Wesmen back on track after early-season setbacks

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This article was published 31/10/2024 (700 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It had all signs of a doomed season for the University of Winnipeg men’s basketball team.

First came a diagnosis of Stage 3 colon cancer for assistant coach Jeff Kovalik-Plouffe, followed by guard Noah Kankam’s season-ending knee injury, the mid-summer transfer of star big man Mikhail Mikhailov, rookie forward Elijah Wiebe escaping serious injury as a pedestrian in a hit-and-run collision, guard Malachi Alexander’s off-season leg stress fracture and, finally, all-star point guard Shawn Maranan’s dislocated shoulder.

On the eve of their Canada West season opener Friday night in Brandon, things are looking up for the Wesmen. Kovalik-Plouffe’s recovery is progressing and he has returned to the bench part-time, while Wiebe, Alexander and Maranan have recovered and are back at practice.

“It’s crazy to think about all the things just compounding on each other,” said Winnipeg’s all-star forward Donald Stewart, the team’s resident philosopher. “I was joking with Shawn — I think it might have been a couple days after (he got hurt) — and I said, ‘Are we legitimately cursed here?’ We had nine guys at practice and we were calling people, saying, ‘Hey, come for practice, we can’t play five-on-five and we can’t run our offence.’”

The Wesmen, coming off their second consecutive trip to the national championship tournament, are getting plenty of advance respect despite their personnel woes. Earlier this week, Winnipeg was voted No. 4 with one first-place vote among 17 schools in the Canada West coaches’ poll.

The crosstown rival Manitoba Bisons were rated fifth.

Winnipeg was 7-1 in pre-season action, mostly without Maranan, who was injured in a freak collision in an Aug. 20 home game with Black Hills State and only returned to practice on Monday.

Second-year man Kato Jaro filled in admirably in his absence.

“It’s a little bit more challenging to really come together as a group, because (Maranan) is such a key cog in how we want to play,” said head coach Mike Raimbault. “Like everything else, you’re dealing with circumstances and you’re trying to find a way to use it to your advantage in whatever possible way. I think Kato has done an unbelievable job of carrying a huge bulk of minutes and I think that should pay good dividends for us.”

Added Jaro: “Everyone was concerned — he’s such a big piece to our team. But we knew he’d be back. It would be a temporary loss, so we just had to hold the fort down.”

Maranan, who was unable to train for five weeks after the injury, admitted he briefly considered applying for a medical redshirt to preserve his fifth year of eligibility for 2025-26.

“You deal with those mental battles with injuries and that definitely came to mind,” said Maranan, a second-team conference all-star last spring. “I definitely asked myself, ‘Should I take the year off and come back stronger next year?’ But we’re on the right track now.

“They gave me 12 weeks (to rehab) and I think this week is the 10th week and I’m feeling fantastic. I’ve been practising all week and getting ready for this Friday.”

Elsewhere, the underrated Alexander is working himself back into top form after missing four months while Wiebe’s return, truth be told, is a bit of a miracle.

“To be honest, he’s lucky to be alive,” said Raimbault. “He got hit at a high speed in a hit and run. Came out of that with only scrapes and bruises and missed a minimal amount of time. He could have easily broken something. I mean, he could have been killed.”

Maranan will be a game-time decision against BU.

“There’s always room for improvement,” said Maranan. “But I’ve been watching all the games over the pre-season and the guys have played extremely well together. They played for each other and we’ve all really been locked in on the game plan of each game. I think we need to continue to carry that momentum into Friday.”

Winnipeg’s rivals would be best served not to underestimate what the Wesmen are capable of.

“We’ve had success in the past believing that we’re the underdogs,” said Stewart. “We’ve gotta fight for everything we want. We’re not UBC or Calgary. We’re not even the school that U of M is in terms of size and sort of the budget they have over there. What makes us good is we sort of have that underdog mentality. So no matter what we’re going through, we got to overcome this together. It’s next man up.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca