You’re about to read waaaaay too many words from me as it is (roughly 3800, actually), so let’s not dance around and just get to it. What follows is one man’s assessment of the Canada West conference men’s basketball picture for 2011-12 (hockey fans who want to just move along, have a listen to my interview with Bisons head coach Mike Sirant from Thursday instead). Teams in alphabetical order.

ALBERTA GOLDEN BEARS
Head coach: Greg Francis
Last Year: 15-8, fourth place, lost conference semifinal, lost conference bronze
Feed: A very top-heavy team that went 18-11 last season, returns many of the players at the top. Daniel Ferguson, a dynamic 6-foot-3 scorer who can shoot it and put it on the deck, averaged 23 points a game last season and returns to the Bears. Ferguson can fill it up as well as anyone in the conference, evidenced by the 44 he hung on Windsor in a pre-season tournament recently. He’s joined by a match-up nightmare, 6-foot-7 guard Jordan Baker, a member of Canada’s Pan-Am Games team, who gave the Bears 17.8 points, 10.1 rebounds and a team-high 4.3 assists a game. Six-foot-five forward Todd Bergen-Henengouwen returns for his third year, after scoring 9.7 points per game and knocking down 33% of his threes last season. After that, however, the questions will become where is the rest of the production coming from? Lyndon Taylor is a fourth-year senior who stands to assume a lot more minutes, and has done so in the pre-season, and Sahr Saffa, a 6-foot-2 swing, enters his junior year likely taking on a larger workload.
25 Words or Less: The conference isn’t wide open exactly, but there’s no reason why U of A couldn’t sneak in.

BRANDON BOBCATS
Head coach: Gil Cheung
Last Year: 4-20, 12th place, out of playoffs
Feed: Cheung enters his second season as Bobcats coach and does so without a number of the players who were there in his rookie season. Leading scorer O’Brian Wallace has transferred out, likely heading to UBC, inside-out import forward Kyrie Coleman was told he wasn’t likely to play and has sought other opportunities, and import post Isaiah James is also done. So there’s three of your top four scorers, and also add in that nine players who logged minutes for BU last season are no longer there. But when you win only four games and close the season on a 14-game losing streak, perhaps that’s not a bad thing. The Bobcats also have the added issue of starting the season unable to have Cheung on the sidelines as BU’s faculty strike continues to drag on. Until that ends, the Bobcats are led by assistant coach Jeremy Wielenga. BU’s issues at point guard last season still loom, but its backcourt is deeper than a year ago. Ottawa native Emerick Ravier is a nice addition to the guard unit and can handle some of the scoring vacated by all the personnel losses. Ilarion Bonhomme, a diminutive but speedy native of Washington, D.C., who redshirted last season, can handle some of the point duties and is tough off the bounce. Fifth-year seniors Kyle Vince and Donovan Gayle form the veteran core. Vince has been forced to play in roles that aren’t always suited for him because of the Bobcats’ lack of depth, but defences who forget about him as a shooter often pay for it. Gayle is the heart and soul of the team and shows flashes of quality on the offensive end, but his true merit is on the defensive end and on the glass. Cheung has to be most excited about Montreal natives Ali Mounir Benadbelhak and Pacome Matulu, the former a 6-foot-6 freshman who has athleticism and ability all over the floor. The additions of those two also have the added bonus of re-establishing the Montreal recruiting pipeline that had treated BU so well over the past seven or eight years.
25 Words or Less: The Bobcats will need a lot to even begin hoping about sneaking into the playoffs. Ending the losing streak is first priority.

CALGARY DINOS
Head coach: Dan Vanhooren
Last Year: 7-16, ninth place, out of playoffs
Feed: So much of the hope and promise coming into the season for the Dinos was drained when star transfer Boris Bakovic suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier this month. Bakovic, who played with the national team at the World University Games and was supposed to play on the Pan Am team, was second on the OUA’s all-time scoring list when he transferred from the Ryerson Rams and elected to head west. Now he won’t play his fifth season until 2012-13, two years after transferring out of Toronto. Less of a devastating loss, but a loss nonetheless, was the decision of sophomore Phil Labongo to return home to Winnipeg after some off-court issues. The Dinos will neverthless go forward with a talented bunch, with Tyler Fidler leading the way as a fifth-year senior. Fidler, at 6-foot-9 is a lanky, versatile talent, that averaged a double-double (17.1/10.3), shot 36 per cent from three, got to the line 158 times and connected on 81.6% of his free throws, both team highs. Guard Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson returns after having his 2010-11 season shortened drastically by injury. The Winnipegger appeared in only three games last season and his return immediately improves the Dinos’ backcourt play. Elsewhere, Calgary will look at junior guard Andrew McGuinness, just one of a number of Dinos who can shoot the three, evidenced by their 41.4% team average last season. Another big weapon for coach Vanhooren is 6-foot-7 sophomore Matt Letkeman, who was named to Canada’s under-19 team and was the conference rookie of the year last season.
25 Words or Less: With Bakovic, Dinos are a top-four team in CanWest. Without, they’re closer to team that lost last four games of the season to miss playoffs.

FRASER VALLEY CASCADES
Head coach: Barnaby Craddock
Last Year: 10-14, seventh place, lost in first round
Feed: Craddock was excited when he landed Joel Friesen as a recruit a few years ago and now people are starting to see why. Friesen, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, who had his freshman year wiped out by injury, appeared in 27 games last season, averaged 17.2 points and five rebounds per and was one of the most proficient free-throw shooters in Canada West at 85.2% en route to being named second-team all-conference as a sophomore. Undoubtedly he’ll carry the fortunes of a Cascades team that has started to take form now as Craddock enters his fifth season in Abbotsford. It is a more veteran group at UFV, most of which return from last season. The Cascades were one of the best three-point shooting teams in the nation and fourth-year guard Sam Freeman was a big part of that. Freeman returns to add scoring punch to a team that averaged a respectable 81 points a game last season. Craddock’s hopes in the recruiting class lay in 6-foot-1 transfer guard James York, who comes to UFV from NAIA Montana Tech, and 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman Luke Braund, who transfers from Trinity Western.
25 Words or Less: The West Division will be treacherous this season but the first half of the season sets up very nicely for UFV.

LETHBRIDGE PRONGHORNS
Head coach: Dave Adams
Last Year: 7-16, 10th place, out of playoffs
Feed: A massive overhaul continues in Lethbridge, where Adams has brought in seven new faces, led by a pair of California JUCO transfers in Daryl Cooper and Alex Fletcher. Cooper, a 6-foot-1 point guard, led the City College of San Francisco to a California JUCO championship. Fletcher, meanwhile, should boost Lethbridge’s league-worst numbers from the perimeter, having knocked down 47.5% from the three-point line while with Fresno City College. The Pronghorns couldn’t score and couldn’t stop anyone from scoring in 2010-11, and that’s a bad combo. And evidently Adams is putting a lot of faith in his recruiting class, after losing top scorers Danhue Lawrence and Randy Davis, who absorbed much of that responsibility last season. Lethbridge was one of the best rebounding teams in the conference last season, however, and the Horns are once again big, with 6-foot-10 junior post Nikola Kovac back along with a trio of 6-foot-7 forwards: Wes Chapman, Jeff Hillard and Derek Waldner. Tyson McIntyre, a 6-foot-6 post, is an intriguing talent fresh out of high school. McIntyre averaged 19 points a game for his high school team, the Raymond Comets, in leading them to the Alberta Class 4A provincial title.
25 Words or Less: Adams has most certainly made a bold attempt to reverse the culture of losing in Lethbridge. The road is still long.

MANITOBA BISONS
Head coach: Kirby Schepp
Last Year: 9-14, eighth place, lost in first round
Feed: Schepp has seemingly taken every coaching opportunity that has come his way and, now in his third year as Bisons coach, brings a roster heavy on Manitobans with a dash of import talent. Atlanta’s Stephan Walton enters his junior year of eligibility after previously suiting up for NCAA Division II Valdosta State. From the ATL suburb of Decatur, Walton will provide the Bisons with another scoring threat in the backcourt and a player who has proven he can play at a high level. The Bisons also have a boost up front in the form of 6-foot-6 Turkish import Yigit Can Ozsayiner. The Bisons biggest challenge this season is on the defensive end where they simply have to be better than they were last season, surrendering an average of 89.2 points per game. No matter how many guys you have who can score the ball, you definitely don’t have enough to overcome a figure like that. Guard Xavier Smith, ex of the Brandon Bobcats, and a redshirt last season, has come on board and should help U of M on the defensive side. He’s able to pressure ball handlers and should address a glaring need in that department. The Bisons say goodbye to Eric Garcia, Sean Maxwell and Josh Ogden, their top three scorers, and their offensive production will be crucial. Kevin Oliver plays his second season as a Bison and is a shooter who can stretch defences, but the Bisons most certainly will be a points-by-committee unit in 2011-12.
25 Words or Less: The Bisons fell back down to earth in the second semester of ’11, and they’re likely a .500 team at best

REGINA COUGARS
Head coach: James Hillis
Last Year: 14-10, sixth place, lost in first round
Feed: The Cougars move forward without their top gunner of the past five years, Jeff Lukomski, and do so with a relatively young group that will now be heaping more minutes on its few fourth-year veterans. Six-foot-7 post Paul Gareau tops that group after leading the Cougars in scoring and rebounding as a junior (18.8/6.6). Brandonite Sterling Nostedt is the only other fourth-year player who has logged substantial minutes for the Cougars. The Neelin High School graduate averaged 5.9 points per game last season in just over 19 minutes a game, and provides the Cougars with a style (and physical appearance) similar to Lukomski. Nostedt will need to take a step forward in 2011-12 and give the Cougars a knockdown threat from the perimeter, something he has in his game, but hasn’t shown in great abundance yet. Among the intriguing additions to the Cougars is 6-foot-5 transfer Gradyn Childerhose, who was an ACAC all-star last season at Briercrest, after averaging 20 points per game for the Clippers. True freshman Marcus Ward comes out of Regina’s LeBoldus and Hillis called him the most athletic player he’s seen come out of Regina high school. The Cougars will also go forward with two imports: Dallas native Darrius Mole returns and Hillis has added Kenroy Jones, who previously appeared at Columbus State, a Division II junior college.

25 Words or Less: Those who were role players in the past now expected to lead. That’s tough to do in Canada West.

SASKATCHEWAN HUSKIES
Head coach: Barry Rawlyk
Last Year: 19-4, third place, conference silver, fourth-place nationals
Feed: The most exciting player in Canada West returns to lead a Huskies team now officially into a new era with Greg Jockims recently stepping down as head coach. Rawlyk takes the reins for his second year and has the bonus of once again coaching import guard Jamelle Barrett, the 5-foot-10 nightmare who led the conference in scoring and was second in the nation at 25 ppg. When the Huskies were tasked with replacing Showron Glover after their national championship year, along came Barrett and the team barely missed a stride. Now the Californian enters his second year in Canada and has a ton of athletic teammates surrounding him, many of whom he’s already familiar with. The team’s top two rebounders return: Six-foot-6 forward Nolan Brudehl enters his fourth season and is an athletic, physical presence for the Huskies, and 6-foot-8 fifth-year senior Michael Lieffers gives the team its top rebounder from last season. Guard Rejean Chabot has exhausted his eligibility, taking away part of what made Saskatchewan’s backcourt so tough to guard last season. Still, Rawlyk has the pieces here to make the Huskies into a conference champion.
25 Words of Less: Big, athletic, versatile athletes and a point guard who can do it all. Sounds like a pretty good combination.

THOMPSON RIVERS WOLFPACK
Head coach: Scott Clark
Last Year: 4-20, 13th place, out of playoffs
Feed: Clark’s rebuilding process continues in Kamloops, B.C., where the Wolfpack once again will try to climb a couple of rungs in the Canada West with many of last season’s team returning. Most notably gone for TRU is 7-foot post Greg Stewart, a game-changer in the middle who could score around the rim and provided one of the best last lines of defence in the conference. Six-foot-six senior swingman Chas Kok, who led the team in points per game and assists, and was second on the team in steals last season, returns for his final year playing for Clark, after transferring from Simon Fraser, where Clark previously coached. Kok will be the veteran presence on a TRU team looking at a couple of youngsters to take a step forward in their second year. Sophomore Brett Rouault logged 20 minutes a game and shot a reasonable 32 per cent from three last season as a freshman, and Brett Parker, who averaged 7.8 points in just over 24 minutes a game last season, will also be called upon to take over some of the heavy lifting. Clark wasn’t sitting idly by in the off-season, landing a large recruiting class highlighted by the inking of 6-foot-10 twin brothers Blaz and Ivan Bozinovic. The twins fresh out of high school most certainly won’t replace Stewart right away, but no matter what anyone says, getting two 6-10 bigs with five years ahead of them is a solid score.
25 Words Or Less: Coach Clark is still putting his stamp on this program but the rebuilding is only in its infancy.

TRINITY WESTERN SPARTANS
Head coach: Scott Allen
Last Year: 21-3, second place, conference bronze, national silver
Feed: The Spartans are a team that everyone is watching closely in the Canada West after being one of the dominant teams in the country from wire to wire last season. Gone is perennial all-star (and 2008 CIS player of the year) Jacob Doerksen, one of the big match-up challenges in all of Canada, and that deletion from the roster (which comes with it 22 points per game) is most certainly a hit to the Spartans. That said, they’ll move on just fine thank you. Three of their top five scorers from a season ago return, led by Calvin Westbrook, a 6-foot-5 fifth-year senior guard who was among the top five in the conference stroking the three. The Spartans have lost more than just Doerksen from the team that lost to Carleton in March’s national final, versatile forward Tyrell Mara among them, but they’ve got enough here to make another run and do it in the up-tempo style that Allen employed last season. Trinity, which in the past could lull you to sleep with the best of them, went straight sports car on teams last year, outrunning almost everyone it faced. Much of the scoring load vacated by Doerksen will just slide to Westbrook and 6-foot-8 Kyle Coston, a Division I transfer in 2009 who averaged 11 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last season. Among the additions who look to get some minutes is 6-foot-2 Lakeland College transfer Justin Bakuteka, an athletic guard who was Lakeland’s rookie of the year last year and should get some opportunities playing the point and keep TWU’s up-tempo offence on pace.
25 Words Or Less: Doerksen’s loss will be noticed, but TWU stands to be a power again.

UBC THUNDERBIRDS
Head coach: Kevin Hanson
Last Year: 22-2, first place, conference champions, national bronze
Feed: Never shy about playing a heavy pre-season schedule, the T-Birds were 6-4 as of Wednesday night and 5-1 against CIS opponents, although a 101-82 result over Memorial was the only decisive victory, and an 83-65 home loss to Laurier raised some eyebrows. Whatever. The T-Birds will be new-look-ish in 2011-12, with the likes of Josh Whyte, Brent Malish and Alex Murphy all graduating last year. Leading the charge is fifth-year senior guard Nathan Yu, who dressed for Canada’s entry at the Universiade this summer, and averaged 12.5 points per game and knocked down a team-high 51 three-pointers for UBC last season. The T-Birds will need veterans Kamar Burke and Doug Plumb to shoulder much of the scoring load vacated by the three graduates, who topped UBC in points per game and accounted for 44% of the team’s offensive production. While UBC knows what it will get out of those returning players, there are fifth-year seniors who will be stepping into much larger roles this season. Balraj Baines and Graham Bath both stand to be handed a lot more responsibility for Hanson, who also added some intriguing new pieces to the weaponry. Portland native Demetrius McQuarn and Calgary’s Jermaine Cherry are junior guards who give the T-Birds an added dimension and UBC is probably excited about Toronto’s Mamadou Mutombo.
25 Words Or Less: Does UBC ever have a rebuilding year? No. The T-Birds will be contending again.

UBC-OKANAGAN HEAT
Head coach: Darren Semeniuk
Last Year: Not in conference (12-6 BCCAA)
Feed: No one needs to tell the newcomers to the Canada West about the major challenge that lay ahead. It would be easier, perhaps, to watch a team such as a Humber entering the OUA or a Champlain St. Lambert going into the Q and have faith they’d at least be competitive right away, but UBCO was hardly a bully in the BCCAA, winning provincial bronze in 2009-10 and losing in a provincial quarter-final last season. While the Heat were competitive in the B.C. college ranks, it wasn’t like their performances over the past few years were screaming for promotion to the big league. So they’ll enter an extremely talented and competitive conference and try to hit the ground running as best as possible. The Heat are expecting large production from guard Yassim Ghomari, who previously red-shirted with the Victoria Vikes and suited up for the former OUC Lakers (UBCO before it was UBCO) and won a provincial silver medal at the 07-08 BCCAAs. Ghomari was also a provincial all-star in 2009-10 with the Langara Falcons, making the Heat colours the third jersey he’ll don in the past four years. To battle down low, UBCO has enlisted 6-foot-8 post Julian Asselstine, a quality big who has played in the B.C. provincial program, B.C.’S Centre of Performance and the Drive elite program run by former Simon Fraser and UBC star Pasha Bains. Veteran Steve Morrison returns for his fourth year of eligibility and as one of the leaders. A 6-foot-5 power forward/post, Morrison averaged 8.3 rebounds per game last season, third in the BCCAA.
25 Words Or Less: Calgary, UBC, Trinity Western, Alberta and Saskatchewan all on the schedule. Wins are tough to come by.

VICTORIA VIKES
Head coach: Craig Beaucamp
Last Year: 15-9, fifth place, lost in first round
Feed: There are veterans on the roster, but not necessarily a lot of veterans of the Vikes. UVic returns three of its top four scorers from a year ago, but also welcome a swath of new faces with an American and an Ontario all-star new to the fold. Humber College transfer Michael Acheampong will give Victoria a versatile presence in the backcourt. The 6-foot-2 guard was the MVP of the OCAA championship last season and averaged 14.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for the Ontario champion Hawks. His athleticism is a welcome addition to a UVic team that hasn’t had a lot of that in its backcourt. The Vikes know what they’ll get out of fifth-year senior guards Ryan McKinnon and Zac Andrus, and 6-foot-8 fifth-year senior forward Mike Berg, but their issue could very well be secondary scoring. McKinnon led the team in ppg a season ago (17.1) and Berg was second at 11.4. After that, it’s anyone’s guess. Freshman Reiner Theil, a North Van product, will be called upon to absorb a lot of minutes off the bench, while Las Vegas native Terrell Evans, a junior swingman transfer from Yakima Valley C.C., is likely a starter or one to assume starter minutes. Both will be expected to add to UVic’s scoring punch but, as it often seems to be with the Vikes, the successes will come from its collective defensive ability.
25 Words Or Less: Not sure that Victoria’s defence can overcome its likely lack of scoring options, but there’s a good chance it wins four of its first six.

WINNIPEG WESMEN
Head coach: Mike Raimbault
Last Year: 6-17, 11th place, out of playoffs
Feed: Raimbault’s Wesmen have upgraded but are still likely to face the same struggles as they did last season, only perhaps not as pronounced as they did in Raimbault’s first season at the helm. There will still be issues of depth and scoring ability, although they’ve addressed that to some degree with the addition, most notably, of point guard Andrew Cunningham. The junior college transfer, who came out of Toronto Eastern Commerce, is a pure point who loves to distribute and is good at it. Cunningham, currently sidelined for at least a month with a broken bone in his foot, addresses one of the team’s needs and provides the Wesmen with a guy who can put the ball on the deck and find the paint at will. Who steps up as targets for him, however, is the lingering question. College transfer Travis Krahn gives the Wesmen a knockdown shooter on the perimeter and Californian Kelvin Smith returns to provide the team its athletic backbone. The Wesmen, however, are dealing not only with the loss to graduation of 2010-11 leading scorer Nick Lother, but also their No. 2 scorer Nolan Gooding, who is likely done for the season with a knee injury. Six-foot-six Laurel, Md., product Benny Iko returns to shore up the middle a bit, but Iko has inside-out ability and showed it last season in averaging 10 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Iko’s consistency on a nightly basis is the biggest question mark, but you’d like to think a season of CIS under his belt will have him well-groomed for Year 2. Another pair who could assist in the scoring duties are Lakeland College transfers Dominique Brown and Mark McNee, Toronto natives who provide some more athleticism and should get plenty of opportunities to get minutes and points at U of W.
25 Words Or Less: Still too many question marks and the depth issue is only partly dealt with. Winnipeg improves, but only by percentage points.

Twitter: @LarkinsWSun

—feed—