The Langara Falcons men’s basketball team will head to Quest University in Squamish next weekend to compete in the CCAA National Championships for the second year in a row.
The team came out on top of the PacWest playoffs after beating the Capilano Blues in the semi-finals and then the VIU Mariners in the championship game. Ending their season with 20 wins and only one loss put them into the number one spot in the country going into the national tournament, but according to coach Paul Eberhardt, that doesn’t mean it’s smooth sailing from here.
“It’s nice to have the number one seed obviously, but as you saw from last year, VIU ended up winning it and they were the sixth seed. So when you get to that level, everyone is pretty close,” he said.
The team went into nationals last year in the top spot, but after losing the semi-finals in what Eberhardt referred to as “a really tough, heartbreaker kind of game,” the Falcons took home the bronze.
“I think the guys are pretty motivated this year by that loss and want to make up for it,” said Eberhardt.
Guard Glenn Ruby is excited about the tournament, but agreed their ranking doesn’t guarantee anything.
“All that really matters is what happens at Quest for those three games.
Those rankings don’t really mean a whole lot,” said Ruby.
“The number six ranked team won it last year and they’ve got the ring on their finger, not us.”
Their first match-up in the tournament is the Concordia Thunder from Alberta, whom they’ve never played before.
Eberhardt said he and his team will prepare by reviewing a tape of Concordia’s final game.
“We’ll be breaking it down and scouting them like crazy, but you never really know until you hit the floor,” said Eberhardt. “I think they’re a good match-up for us.”
Eberhardt said the team will also get a chance to practice at Quest a couple times before the tournament to become acclimatized to their gym, which has been recently upgraded for the games.
“It’ll be interesting there because it’s a small gym, but they’ve got some really good upgrades,” he said.
“They got all new bleachers and got the floor redone. I think it seats 700 or 750 people now.”
Quest’s close proximity to Vancouver will allow for more Falcons fans to come show their support, compared to last year’s championship which was held at John Abbott College in St. Anne De Bellevue, Quebec.
With less than a week left, Ruby said they need to continue to practice hard.
“We’ve just got to make sure we aren’t satisfied after winning that provincial championship,” said Ruby.
We’ve got to make sure we go into nationals still hungry rather than just being satisfied with the provincial title.”
Guard Brody Greig, who was named PacWest player of the year award for the second year in a row, agreed.
“It was a really good season, we had a lot of fun,” said Greig. “We tied our record for wins last year, but we still have one more goal and that is to win a national championship.”
