CALGARY- In the 22-game Canada West hoops season, 12 contests come against rivals within the Central Division and, thanks to the magic of the Calgary Dinos' 2008-09 schedule, 10 of those 12 games are consecutive.
While that string of five straight conference weekends against divisional opponents comes to an end in a week's time with a trip south to Lethbridge, the Dinos basketball teams must first take care of business against the Saskatchewan Huskies.
The men's and women's contests between the Dinos and Huskies are almost mirror images of each other: Calgary's men and Saskatchewan's women both boast 10-2 records to lead their respective divisions, while the Dinos women and Huskies men each sit at 6-6 on the season. In their last meetings way back Nov. 21-22 in Saskatoon, the results reflected the standings with sweeps for the Saskatchewan women and the Calgary men. So, while Dan Vanhooren's Dinos will look for history to repeat itself this weekend, Shawnee Harle's Dinos need to battle out of a four-game conference losing skid.
Saskatchewan has had the Dinos' number of late on the women's side, winning two straight playoff series in the minimum two games, both in the Jack Simpson Gym. As mentioned above, the Huskies took both games of their first series this season by 17- and six-point margins, and this weekend will go a long way to determining whether the Dinos will have any home-court advantage once this year's post-season rolls around.
After barely breaking a sweat in winning the Hopewell Holiday Hoops tournament, the Dinos ran into the killer defence of the Alberta Pandas last weekend and lost ground in the standings as a result. The 60- and 61-point offensive efforts were their two lowest of the season and, although their national ranking fell just one spot to No. 6, Calgary now sits a full three games back of Alberta and four back of the Huskies in the race for the toughest division in the nation.
Despite a sub-par effort against the Pandas last weekend, however, the Dinos are still the sixth-ranked team in Canada and the highest-scoring squad in the Central Division. Facing a Huskies team coming off a short week – Saskatchewan and Lethbridge played a Sunday-Monday series earlier this week in Saskatoon – could be a benefit for the Dinos if they can get their offence in gear.
Ashley Hill, who has been the catalyst for that offence, led the way once again for Calgary last weekend by averaging 15.5 points over the two nights. There wasn't much help for the third year forward, however – Courtney Coyle struggled to just 13 points in the entire weekend, while fifth-year senior Whitney Haswell averaged just 8.5 per night, well below her season average. All three players, along with point guard Megan Lang, will need superior efforts against Saskatchewan.
The Huskies are led on offence by the tandem of Kim Tulloch and Jana Spindler, averaging north of 27 points per night between them. Spindler is also the shooting and rebounding queen for No. 4 Saskatchewan, while fifth-year guard Amy Prokop quarterbacks a deep squad that boasts a balanced scoring attack behind Tulloch and Spindler. Eight players average between 4.3 and 7.6 points per game, and nine have seen at least 10 minutes of court time on average.
As the Pandas (9-3) and Huskies (10-2) do battle for the division crown, the Dinos (6-6) still sit comfortably ahead of Lethbridge (1-11) for the final of the three playoff spots. Calgary has some considerable catching up to do to earn home-court advantage, but don't count out the Dinos – in 2007 Calgary ended the season with 10 straight wins to finish second in the division, and last year they won nine straight before losing the final game of the season. Six of the Dinos' final eight games are on the road, however, and four come against tough Pacific Division teams, so their work is certainly cut out for them.
While the women's playoff picture seems to be taking shape, the men's side is much more uncertain with three teams battling it out behind the first-place Dinos. While Calgary (10-2) can put a stranglehold on the division title with a pair of wins over Saskatchewan (6-6) this weekend, the Lethbridge Pronghorns (4-8) will continue their push to crash the playoff party as they visit Alberta (6-6).
The Golden Bears handed the Dinos just their second loss of the season last Saturday night, posting 59 points in the second half as Calgary's offensive struggles mounted. Playing without the services of Henry Bekkering (neck), the Dinos managed an eight-point win on Friday before succumbing to the Bears on Saturday night in scoring just 62 points, their lowest total on the season.
Bekkering, who has battled the nagging neck injury since late November, sat out the final of the Wesmen Classic in Winnipeg over the break (an 84-81 loss to Brandon) and both games of the Alberta series. He is continuing to receive treatment for the injury and could come back in time to face the Huskies, although that decision has not yet been made.
In his absence, his brother Ross stepped up with his best performance of the year last Friday, a 24-point, 17-rebound effort in an 84-76 win. Saturday Calgary had all kinds of trouble driving to the hoop down low – the bread and butter of this team for the past two years – and the offence suffered. After taking 29 free throw attempts in the series opener, the Dinos – who lead the conference in free throw attempts – were held to just 14 in the 78-62 loss.
Calgary remains at or near the top of every statistical category in Canada West with the exception of three-point shooting, where the Dinos are squarely in the middle of the pack. Poor outside shooting was another story in the loss, where Calgary managed just four three-point buckets compared to 11 for Alberta.
The match-up with the Huskies is an intriguing one. After the Dinos dispatched the Dogs with 25- and 10-point victories in late November, Saskatchewan has reeled off four straight wins to reach the .500 mark after starting the season 2-6. The Huskies head back out on the road after playing six straight at home, and Calgary fans will get their first look at one of the flashiest players in the conference – Showron Glover.
A transfer from Fresno, Calif., Glover is scoring at a 26 points-per-game clip to lead Canada West by more than four PPG. Last weekend against Lethbridge, Glover set a school record with a 50-point outburst in the Huskies' 106-93 win. It was the highest single-game total in a decade in Canada West, and his 22 points the next night earned him the CIS athlete of the week nod.
The Glover-led Huskies have other offensive weapons in Troy Gottselig and the brother tandem of Nolan and Dan Brudehl, and Saskatchewan is fourth in the conference in scoring at 82.2 points per game.
As both the Dinos and Huskies have fiery offences, the team that best controls the other on defence will likely be successful, and in this Calgary has a clear advantage on paper. The Dinos have allowed just 68.4 points per game so far this season, compared with nearly 81 for Saskatchewan and in their first meeting in Saskatoon, the Huskies scored a season-low 66 points.
Tragedy struck the Saskatchewan Huskies in December when second year guard Brennan Jarrett passed away in hospital. The 19-year-old was diagnosed with testicular cancer in October 2007 and was continuing his recovery before passing away suddenly following emergency surgery. Funeral arrangements forced the postponement of the Saskatchewan-Lethbridge series last week to Sunday and Monday, meaning the Huskies will be entering this series with the Dinos on just four days' rest.
The University of Calgary expresses its deepest sympathies to the Jarrett family and the University of Saskatchewan. Before Friday night's men's game, the Dinos will observe a moment of silence in memory of Brennan, and the Dinos players will wear a tribute to Jarrett on their uniforms throughout the weekend series.
Women's action goes at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights, with men's to follow at 8 p.m. in the Jack Simpson Gym.
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