The UNBC men's basketball team has the No. 1 ranking for the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship tournament. The UNBC women's team, meanwhile, is in the No. 3 spot for nationals.
Both Northern Timberwolves clubs won provincial titles in North Vancouver on the weekend to qualify for their respective nationals. The tournaments will be held March 15-17 in Truro, N.S., (men) and Lethbridge, Alta., (women).
The CCAA released the rankings for nationals on Monday. In Truro, the UNBC men will open against the No. 8 Red Deer College Kings. In Lethbridge, the UNBC women will start with a game against the No. 6 Algonquin College Thunder of Ottawa.
Heading into provincials, the UNBC men were listed at No. 9 in the country. But, in Saturday's championship game at Capilano University, they knocked off the CCAA's No. 1 seed, the Vancouver Island University Mariners, 69-61.
Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes also held their conference championships on the weekend and there were a number of upsets. When all of the results were taken into account, the Timberwolves ran to the front of the national pack.
While happy with the No. 1 seeding, UNBC head coach Todd Jordan is keeping it in perspective.
"It's pretty exciting," he said.
"What's happened, basically, is that a lot of the top teams in the country have been upset -- which I guess means they're not the top teams in the country. There is no inter-conference play [in the CCAA] so the seedings don't necessarily mean a whole ton but it definitely is nice to be recognized as a No. 1 seed. It gives us, hopefully, as good of a draw as possible."
In the Alberta playoffs, the Lakeland Rustlers -- who were rated No. 1 in Canada for much of the season -- were tripped up in a best-of-three quarterfinal series by the Grant MacEwan Griffins. Also in Alberta, the CCAA's No. 3 team, NAIT, failed to qualify for the final and finished with provincial bronze.
In Ontario, the Humber Hawks -- No. 5 in the CCAA prior to provincials -- lost 86-83 in the championship game to the unheralded Mohawk Mountaineers. In Quebec, the Vanier Cheetahs (No. 7 in the CCAA before the weekend) fell in the final 85-66 to the Indiens du Ahuntsic, who came into the tournament as No. 12 in the country. Finally, in the Maritimes, the unranked St. Thomas University Tommies defeated the CCAA No. 2 Mount St. Vincent University Mystics 70-63.
Red Deer, UNBC's first-round opponent at nationals, lost 101-77 to the Mount Royal Cougars in the Alberta final but got into the CCAA championship as a wildcard team.
"We're not going to be taking Red Deer lightly," Jordan said. "They beat a couple pretty quality teams to get [to the provincial final]. We'll have to play them tough, for sure."
The last time the UNBC men were ranked No. 1 for the CCAA nationals, they lived up to their billing by winning gold in Calgary in 2010.
As for the UNBC women, their first opponent at nationals, Algonquin, needed double overtime in the provincial championship game to beat the Seneca Sting 62-57. Seneca qualified for the CCAA tournament as a wildcard team and has been seeded eighth.
CCAA national championship tournament rankings
Men
1. UNBC Northern Timberwolves (B.C.); 2. Mount Royal University Cougars (Alberta); 3. Indiens du Ahuntsic (Quebec); 4. Mohawk College Mountaineers (Ontario); 5. Vanier College Cheetahs (Quebec, wildcard); 6. St. Thomas University Tommies (Maritimes); 7. Mount St. Vincent University Mystics (Maritimes, host); 8. Red Deer College Kings (Alberta, wildcard).
Women
1. Grant MacEwan University Griffins (Alberta); 2. Dawson College Blues (Quebec); 3. UNBC Northern Timberwolves (B.C.); 4. Dynamiques Sainte Foy (Quebec, wildcard); 5. St. Thomas University Tommies (Maritimes); 6. Algonquin College Thunder (Ontario); 7. Lethbridge College Kodiaks (Alberta, host); 8. Seneca College Sting (Ontario, wildcard).
