The U of S Huskies men’s basketball team still has a realistic shot of making the conference playoffs.
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So, you’re telling us there’s a chance?
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The University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s basketball team — which began the current Canada West season with a 12-game losing skid — still has a realistic shot of making the conference playoffs.
To do so, they will likely have to sweep a pair of games this weekend in Brandon against the Bobcats, although a weekend split could also do the trick based on tie-breaking formulas.
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Saskatchewan would also need the University of Regina Cougars to lose at least one of their games this weekend at home against the Prairie Division-leading Calgary Dinos (14-4).
“We have the tie-breaker with both, as long as we get a split,” said Huskies head coach Jamie Campbell, who was left crunching numbers this week.
“If we get a split and Regina gets swept by Calgary, all of my reading into it says we would get in because we would have the three-way tie-breaker.”
Campbell, whose season is on the line, doesn’t want to leave it to chance, or math.
“You don’t want to be wrong. I just keep saying this: ‘We’ve just got to sweep, got to sweep, got to sweep,’ ” said Campbell, who is into his second season with the Huskies.
“Hopefully we can keep this roll going.”
After a disastrous start, the Dogs have won five of their last six games, including a two-game home-and-home sweep over rival Regina this past weekend.
“I think it’s really kind of with our youth learning what it’s like to play in Canada West,” offered Campbell.
“We’re so young. Even last Saturday, there was a three- or four-minute stretch in the fourth quarter where we had four players either in their first or second year. And you’re watching that happen and you’re like, ‘We’ve been doing it so much that, finally, over the last few weekend, it started to click,’ and I think everybody started to understand what it really takes.
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“On top of that, getting one (win) and getting the sweep on the weekend after, it’s building that confidence up to where we can say, ‘OK, we can win games.’
“It’s not about the future. It’s about winning right now.”
The Dogs face a hungry Bobcats squad, which was able to steal a game from the Winnipeg Wesmen (14-4) last weekend.
“We haven’t played Brandon yet (this season),” noted Campbell. “They got one of the best players in the conference in Sultan Haider Bhatti. He’s second in scoring (20.9 points per game) and kicking everybody’s butt with the rebounding lead (10.9 per game). He’s leading the conference in rebounding, he’s second in scoring and averaging three or four assists every game. The ball is in his hands all the time. He can really score and take over a game.
“Then they have a really good shooter in Travis Hamberger, who’s been there for three or four years and his role has evolved big-time as guys have graduated. Then they also have an American guard. Just their top guys, they play really fast and shoot a lot of threes.
“We’re kind of two polar opposite styles, right? We’re going to play big. We’re going to pound the ball inside. We’re going to try and take advantage of our height, our physicality and they’re going to try and take advantage of their perimeter skills and their speed and see if they can hurt us against a bunch of 6-foot-9-plus guys.”
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Emmanuel Bonsu has led Saskatchewan, averaging 13.3 points per game to go along with 61 assists, 16 steals, 80 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Easton Thimm — Canada West rookie of the year in 2024 — has averaged 13.2 points per game while contributing a team-high 186 rebounds and 24 steals, plus 38 assists and six blocks.
Youngsters like Freddy Kapinga, Dillyn Morin, Owen Murphy Wiebe and Dylan Miller have stepped up their play and emerged as front-line players this season.
The Huskies will lose only two players to graduation, fifth-years Ryker Wuttke and Griffin Sharkey.
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