Vancouver - On Thursday the Canada West Quarter-Finals begin with UBC Thunderbirds matching up against the University of Manitoba Bisons. The Thunderbirds will host the Bisons in a best-of-three series on Thursday February 15 at 4:00pm, Friday February 16th at 4:00pm and Saturday February 17th at 3:00pm (if needed) all at War Memorial Gym.
Vancouver Basketball sat down with UBC Coach, Kevin Hanson, and talked about the upcoming series.
VB: Obviously, the regular season doesn’t matter anymore, but what was a high point in the regular season for the Thunderbirds?
KH: The high point of the season would have to be our series against UVIC. It’s a rival game on back-to-back nights in each other’s gym. We played very well as a team and it was great to do that in front of two sell out crowds.
VB: Heading into the Canada West Quarter-Finals, what are you most looking forward too?
KH: Having a bye week heading in to playoffs just bothers me. It’s good if a coach wants to rest some guys but you really miss the competition on the Friday and Saturday nights that you have had all year. The adrenaline rush I have when I get out of bed on Friday and Saturdays on game days can’t be matched by practicing. It’s part of the art of coaching to figure how best to go about your practices.
VB: How much weight do you put on the home court advantage?
KH: Home court is always big at any level. To stay in your own bed and go about your daily routines is much easier at home. Most players have shot tens of thousands of shots in your home gym and some even hundreds of thousands. There are players though that prefer to be on the road because you can avoid many distractions and just focus on basketball. Home court is really enhanced when you have a big crowd behind you.
VB: Come Thursday, what kind of series can we expect from UBC and Manitoba?
KH: This series should be really intense. There are the emotions remaining form the experience from last year. Both teams have highly skilled players and it should some really entertaining basketball.
VB: What does it mean to you and the players to have a shot at the team that knocked you out of last years playoffs?
KH: I intentionally have not discussed it with the team but I know there has been a lot of talk about it in the change room. Both teams have different rosters and it’s hard to articulate the feeling and experience that last year produced but we wanted to focus on the positives of how we are currently playing. Revenge can be a motivator but being a playoff series there shouldn’t be any problem motivating our guys.
VB: How important and what does it mean to have veteran/battle tested leadership at this stage of the season?
KH: This time of year your players need to play. Confidence plays such a huge factor as does experience. Our veteran guys have had great seasons so far and they have been our leaders on and off the court. We have confident leaders and they have done a great job of making this a special group.
Thanks to UBC Head Coach, Kevin Hanson, for sitting down with us and best of luck in the Canada West Quarter-Finals starting tomorrow. If you’d like to catch the Thunderbirds in action, you can buy tickets to the playoff games by following this link:
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