As veteran post players, Dennis Stark and Jesse Smith are going to have to come up big.
The two members of the UNBC Northern Timberwolves will be key figures in the quest of the local men's basketball team to win a second consecutive national championship this week in Oshawa, Ont. All season, the Timberwolves have been smallish in the paint and that's something opposing teams have tried to exploit. The Lethbridge College Kodiaks -- UNBC's first opponent at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship tournament -- will likely be no different.
The Kodiaks have on their roster six-foot-seven forward Dominyc Coward, who averaged 12.85 rebounds per game and 18 points per game during the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference regular season. Coward could cause some problems for the T-wolves, unless the six-foot-four Stark and/or six-foot-five Smith can invade his airspace.
"I think hard work beats size almost any day so that's all we've got to keep in mind," said Stark, a second-team all-star in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association this season. "At practice, coach [Todd Jordan] has told us that our first match-up has probably the best offensive/defensive rebounder in the country so we're aware of that and there's no excuse for not putting a body on him, as well as the other four guys on the court. We all have to box out and rebound as a team. Being undersized, we don't have a clear-cut, definitive rebounder so we've all got to do it."
Smith said he and Stark know exactly what will be expected of them.
"Obviously boards is a big issue with our team because we're smaller sized so Dennis and I have a huge responsibility," Smith said. "We have to take ownership of that and also we're going to need a lot of help from the guards. It's been a struggle all season and we figure this week is going to be a big test for that."
The fourth-seeded Timberwolves and fifth-ranked Kodiaks will fight it out on Thursday. The winner will advance to face either the top-seeded Vancouver Island University Mariners or the eighth-ranked Durham College Lords, the host team, in a Friday semifinal.
In their provincial final, the Timberwolves lost 96-90 to the Mariners and were victimized time and again by VIU forward Andrew Kaban. Even though Kaban is about the same size as Stark and Smith, he was a force around the basket and finished with a game-high 29 points and eight rebounds.
Jordan said Stark and Smith -- who are both fourth-year players -- have to "play with tremendous energy" to be successful in their roles this week.
"Those guys know the responsibilities they have and for the most part this year they've done a pretty good job," Jordan said.
Last year, when the T-wolves won their first CCAA national title in Calgary, they had six-foot-nine post player Kevan Madsen in uniform and he gave them some additional size and strength around the bucket. But Madsen, the 2009-10 rookie of the year in the BCCAA, was academically ineligible to play this season.
In a piece of good news, he should be back on the court next fall.
"He'll be back next year, that's what he's told me," Jordan said.
