Bisons face toughest test yet

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This article was published 19/02/2024 (941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The biggest week of the Canada West men’s basketball season has arrived and it’s no surprise that the Manitoba Bisons are still managing the health of two of their biggest stars.

Forward Simon Hildebrandt and point guard Mason Kraus have both been helped off the court with ankle injuries in the last three weeks, leaving their readiness in question for the 12-team conference playoff tournament, slated to run Wednesday to Sunday at Investors Group Athletic Centre.

“They’ll be good to go come game time,” said Bisons head coach Kirby Schepp. “I mean, listen, at this point in the season, you’re 100 practices in and your 25 games in, right? Everyone is beat up. Everyone’s got some nagging injuries. Everyone’s hurt but no one’s injured — let’s put it that way.”

Hildebrandt, hurt on Feb. 3 during an 88-78 regular-season loss to the Winnipeg Wesmen, returned to the action Feb. 9-10 against UBC Okanagan, and managed a combined 13 points and four rebounds while playing reduced minutes in two wins over the Heat.

Kraus, meanwhile, was hobbled late in Game 2 against UBCO, but was back on the practice court last week.

The Bisons, seeded fourth and ranked eighth in the country, will play the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game between the No. 5 UBC Thunderbirds and the UNBC Timberwolves.

Manitoba thumped the T-Wolves 79-59 on a neutral court in a pre-season tournament and lost a pair of road games by a combined 12 points to the Thunderbirds in early January.

“We wouldn’t have a harder road if we were in the national championship,” said Schepp, noting five of the top 10 ranked teams in Canada will be at IGAC this week. “We could play the No. 4-ranked team in the country (UBC) in the quarter-final and then whoever wins, plays No. 1 (Victoria Vikes), right?”

Should UBC advance to Thursday’s quarter-finals, Manitoba forward Wyatt Tait knows it will be a war in the trenches.

“They’re the most physical team in the country,” said Tait of UBC. “They’re physically dominant with (power forward Brian) Wallack and they’ve got a couple other bigs that, when we played them, they really just kind of beat us up a bit. They’re super physical.”

Manitoba guard Daren Watts is keenly aware of what’s at stake. The tournament winner earns a berth in the U Sports championship in Quebec City, March 8-10 with a wild-card team unlikely to come from Canada West.

“It’s decision making — that’s all it is,” said Watts, who has gone from five points a game as a sophomore to 16.4 per game in his third year. “Because anyone can score, we can all shoot, we’re good players but it’s about making good decisions. You can sometimes hit a contested shot with two people on you but are we going to take that shot or are we going to try to get a great shot every possession? That’s really what it comes down to.”

The top-seeded Vikings, meanwhile, have superstar guard Diego Maffia back in their lineup after a mid-season injury forced him to miss three games.

Victoria will face the winner of a play-in game between the eighth-seeded Brandon Bobcats and the No. 9 Saskatchewan Huskies.

The Vikes, defending conference champs, lost in the national semifinal last spring and they’re planning to take their No. 1 U Sports ranking all the way to a national title in 2023-24.

“I think we’re deeper,” said Vikes head coach Craig Beaucamp. “Last year, we had some some injury troubles. Our sixth man essentially got hurt with two or three weeks left in the season. I think we’re a better defensive team overall than we were last year.”

The third-seeded Winnipeg Wesmen, powered by all-star calibre seasons from guard Shawn Maranan and forward Mike Mikhailov, enter the tournament on a six-game winning streak.

The Wesmen, ranked ninth in the country, await the winner of a play-in game between the No. 11 Fraser Valley Cascades and sixth-seeded Regina Cougars.

Should the Wesmen emerge from their side of the draw, they could face the No. 2-seeded Calgary Dinos in Saturday’s semfinals.

The Dinos, with the superb Nate Petrone running their offence, will play the winner of a play-in game between the 10th-seeded Mount Royal Cougars and seventh-seeded Alberta Golden Bears.

Calgary head coach Dan Vanhooren said the quarter-finals will be plenty tough.

“It would be considered a significant win when you beat somebody by 10 or more but the parity in the league has been very, very good all year,” said Vanhooren, whose Dinos are No. 5 in Canada. “And so what it comes down to really is what the matchups are with your team and whether or not you know, you got a good matchup or you’ve a team that really just has somebody you don’t match up well with.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca