CALGARY – The two men's basketball programs in Canada West with the most success in recent years just don't meet that often.

The Calgary Dinos and UBC Thunderbirds have combined for 10 of the last 17 Canada West championships, with each program winning five over that span – including three in the last four years for the Dinos. However, due to the conference's unbalanced schedule, they only see each other in conference play every second year – and this weekend, the Dinos will make their first appearance at War Memorial Gym since January 2015 – a span of nearly five years.

Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. MT Friday and 8 p.m. MT Saturday, live on CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op.

It's the season-opener for the two-time defending Canada West champion Dinos, who had the bye on Week 1 on the conference schedule. The Thunderbirds, for their part, picked up a pair of solid wins last weekend, defeating Regina by nearly identical 83-72 and 82-71 scores on the road.

Including last year's Canada West championship game and a playoff series in 2018, the Dinos are riding a six-game win streak against the Thunderbirds. But all of those games have come at home, and Friday night will mark the first game any player on the Dinos roster has played on the War Memorial Gym floor.

"After the preseason and the way we've been playing, there's some optimism in our camp about what we can accomplish," said reigning U SPORTS coach of the year Dan Vanhooren, entering his 20th season at the helm of the program. "Going into UBC, obviously they're a tough opponent, and we're playing them in their gym for the first time in a long time. I know how hard it is to play there, but our guys don't – so this will be an experience that will be useful for us going through the year, and we will need to play at a high level to compete."

The fourth-ranked Dinos have won their last 23 regular season games, dating back to the end of the 2017-18 season – but it's a much different lineup that takes the floor in 2019. Much of the team's core that led them to the 2018 national title – Mambi Diawara, Lars Schlueter, David Kapinga, Lucas Mannes – as moved on, and the tragic passing of Andrew Milner in April changed the future look of the program as well. As a result, the conference's coaches picked the Dinos to finish third in their preseason poll, behind both Alberta and UBC – though all three teams received first-place votes.

Calgary big man Brett Layton has been virtually unstoppable through the early part of the season, dominating on the offensive glass and leading the team in scoring. Vanhooren also brought in transfers Edwin Jeudy, Ezeoha Santiago and Simon Kutzschmar, while Jeffrey Tezo joins the active roster after a redshirt year and sought-after point guard recruit Noah Wharton out of Brampton, Ont. chose to attend UCalgary.

"There are nine new faces," said Vanhooren. "Our system is what it is, but it adapts based on the kind of players that we have. You'll see kind of a new brand of basketball, as well as some of the similar actions we've been running. We're excited to play with this group – they're an intellectual group, and they play a more intellectual style of basketball. And defensively, we're solid."

The Dinos return home to face the Brandon Bobcats in their conference home opener next week, with tip-off at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16 and 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17 in the Jack Simpson Gym.

-UC-