CALGARY – Buoyed by a national championship from their men's volleyball colleagues, which came all the way from the sixth seed to take the CIS title last weekend in Kamloops, the University of Calgary Dinos men's basketball team looks to make a run of its own as it heads to Ottawa for the 2010 CIS Final 8 Men's Basketball Championship.

DINOS MEDIA GUIDE (.pdf, 7 MB)

It is Calgary's second straight appearance at the national tournament after a semi-final appearance in 2009 – the first time in the school's history that the Dinos have advanced to back-to-back Final 8s on their own merits. The team did attend consecutive tournaments in 1979 and 1980, but Calgary was hosting those events so the Dinos earned the host berth both years.

The tournament, hosted by Carleton University at Scotiabank Place, opens Friday with quarterfinals and wraps up Sunday with the national championship game. The last two quarterfinals, both semi-finals, and the final will be broadcast live on TSN2, with the remainder of the tournament webcast at www.SSNCanada.ca.

Like the Calgary football and men's volleyball teams, the Dinos open their out-of-conference post-season against the Atlantic conference champions, the Cape Breton Capers, in the first game of the tournament Friday at 12:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. MT) on SSN. Calgary teams are 2-0 against Atlantic champions so far in 2009-10, with football defeating Saint Mary's in the Uteck Bowl while men's volleyball topped Dalhousie in the national quarterfinal last weekend.

Playing in the 2-vs-7 match-up for the second straight year – albeit on the other end of the draw – the Dinos look to make it 3-for-3 against Atlantic opponents when they face the Capers. The Dinos were seeded seventh after losing the conference championship game 96-83 to the Saskatchewan Huskies, who are seeded fifth as the Canada West champions.

The Dinos will look to their senior leadership and rely on their experience to give them an edge as they hit the Scotiabank Place floor again.

“We're not just going to see the Parliament buildings,” said Calgary head coach Dan Vanhooren, leading his team to a third nationals appearance in his 10 years with the program. “This is business. We've been there before, we're comfortable with the setup, the venue, the hotel, and everything else, so our focus will only be on our next opponent.

“It's a great way for our four seniors to be able to end their careers at nationals, but it will also be important for the future of this program that our young players get this experience.”

Friday's quarterfinal will be just the second meeting all-time between the Capers and the Dinos. The only previous clash came Oct. 14, 2005, when Cape Breton defeated Calgary 81-77 in non-conference action during a three-game Atlantic swing for the Dinos.

This year's edition of the Capers comes in as the second seed of the tournament after winning the AUS championship at home in Sydney last weekend, whitewashing StFX 94-77 in the conference final to qualify for the Final 8. The highest-scoring team in the nation this season (95 ppg), Cape Breton has speed, tenacious defence, and solid perimeter shooting that took them to the top of the Atlantic this season. Led by all-star guard Jimmy Dorsey and AUS defensive player of the year Philip Nkrumah, the Capers are solid on both ends of the floor and will provide an intriguing match-up for the Dinos.

It should be a classic battle of size versus speed with Calgary holding a significant advantage in overall size. The trio of Ross Bekkering, Robbie Sihota, and Tyler Fidler up front stand 6'8”, 6'6”, and 6'9”, respectively, with Bekkering and Sihota each scoring nearly 19 points per game.

Fidler could be the x-factor for the Dinos. A solid performer at last year's Final 8, where he averaged 17.5 points in Calgary's two games, the third-year player will be counted on as a leader of the future for the Dinos and will be a key contributor if Calgary makes a long run at the tournament.

The Dinos backcourt tandem of senior Jamie McLeod and freshman Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson will have its hands full on defence while making sure their teammates in the post get the ball. Vanhooren, in his third trip to the Final 8, will also need solid minutes from his bench, led by sixth man Dustin Reding along with the likes of Terrence Blake and Andrew McGuinness.

Once again, the Dinos led the nation in free throw attempts at 27 per game in 2009-10 and are the best free-throw shooting team at the tournament at 73.8 per cent.

The winner of Friday's quarterfinal advances to the first semi-final Saturday night and will play the winner of the UBC-Lakehead match-up. The late quarterfinals see host and No. 1 seed Carleton take on UQAM while the nightcap features Saskatchewan against Windsor.

NOTES: Though they have only faced one another head-to-head once, the Dinos and Capers do have several connections. Calgary's Bekkering and CBU's Nkrumah were teammates with the Canadian entry at the 2009 Summer Universiade in Belgrade, Serbia last July. Also, former Dinos assistant coach Matt Skinn, now the women's head coach at StFX, is an alumnus of CBU where he was an Academic All-Canadian playing for the Capers … Current Dinos assistant coach Craig Anderson did not travel to Ottawa with the team Wednesday morning. Suffering from ear problems and unable to fly, Anderson boarded a Greyhound bus from Calgary on Tuesday and will arrive in Ottawa late Thursday … The Dinos are 5-10 all-time at the Final 8 and 2-4 in quarterfinals, with both wins coming in their last two appearances … The Dinos last faced an Atlantic team at the Final 8 in 1993, dropping an 83-80 decision to StFX in the quarterfinal in Halifax … 2010 ends a three-year run of hosting for Ottawa, Carleton University, and Scotiabank Place. The Final 8 returns to the Halifax Metro Centre for 2011 and 2012, with future locations up for nation-wide bidding …

CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE (all times MT)

Friday, March 19
10:30 Quarter-final #1: No. 2 Cape Breton vs. No. 7 Calgary (SSN Canada)
12:30 Quarter-final #2: No. 3 UBC vs. No. 6 Lakehead (SSN Canada)
16:00 Quarter-final #3: No. 4 Windsor vs. No. 5 Saskatchewan (TSN2)
18:00 Quarter-final #4: No. 1 Carleton vs. No. 8 UQAM (TSN2)

Saturday, March 20
9:30 Consolation #1: Loser QF #1 vs. Loser QF #2 (SSN Canada)
11:30 Consolation #2: Loser QF #3 vs. Loser QF #4 (SSN Canada)
15:00 Semifinal #1: Winner QF #1 vs. Winner QF #2 (TSN2)
17:00 Semifinal #2: Winner QF #3 vs. Winner QF #4 (TSN2)

Sunday, March 21
14:00 Consolation final (5th place) (SSN Canada)
16:30 Championship final (TSN2)

-UC-