Both Saskatchewan Huskies basketball teams have home-court advantage to kick off their respective Canada West playoff series.
The men (11-9) will be taking on their provincial rivals, the Regina Cougars (14-6), in the best-of-three quarter-final that tips off Thursday.
Saskatchewan is hosting even though the Cougars finished with a better record. This is because of the Huskies’ rating percentage index (RPI) ranking, which is used to seed playoff teams.
The Huskies is better than Regina’s due to the strength of schedule.
Add in the fact the rivals split a pair of games in Regina just prior to playoffs and there’s no clear favourite in the series, but the Huskies are determined to prove they’re more deserving of the higher seed.
“We played a lot of the tough teams, all the teams we’ve played are pretty much in playoffs, they’re all the top teams in the conference as well so we definitely had a strong schedule,” Huskies guard JT Robinson said.
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“But we’re not going to hold that over our heads, we’re going to have an underdog mentality.”
The men play at 8 p.m. CT on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Physical Activity Complex (PAC).
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The women take on the Winnipeg Wesmen (8-12) in a rematch of last year’s quarter-final.
The Huskies are coming off another strong regular season, going 16-4 to finish third in the standings.
They had a shot at first place but lost their final two games in Regina, however, Saskatchewan believes those losses may have come at just the right time.
“You never want to lose,” Huskies head coach Lisa Thomaidis said.
“But when you lose at the end of the season and then you have a bye weekend, then you’re heading into playoffs, the timing is good in terms of making sure the motivation is high to get better and really emphasize the point we have some work to still do.”
The women host the Wesmen in Saskatoon starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
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