Timberwolves welcoming Wesmen
Two wins to start a season has never happened before for the UNBC Timberwolves in their seven-year Canada West conference history and it was worth celebrating when they swept the Mount Royal Cougars in a two-game set last weekend in Calgary.
T-wolves head coach Todd Jordan knows it’s too early to be thinking about any parade route. Not with Mike Raimbault and the Winnipeg Wesmen coming in to try to spoil the T-wolves’ home-opening weekend at the Northern Sport Centre.
“2-0 is a great start but we’re still only five per cent of the way in,” said Jordan. “They’re going to be a good measuring stick for us going into this weekend and we’re looking forward to going at those guys.”
In their season-opening 95-80 win over Mount Royal Jordan didn’t like the way his team guarded on transition defence and he wants his players to focus on maintaining better communication on the court, which they did to greater effect in their second game against Mount Royal, a 75-67 win.
“The biggest thing for me right now is we haven’t shot the ball particularly well yet and to come out of the weekend with two wins is something I’m pretty happy with,” said Jordan.
“Our Saturday game was a grittier win and it was a good sign that we were able to win that.”
Raimbault is in his eighth season at the helm of the Wesmen since leaving the Twolves after coaching them to the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national title in 2010. Jordan was an assistant coach with Raimbault in the college league and has been head coach of the T-wolves since they joined Canada West in 2012.
“Him and I are pretty good friends and we talk once or twice a month through the season and as the year goes on and we play against common opponents and we talk about things,” said Jordan.
Last year the T-wolves won their firstever Canada West playoff game, beating Winnipeg 71-68 before they got swept by Alberta in a two-game quarterfinal series. The coaching tie between Jordan and Raimbault and that bit of history between the T-wolves and Wesmen adds to the intrigue of their two-game weekend matchup tonight ( 8 p.m. start) and Saturday (7 p.m.).
“We were able to get our first playoff win, in their gym, and now they’re coming to our gym,” said fourth-year UNBC guard Sage Gosal. “They’re definitely going to be very fired up and we have the added bonus of having our home crowd behind us for it.
“Winnipeg tries to take you out of what you’re trying to do. They make you uncomfortable. They deny passing lanes, so it is going to be tough for us to get into our offence. We need to be calm and composed to deal with that.”
The Wesmen were ranked 11th of 17 in the preseason Canada West coaches’ poll, one spot below UNBC. Third-year junior college transfer Sean Tarver set the pace offensively for the Wesmen in their two games at home last weekend, contributing 24 points and 11 rebounds in a 93-84 win over the Vikes Friday and 20 points in a 75-72 defeat Saturday decided by a buzzer-beater from Victoria’s Scott Kellum.