CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos men's basketball team opens the 2018 Canada West regular season with two games at home this weekend against the Regina Cougars. Before the home opener on Friday night, the Dinos will raise their U SPORTS National Championship banner and the game will follow at 8 p.m. Saturday night, the team will be back in action again at 7 p.m.
The banner ceremony will take place immediately following the conclusion of the women's game at approximately 7:45 p.m.
Once again, the Dinos have been established as the favourite in Canada West, with the defending conference champs ranked No. 1 in the conference's preseason coaches' poll. The first national rankings are due out next week.
RETURN OF THE CHAMPS
The Dinos are coming off their first U SPORTS National Championship victory and a 16-4 regular season record in 2017-18 season. The Dinos lost three players from their championship team but gained a few more in the offseason.
Jhony Verrone and
Connor Foreman have graduated and moved on from the program but the Dinos added some new talent such as
Jackson Bayles,
Tobi Adelodun,
Brett Layton, and
Carter Kuchinka.
VETERAN RELIABILITY
The Dinos will be relying on veteran leadership this season, as they will have four seniors on the team.
Mambi Diawara,
David Kapinga,
Lars Schlueter, and
Lucas Mannes are all in their fifth and final years of eligibility. Last season, all four played big roles to help lead the Dinos to their first national championship.
QUOTABLE
Head coach
Dan Vanhooren likes what he has seen from his team thus far and wants them to stay focused on this season.
"They're proud of [the championship] and they should be proud of it. There are people celebrating and reminding them about it all the time so I think those things detract from us being in the moment and focusing on the work we have to do to get to that moment again.
"The other thing it does is it puts you into a space where the guys are thinking about playoffs, we got 20 games to go, and we got a lot of work to do so we need to focus on Friday night's game and that's it."
SCOUTING REPORT
vs REGINA COUGARS
Match Info Friday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. – Jack Simpson Gym
2017 Record 11-9, 6th in Canada West Standings
2017 Leading Scorer(s) Brian Ofori 13.7 ppg, Brandon Tull 13.6 ppg
NOTES
- Despite winning a Canada West play-in game against Thompson Rivers University, the Cougars lost in the Canada West quarter-final to the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns.
- The Cougars got to the free throw line a lot last season, as they were first in free throw attempts and second in free throws made.
- They were busy on the glass last year with 41.4 total rebounds per game, which is fifth overall.
- Cougars and Dinos haven't met since the 2016/2017 seasons.
UP NEXT
Following their opening weekend home games, the Dinos will host the University of Alberta Bears on Thursday, Nov. 1 for Pack the Jack night and then will head to Edmonton on Saturday, Nov. 3 for a rematch against the Bears at the Saville Community Sports Centre at 7 p.m.
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