CALGARY – The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games are just weeks away, but their impact is already being felt in Canada West.

Because of the massive event taking over B.C.'s Lower Mainland in February, Canada West was forced to make adjustments to several sport schedules to ensure that Vancouver-based teams would not be hosting during the Olympics. The resulting basketball schedule back-to-back bye weeks in mid-February between the last regular season games and the opening round of the playoffs – so with the schedule slated to end Feb. 6, teams would wait nearly three weeks before opening the post-season Feb. 26.

To mitigate the Olympic impact, virtually all schools agreed to split up a series against a proximate opponent to have at least one game in that three-week period. For the Calgary Dinos and the Lethbridge Pronghorns, that meant taking this weekend's scheduled two-game set in Southern Alberta and putting one game on Feb. 13. So, for the first time in recent memory, the Dinos men's and women's basketball teams will play just one conference game each on a weekend when they visit the Horns Saturday night at the 1st Choice Savings Centre.

On the women's side, the Dinos and Horns are separated by just one game in the standings with Calgary holding a 6-4 record against Lethbridge's 5-5 mark. The Horns got the better of the rivalry in a non-conference match-up back in early October, defeating the Dinos 73-64 at the Thompson Rivers tournament in Kamloops, B.C.

After a regular season-opening loss to Winnipeg, the Dinos reeled off five straight wins before dropping three of their last four of 2009, all on the road. Calgary's last Canada West action came in a 110-73 loss to defending national champion Simon Fraser in what was very possibly the last-ever meeting between the two schools, with SFU set to join the NCAA in 2010-11.

The Dinos got back on track in non-conference action in late December, winning their own Holiday Hoops tournament with a 2-1 record after putting up 103 points in back-to-back games against Victoria and UBC, setting up an important one-game showdown with the Pronghorns this weekend down south.

Calgary averages 83.1 points per game, second best in the conference, with the Horns in third place with 74. Defense has been the Dinos' downfall so far, however, as they sit last in the conference with an average of 84.4 points allowed per game – an area the coaching staff has been stressing over the break.

The separation in the standings is more significant on the men's side, but not by much. The No. 4-ranked Dinos sit atop the Prairie Division standings with an 8-2 record, looking down on a logjam of five teams right at the .500 mark – one of which is the 5-5 Lethbridge Pronghorns.

The five wins the Horns have put up through the first half of the season equals their full-season total from last year's team that finished 5-17, and a former Dino deserves most of the credit for the resurgence of Lethbridge basketball. Point guard Jeff Price, a Calgary native who starred, in chronological order, for Lord Beaverbrook High School, Mount Royal College, and the University of Calgary, abruptly left the Dinos after the 2007-08 season, moving to Lethbridge and marrying Horns women's player Stephanie Price.

After sitting out all of last season, Price suited up in the royal blue and white and made an immediate impact on the Pronghorns. He sits tied with his Dinos replacement, Jamie McLeod, for the conference lead with 51 assists at the season's midway point while also leading Canada West with a .903 free throw percentage and sitting sixth in scoring at 17.6 points per game. A solid supporting cast led by Danhue Lawrence and Rob Cooper has the Horns in the hunt for a playoff spot in the Prairie Division under coach Dave Adams, who returns for his second tour of duty in Lethbridge.

Above the dogfight at .500, the Dinos cruised through the opening half dropping just two road games at Saskatchewan and Simon Fraser. Offensively the Dinos are the class of Canada West, scoring at an 85.6 points-per-game clip, while defensively they rank third allowing less than 70 per outing. Senior Ross Bekkering is oh-so-close to averaging a double-double on the season with 18.3 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, while Robbie Sihota and Tyler Fidler are also in the Top 15 in conference scoring.

In another scheduling quirk, the Dinos return home for a stretch of six consecutive games in the 2010 Pack the Jack Six Pack. Alberta, Victoria, UBC, and Regina are on the Dinos' docket over the rest of January in a key portion of the schedule that will go a long way towards determining where Calgary finishes in the standings.

Following the six-game homestand, the Dinos close out the regular season with a two-game set in Brandon Feb. 5-6 followed by a second one-game trip to Lethbridge on Saturday, Feb. 13.

-UC-