women lost to in the first round of the modified playoff tournament last season.

Bobcats men’s head coach Gil Cheung said it’s tough to tell when the tough stretches of the schedule are until rosters are set.

“The thing that sticks out is the back-to-back weekends in Alberta,” Cheung said. “Travelling that time of year is always a bit of an unknown: if the roads are good, if there’s delays.”

The Bobcats host 11 of 20 games since they split their weekend set with Winnipeg on Dec. 1 (road) and Dec. 3 (home).

The first two rounds of the playoffs are on Feb. 17 and 18, with the semifinals the following weekend and the conference final on March 4. Teams qualifying for nationals head to the East Coast as Cape Breton hosts the women and St. Francis Xavier welcomes the men’s Final 8 from March 9 to 12.

Canada West is back to 12 of 17 teams qualifying, however, so the men (2-14) and women (0-16) need to improve to get back to playoff ball.

“It’s just exciting to be able to play a full schedule again and not just the regional schedule we have last year,” Cheung said.

“Our pod’s always going to be one of the tougher pods with Regina, Sask, U of M and Winnipeg. That doesn’t change for us but our goal is to get after it right away against Regina.”

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