GAME INFORMATION

Date: Friday, Mar. 4
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: Lethbridge, Alta.
Venue: 1st Choice Savings Centre
Watch: Canadawest.tv

It's officially March Madness.

New for 2021-22 is the Canada West's bracket-style single-game knockout 17-team postseason.

And the madness has already begun — 17 teams have already been whittled down to 13. But today it's Saskatchewan's turn as they open up their postseason against the Brandon Bobcats in what will be their first-ever playoff meeting against the Bobcats.

While the Huskies have never met the Bobcats in the postseason, they're no stranger to them this season. Saskatchewan and Brandon squared off four times in regular-season action during the 2021-22 campaign with the green-and-white winning all four contests. Historically, the matchup is one the Huskies have held the upper-hand in, with their last loss to the Bobcats coming back on Jan. 26, 2013.

14th-seeded Brandon advanced to Round 2 of the playoffs following an upset over the 13th-seeded UNBC Timberwolves on Thursday night in Lethbridge, with a 95-89 victory.

A new-look team for 2021-22, Saskatchewan has found chemistry down the stretch. The Huskies enter the postseason as winners of nine of their last 11 games, helping them earn the number-nine rank in the nation.

Marquavian Stephens is a big reason why. The transfer from Southwestern Community College was named a Canada West second team all-star after his 19.4 points-per-game was good for third in the Canada West. 

But it's been a by committee effort this season for Saskatchewan, who has also received 16.4 and 11.4 points-per-game from Alexander Dewar and Nervens Demosthene.

With a win, the Huskies would advance to the conference quarter-finals and play the winner of the UBC Thunderbirds and Mount Royal Cougars on Saturday. The Thunderbirds entered the weekend as the number-six ranked team in the nation.

When Saskatchewan won their lone conference and national crowns in program history back in 2010, the green-and-white won 13 straight games en route to history. Dewar and the Huskies are hoping they can start a similar run today in Lethbridge.

Thoughts from Huskies associate coach Chad Jacobson:

Jacobson on how the team is feeling with the postseason getting underway:

"Guys are excited. This is what we work for all year long — to put ourselves in a position where we're in the playoffs and we can compete to advance and hopefully get to our goal of making it to a National Championship. But guys are excited. They want to get back playing out, back to playing in the playoffs. It's been a while since we've been in this environment and guys are just looking forward to it."

Jacobson on not knowing their opponent until Thursday night:

"It just makes us have to focus on ourselves. We just have to do the things that we can do to get better. Control we can control. The focus this whole week has been on us."

Jacobson on how the team has come together down the stretch:

"It's a great group of guys. A really good group of guys. There's a lot of familiar faces too. We definitely have some new guys on the team for sure. But there's a lot of core, veteran guys that are used to playing with each other, but they've just come together from day one. They bought into what we're trying to do and at the end of the day, they just want to play for each other and they just want to win."

Scouting the Bobcats:

• The Bobcats finished the regular-season in the basement of the east division with a 2-14 record, but have now won back-to-back games after winning their regular-season finale 72-60 over the Manitoba Bisons
• Anthony Tsegakele was named a Canada West third team all-star on Thursday, while Sultan Haider Bhatti was named to the conference's all-rookie team
• Tsegakele is fresh off a monster statline in the win over UNBC, recording a double-double with a 33-point, 15-rebound outing
• The native of Gatineau, Que. led the Canada West with 11.9 rebounds per-game this season, one of just two players in the conference to reach the double-digit plateau
• Brandon got what was a dominant performance from Jahmaal Gardner in their Round 1 win, as the Brentwood, NY product went for 29 on 11-16 shooting, to go along with five dimes and five boards