It will be the T-wolves battling the T-Birds later this week.
As in the UNBC Timberwolves' men's basketball squad taking on the UBC Thunderbirds Thursday in Vancouver in a Canadian Interuniversity Sport Canada West best-of-three quarter-final playoff series.
With a second-place regular season finish in the Canada West Explorer Division with a 12-6 record, it's UNBC's first-ever appearance in the playoffs since the school joined the CIS three seasons ago.
Host UBC finished second the Pioneer Division at 14-6.
"They're very strong and a talented group of guys," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "They had a slow start to the season, but they really picked it up in the second half of the season. They're big, strong and we'll have to be on top of our game. There are some mismatches size-wise - their front line is six-foot-seven, six-foot-six, six-foot-nine and their guard is six-foot-five. They have a lot of height and are very good."
UBC started the season at 3-5, then went on an 11-1 run in January to wrap up the second half of the season.
The T-wolves will have to contend with the T-Birds top point-getter Tommy Nixon, a six-foot-six 215-pound forward in his last year of eligibility.
Nixon led the Canada West Conference averaging 20.8 points per game and was also deadly accurate around the three-point arc, sinking 50 per cent of his shots. He tied for first in the Canada West in that category. He's also seventh in rebounding, averaging 7.9 rebounds per game.
UNBC's Devin McMurtry is second overall in the conference, averaging 10.5 rebounds per game.
Then there's six-foot-five third-year guard Jordan Jensen-Whyte, one of the last cuts to the 2011 Junior Men's national team.
UNBC will counter with their top players - forwards Franco Kouagnia,McMurtry, and guards Jeff Chu, Rhys Elliott and Billy Cheng. They have a solid bench behind them who were valuable in the latter stages of the second-half of the season to deal with a rash of five injuries to key players such as Michael Smith and Vaggelis Loukas.
Meanwhile, UNBC went 7-1 in its last eight games of the regular season to clinch a playoff spot.
After a two-game sweep against UBC Okanagan Feb. 12 and 13 to wrap up their regular season in Kelowna, the Timberwolves didn't return to Prince George. Instead they travelled two hours north to Kamloops where they've been practising at Thompson Rivers University since their home gym at the Northern Sport Centre has been occupied by badminton and gymnastics for the Canada Winter Games.
"We're definitely glad to be playing in the playoffs," said Jordan. "We feel good with the way we've been playing. We're going to try and win and going to do what we do. We'll play our game and and we're going to have to play hard and play together."
Game 1 is Thursday at 7 p.m. and Game 2 follows Friday at 8 p.m. Game three, if necessary is Saturday at 7 p.m.
Other Canada West quarter-final series that begin later this week include the University of Alberta at the University of Victoria; Thompson Rivers at the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Calgary at the University of Fraser Valley in Abbotsford.
