Preview: Ain’t that a rule in Canada West?

It’s the Canada West Universities Athletic Association, so it’s safe to say that things are in a state of flux.

Every year or so, they add a team, or two. Sometimes, they even lose a team, as when Simon Fraser decided it was too good for Canada and bolted for a creature called the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (an NCAA Division 2 school, which is not to be confused with NAIA’s Pacific Northwest Athletic or PAC West conferences, with which the Clan were once affiliated, before their members began reclassifying and realigning and SFU decided that Canada wasn’t so bad, in periodic doses. … well, you get the picture).

Meanwhile, good old CanWest kept adding members –- four in the last four years alone, bumping the membership up to 17 –- which, of course, necessitated rejigging the regular season schedule and the post-season playoff format. 

This year, they’ll use the same mind-boggling playoff system, seeding teams by finish in either the Pioneer or Explorer division and ignoring all manner of rational comparators of strength, such as an RPI. Next year, they’ll realign the conference again, organizing themselves into something called geographical pods, and play a schedule in which some historical rivals will only visit once every four years. Coaches will sigh and steam about the recruiting consequences, while generally conceding that things are simply incoherent. Folks around the country will again drop their jaws in utter wonder.

Compounding the chaos this campaign is the fact that over half of last year’s all-stars have graduated, as have a passel of fifth-year seniors at most institutions, so mutability will again be the order of day for rosters, which somehow seems entirely apropos and consistent with the frontier spirit of the west.

UBC, of course, will be immune to the fluidity, having successfully bid to host the 54^th annual Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship next March.

As a consequence, they’ll gain an automatic berth in the draw, which provides Thunderbirds coach Kevin Hanson the luxury of treating the entire season as a practice session. His troops could even finish 0-20 and still qualify, though if that were to occur, they’d probably be talking the affable Hanson out of the trees.

But it’s downright unlikely such drastic action will be required given that Hanson has a line-up which features swingman Jordan Jensen-Whyte and German-born point guard Philip Jalalpoor, along with forwards Conor Morgan, David Wagner and Will Ondrik. A deep bench includes Simon Fraser transfer Patrick Simon, backup point guard and Tacoma, Washington-native A.J. Holloway, along with 6-3 freshman gunner Taylor Browne and Australian forward Dominic Gilbert. That’s more than enough to yield the T-Birds a good seed at nationals.

“It’s all going to depend on how our new guys fit in. We’re sort of six and six, six veterans and six new guys, and we’ll see how quickly we can assimilate them into our philosophy and our systems,” says Hanson.

The general consensus among coaches is that Saskatchewan is the primary contender for one of CanWest’s two guaranteed berths. But both fifth-year forward Matt Forbes and 6-6 Shane Osayande have been sidelined indefinitely by foot injuries, so Huskies coach Barry Rawlyk has experimented with his front-court line-up, alternately starting Shane Lathan, Mack Burns, Trevor Severinski and Evan Ostertag. Rawlyk has consistently started two rookies in the backcourt, combo guards Chan De Ciman from Regina Leboldus and Jauquin Bennett-Boire from Saskatoon Yale.

The return of Forbes and Osayande “would make a significant difference for us, that’s for sure,” says Rawlyk. “We just have to find different ways to play the game. When you’re dealing with a younger line-up, you’ve got a lot of inconsistency with what you’re doing. When we’re good, we’re very good. And when we’re bad, we’re very bad.”

Ain’t that a rule.

Personable Calgary coach Dan Vanhooren hopes University of Nebraska-Kearney transfer Thomas Cooper keeps him smiling on the sidelines after the graduation of first-team all-star point guard Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson. Either Winnipeg freshman Torrez McKoy or 5-11 David Kapinga will man the point, with Cooper, Vanier College product Johny Verrone or Australian-born Josh Owen-Thomas on the wings, and Dallas Karch or German giant Lars Schlueter in the blocks, depending on whether Vanhooren wants to play big or small.

Ironically, Ogungbemi-Jackson’s absence is opening new possibilities for the Dinos, Vanhooren says. “It changes how we play. In a lot of ways, it benefits other players. Our whole game was focused around him and everybody’s defenses were focused around him. Jarred drew a lot of attention in both directions. Now, I think we’re actually a little harder to play against because the ball is spread around more.”

The Regina Cougars should be a factor behind the brothers Tull, 6-4 Brandon and 6-4 third-team all-star Jonathan, third-year Barcelona, Spain-born point guard Alex Igual, and forwards Travis Sylvestre and 6-7 Will Tallman. Off the bench comes such options as former Fraser Valley guard Aaron McGowan and commencing in January, 6-11 Bronx-born post Rawane ‘Pops’ Ndiaye, who toiled two years at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa and one year for the University of Tennessee Volunteers.

“We’re skilled in the open floor,” says head coach Steve Burrows. “We got some guys that when we get out and we’re running and we’re pushing the ball and we’re pushing tempo, we can score the ball in bunches. … But if you want to be able to compete with the powers around the country, you have to be able to defend and you have to be able to score in the quarter-court, and be disciplined on both sides of the ball.”

Alberta graduated four starters, including their entire backcourt, among them first-team all-star Joel Friesen. But the returnees include second-teamer Mamadou Gueye, a member of the FISU team that finished 7th in Gwangju, South Korea. Golden Bears coach Barnaby Craddock hopes to plug the holes with oft-injured post Sebastien Denault, along with redshirt and 6-8 Toronto product Brody Clarke, who toiled for the junior national team that finished 5th at the Worlds in Heraklion, Greece. 

As for the backcourt, Craddock will face the coaching nightmare of starting a rarely-used off-guard, Lyndon Annetts, and nothing less than an 18-year-old rookie, 5-8 Nevada product Colby Jackson, at the point. “I hope we can find our way into the playoffs by the end of the year,” he says. “We just have to hold our heads above water in the first semester.”

Without All-Canadian first-team post Chris McLaughlin to patrol the lanes and savvy playmaker Marcus Tibbs to run the show, Victoria will likely start a line-up featuring some mix of forwards Mack Roth, Justin Kinnear, Grant Sitton and Hayden Lejeune, along with guards Reiner Theil, Hassan Abdullahi and Brandon Dunlop, who returns to the line-up after a few years away from the program. Among impact recruits is Joshua Charles, a Cowichan product who toiled four consecutive years with provincial midget and juvenile units.

Still, highly-respected coach Craig Beaucamp believes his Vikes can establish an inside presence. “I like the fact that we can play bigger. So one of the things that we’ve been doing a lot of in the last few games is we’re switching a lot of things, switching a lot of ball screens, and just kind of able to eliminate some penetration. We’ve got a lot of guys who are 6-4 or 6-5, so we have the luxury to offset a lack of quickness and utilize that length.”

Although 6-10 post Brent Watkins suffered a pair of broken legs and various injuries to his head and torso in a car accident while travelling from his home in California to Lethbridge in the summer, and is indefinitely lost to the Pronghorns, they should remain in the hunt with a seasoned line-up that includes Fresno City College transfer point guard Dejon Burdeaux, Australian-born forward Brandon Brine, guards Jared Baker and Rob Olsen, and Lethbridge College transfer Christopher Maughan. Among other recruits expected to contribute are 6-9 California-born post Carl Hoffman and another Lethbridge College product, Will Hickey.

“We can score and we know we can score,” says coach Mike Hansen. “The key for us is: can we keep the pace of the game up? Can we get the games into the high-80s and force teams to run with us? If we can maintain that tempo and not let teams take the air out of the ball on us, it’s going to be hard for teams to keep up with that much scoring.”

Manitoba snuck into the playoffs last season with a 9-11 record and hopes to better that performance with a line-up featuring Brett Jewell and Wyatt Anders in the paint, either Justus Alleyn or Washington, D.C. product Ilarion Bonhomme II (a transfer from Brandon who was the league’s rookie of the year in 2012) at the point, and A.J. Basi, Keith Omoerah or John Alexander on the wings.

“I like our mix,” says Bisons coach Kirby Schepp. “We got a decent crop of returning guys. … I’m pretty confident that we’re going to be solid defensively, that we’re going to be able to rebound and get stops when we need to. But it’s just a matter of if we can score at a high enough rate to compete with the best teams. So far, our scoring has been kind of inconsistent, but balanced, which is good.”

Winnipeg returns 6-7 second-team all-star Jelayne Pryce and preseason starters have included Ryan Oirbans, Denzel Lynch-Blair, William Sesay and Denzel Soliven. “Our front court is relatively experienced,” says Wesmen coach Mike Raimbault.

Brandon appears to have cleaned house, bringing in 11 newcomers. Only four faces return for the Bobcats, including Texas product D.J. Jordan, and guards Ryan Hawley and Denham Buchanan, along with Nevada-born wing Earl Thompson Jr. Among newcomers that started in the preseason are Thompson Rivers transfer Tony Grant, Fanshawe College transfer Chris Stanhope and Algonquin College transfer Esmat Atem.

Trinity Western reached into Sacramento, California-based “Christian” liberal arts NAIA school William Jessup University for coach Aaron Muhic as a replacement for Scott Allen. Thus far, Muhic has experimented with a “musical doors” starting line-up that has typically included swingman Kelvin Smith, 7-1 redshirt post Matt Hayashi, guard Matt Blackaby and Spokane product Dean Richey at the point.

It’s critical “that our guys buy in and learn how to grow from failure and come to compete, consistently,” says Muhic, who notes the game played under FIBA rules “is so much faster” than those used in America.

Now, that ain’t a bad rule.

Meanwhile, over in the six-team Explorer division, where teams play one another four times, it’s expected to be a five-team battle for the three available playoff spots.

Thompson Rivers returns first-team all-star Josh Wolfram, a member of the FISU team, point guard Reese Pribilsky, Ukrainian import forward Volodymyr Iegorov, California-born guard Albert Medrano, as well as wings Gerard Gore and Luke Morris. Among promising recruits are Kelowna guard Jeff Tubbs.

Wolfpack coach Scott Clark, though, disavows the favorite tag. “Depth isn’t a strong suit,” he says, adding that areas needing improvement are glaringly obvious. “If we stay pat where we’re at, we’ll be good enough to get beat.”

If that ain’t a rule, it should be.

The Fraser Valley Cascades return third-team all-star Kevon Parchment, along with starting point guard Manny Dulay. Among those receiving major minutes in the preseason have been University of Victoria transfer Vijay Dhillon, Douglas College transfer Navjot Bains, and a pair of 6-6 California import forwards, Nate Brown from Porterville College and Mark Johnson from the College of the Desert in Palm Desert. 

University of Northern British Columbia 2nd-team all-star and leading scorer Franco Kouagnia took his talents to the Swedish pro league but the Timberwolves will still be a factor with a solid backcourt in the form of point guard Billy Cheng and off-guard Rhys Elliott. Up front, the Wolves will use some combination of Colin Plumb, Vaggelis Loukas and Austin Chandler, while Marcus MacKay or any number of other options will man the wing.

“We’re a team that depends on ball movement and getting shifts from side to side,” says Timberwolves coach Todd Jordan. Things get trickier “when the ball sticks. We’re not a very good isolation team.”

The MacEwan Griffins were remarkably competitive in their inaugural CIS campaign and having been baptized by fire, will look to make a run at the playoffs behind third-team all-star Denzel James, forwards Keith Gerdes and Ryan May, along with a pack of recruits including American junior college point guard Thadius Galvez and Alberta colleges all-star Ryan Coleman. 

“We took our lumps and learned from them and moved on and improved,” says Griffins coach Eric Magdanz. “The big thing for us this year is to not have any regression in our development. … We’re smaller than a traditional Canada West team. We can’t hide that. But I really like the way that all of our forwards can stretch the floor.”

UBC-Okanagan Heat coach Pete Guarasci lost 6-4 forward David Manshreck to a concussion until at least Christmas (and he may even redshirt). The loss of the team’s leading scorer and rebounder leaves Guarasci to cobble together a line-up that includes guard Randall Mosca and Mitchell Goodwin, post Dean Johnston, and two of a half dozen other options, depending on who delivers in practice.

“I think we’ll be better,” says Guarasci, a former member of the national senior team. “You just go through so many first-year pains. We’re still doing that at times. But we’re a little bit calmer. Everyone’s got a little more experience. We’ve got about five second-year kids and it’s getting to the point where this year or next year, a few of them need to make a breakthrough here and show that they deserve to be in the CIS.”

Mount Royal coach Marc Dobell expects to start 6-8 rookie Brett Layton in the post, once he’s recovered from an ankle injury, along with some combination of point guard Derek Wolf, veterans Ray Goff, James Lefebvre and Noah Lewis, Glen Yang, or any one of a half-dozen recruits, which include 6-9 Australian post Ty Cuperus.

“I like our potential but we’re young and we definitely look young sometimes,” says Dobell. “We’re trying to find some consistency and with so many new guys, just trying to have them understand what we’re trying to do within our program, and how we want to play.”

Ain’t that always a rule?