Submitted. June 10-14 marks a week of big announcements for Canada West Athletics as all remaining 2013-14 schedules will be posted in preparation for the new season that opens with football action on August 30th.
Following today’s basketball release will be volleyball (Tuesday), hockey (Wednesday), soccer (Thursday), and to conclude the week are rugby, field hockey and all conference championship dates.
The Prairie and Pacific basketball divisions will each have eight teams, with four making playoffs at the end of the 22-game conference schedule that concludes on February 15th. The Final Four host will be the quarter-final best-of-three series winner with the best regular season record, and the conference champion earns automatic entry into the CIS Final 8, March 7-9, 2014 at Carleton University in Ottawa where the Ravens are defending champions.
OPENING WEEKEND
When the conference basketball season opens on November 1st, the two defending Canada West championship schools go head-to-head as the UBC Thunderbirds and Regina Cougars clash at CKHS in Regina. UBC won the Stan Broder Trophy as men’s champion last season, while Regina took the Valerie Girsberger Trophy on the women’s side. The T-Birds-Cougars match-up is just one of eight taking place on opening night, with each road team moving on to another venue and a new opponent one day later.
Other schools to host on opening weekend include Manitoba, Winnipeg, Brandon, Thompson Rivers, UBC Okanagan, Trinity Western and Fraser Valley. All other schools host a pair of games the following weekend, with Lethbridge, Alberta, Calgary, Saskatchewan, Mount Royal, Victoria, UBC and UNBC heading home.
MEN
Calgary and Mount Royal resume the Crowchild Classic on the hardwood at Kenyon Court January 11th after the Dinos took last season’s lone men’s hoop match-up. Last season marked the Cougars’ first in Canada West.
A big home-and-home series between 2013 Canada West finalists UBC and Victoria takes place at Ken and Kathy Shields Court in Victoria on the regular season’s final weekend, February 14-15.
WOMEN
The Fraser Valley Cascades made great strides last season, improving to 18-4 during the conference season and a first-place finish in the Pacific Division. The UBC Thunderbirds finished just one game behind UFV and look to stop their rivals as they head to Abbotsford to end the pre-holiday schedule, November 29-30.
In 2012-13, the Prairie Division battle between Regina and Calgary was classic, with both teams finishing at 19-3 before the Cougars won decisively in the Canada West final. The Cougars won silver at Nationals, while the Dinos placed fourth, and the two sides go head-to-head in a two-game series on February 7-8 that could have important playoff implications.
PLAYOFFS
The Canada West men’s quarter-finals take place February 21-23, with the Final Four slated for Feb. 28-March 1 and onto the CIS Final 8 that runs March 7-9 at Carleton University in Ottawa.
The women’s playoffs open a week later, with quarter-finals Feb. 28-March 1 unless scheduling conflicts make the Feb. 21-23 weekend more preferable to host schools. The conference women’s Final Four is slated for March 7-8 and the CIS women’s basketball tournament goes March 14-16 at the University of Windsor.
Both 2014 CIS championships hosts – Carleton and Windsor – will enter the tournament as three-time defending champions.
All Canada West basketball games are on www.canadawest.TV and full broadcast details will be made available prior to the season.