There's much not to like about the new division alignment for Canada West basketball this season.
But, with teams now playing the second half of their schedules, it turns out there's a major positive for the UNBC men and their fanbase: the Timberwolves find themselves in a playoff race for the first time in their three-year history in the league. For UNBC players and supporters, that's reason for some serious excitement.
Time to break out the Green Guard T-shirts. Time to get those home-game drums pounding behind the opponent's bench.
Right now, the Timberwolves are in fourth place in the six-team Explorer Division and the top three finishers will qualify for playoffs. The T-wolves (5-7) are chasing the third-place Mount Royal University Cougars, who stand at 6-6, and are even within striking distance of the second-place Thompson Rivers University WolfPack (7-5).
The T-wolves will tip off against the Cougars tonight and Saturday in Calgary and with a pair of victories would jump into a playoff position. Big games? Yeah, the most important of the season so far, because while two wins would be terrific, two losses would severely hobble the Timberwolves in their attempted run toward a playoff berth. They'd suddenly find themselves at 5-9, while the Cougars would improve to 8-6. With just six regular-season games left after this weekend, that would be a lot of ground for UNBC to make up - probably too much.
If each team wins once, it's pretty much status quo, just with two fewer games left on the schedule.
If there hadn't been realignment within Canada West, the Timberwolves probably wouldn't be on the cusp of a playoff spot. At the very least, they'd have a lot more difficulty making playoffs in an eight-team Pacific Division that would have featured more established programs like UBC, UVic, Trinity Western and Fraser Valley. Beating out one of those clubs for the required top-four finish (UNBC was sixth in 2012-13 and seventh last season) would have been a tough task indeed.
But with UBC, UVic and Trinity Western now part of Canada West's Pioneer Division, the Timberwolves don't have to worry about facing them. Fraser Valley, meanwhile, is running away from the rest of the field in the Explorer Division with a 12-0 record.
When the regular season is complete, the first- through third-place teams in the Explorer group will cross over in a somewhat complicated playoff format that's not worth trying to explain in this space. Suffice to say, if the Timberwolves finish third, they would meet the sixth-ranked Pioneer club in a best-of-three play-in series and a win would send them on to a quarterfinal match-up the following weekend.
So the possibility of playoffs for the Timberwolves is the bright side of Canada West realignment. The unfortunate things for UNBC include: being slotted in as a second-tier team within the league; the difficulties in trying to recruit top talent and trying to eventually compete with first-tier clubs; not getting the chance to face true powerhouse teams and improve as a result of those games; and having to play doubleheaders each weekend instead of getting to face a different opponent each night. The last one - the doubleheaders - is probably a bit of a downer for the players and it definitely takes away some of the fun for the fans.
The new alignment - brought into effect to cut down on travel costs and to try to create more parity of play - isn't written in stone. Canada West will review the Explorer/Pioneer format at the end of the season and make a judgment about how to move forward.
In the big picture, it would still be nice to see the Timberwolves taking on the big boys of Canada West - the UBCs and the UVics.
But, for now, let's enjoy the fact the T-wolves are in a playoff hunt.
As a consolation prize for being relegated, that's not a bad one.
