For the first time in three years, interdivisional play is back on the schedule for the 2022-23 Canada West men’s and women’s basketball seasons.
For the two UNBC Timberwolves teams, that means a pair of trips across provincial borders to Mount Royal (Jan. 27-28) and Brandon (Feb. 10-11) are on their 20-game U SPORTS Canada West Conference schedules.
The T-wolves, in turn, will host the Calgary Dinos (Nov. 25-26), Manitoba Bisons (Jan. 6-7) and Winnipeg Wesmen (Jan. 20-21) at the Northern Sport Centre.
The bulk of the schedules released Monday for the two T-wolves teams involve matchups against their provincial rivals. That starts with the opening weekend at the NSC against Trinity Western on Friday, Nov. 4 and Saturday, Nov. 5, followed by a doubleheader against Thompson Rivers (Feb. 3-4). The T-wolves ‘ roadshow will take them to Fraser Valley (Nov. 18-19) and Victoria (Jan. 13-14).
The pandemic cancelled the 2020-21 season entirely and the T-wolves played an abbreviated 18-game schedule strictly against other B.C. teams in 2021-22. All 17 Canada West teams in the men’s and women’s league made the 2022 playoffs but that was a one-time occurrence in recognition of the fact teams did not play an equal number of games due to COVID-related postponements and/or cancellations.
The league is reverting to its traditional playoff format with the fifth-12-place teams in each gender advancing to the play-in round. The winners will advance to quarterfinals against the top four seeds in games to be played Feb. 18, one day after the play-in games
Semifinals will be played Feb. 25 and the final four will play for the Canada West championship on March 4.
St. Francis Xavier University will host the men's U SPORTS championship, March 9-12, 2023, while Cape Breton University is the host of the women's championship that same weekend.
