On the drive for back-to-back national titles, the Lethbridge College Kodiaks are the first potential roadblock.
The UNBC Northern Timberwolves will start the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association men's basketball championship with a Thursday game against the Kodiaks. In the eight-team tournament, being played at Durham College in Oshawa, Ont., UNBC is seeded fourth and Lethbridge is ranked fifth.
"It will be a tough game," said Timberwolves guard Inderbir Gill, the MVP of last year's nationals, which saw UNBC beat the host SAIT Trojans 96-63 in the final game. "[The Kodiaks] are similar to us because they run, but they have a really big guy and a few nice shooting guards. We've got to focus on what we do best."
The "big guy" in the Lethbridge lineup is six-foot-seven forward Dominyc Coward. In the South Division of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference this season, he was the runaway leader in rebounding. Coward pulled down 257 boards in 20 games, good for an average of 12.85 per contest. With an average of 18 points per game, he was also a constant scoring threat. As well, Coward led the division in blocks, with 1.40 per outing.
In the backcourt, Morgan Duce is the most potent Lethbridge guard. In the ACAC South, he had a higher points-per-game average (20.70) than any other player.
After second-place finishes in their respective provincial championship tournaments, the Timberwolves and Kodiaks are both wildcard entries in nationals. The T-wolves lost 96-90 to the top-ranked team in the country, the Vancouver Island University Mariners, while the Kodiaks fell 93-66 to the NAIT Ooks, who are seeded second for the CCAA tournament.
The Kodiaks, who were No. 2 on the national list for much of the season, did beat the Edmonton-based Ooks earlier in the year. From the game footage UNBC head coach Todd Jordan has seen, Lethbridge wasn't in its usual form in the ACAC final.
"Number one, NAIT's an incredibly talented team so I think there was a little bit of that," Jordan said. "But, watching it, to be honest, I didn't think Lethbridge played with as much energy as I've seen them play with in the past. I'm not really reading anything into the fact that they got kind of beaten up in that game because I don't think that's an indicator of the quality of the team they are."
Thursday's game will start at 6 p.m. ET, or 3 p.m. PT. All games will be broadcast live on the tournament's website (http://www.ccaamensbasketball2011.ca/).
The other first-round match-ups are: NAIT (2) vs. the Vanier College Cheetahs (7); the Humber College Hawks (3) vs. the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics (6); and VIU (1) vs. the host Durham College Lords (8).
Games continue Friday, and the gold medal final is set for Saturday night.
To get to the final and win it, Jordan said the Timberwolves will have to play at a level they have not yet reached this season.
"If we play our best basketball I think that we're going to be extremely tough to beat so we feel as good about our chances as anyone," he said. "These guys are extremely focused on going out there and trying to repeat."
The last team to win consecutive CCAA banners was Vancouver's Langara College. The Falcons achieved the championship double in 1998 and 1999.
n Tonight in Oshawa, Gill will be presented with a CCAA All-Canadian award, his third in three years with the T-wolves. He's also a nominee for the CCAA player of the year.
