After making school history with a medal in the U SPORTGS Canada West men’s basketball playoffs, how can the UNBC Timberwolves top that?

They won’t, not if the preseason coaches’ poll turns out to be anywhere near accurate by the end of the season. He ranks the TWolves 16th out of 17 teams in the league.

But that’s okay with Todd Jordan and his gang of overachievers. The Twolves aren’t at all worried about being underdogs again, just like they were last year in the playoffs when they won three out of four games.

Ranked 12th after a 9-11 season, they took over at the right time and pulled off upsets against UBC, Manitoba and Calgary and returned from Winnipeg with bronze medals. They went on an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter and beat the second-ranked Calgary Dinos 94-80 to become the first UNBC team to win the Canada West title since joined the league in 2012.

“It’s exciting what we did last year and you hope the guys coming back take that experience and it makes them better, but we still have to do all that work,” the head coach said of the TWolves, Todd Jordan, back for a 15th season at the helm. “We are a very different team this year with all the young guys coming in and we will have to go through the same process again to learn how to compete together.”

Starters Spencer Ledoux and Chris Ross have graduated, putting the onus on the T-wolves’ skyscrapers – third-year Evgeny Baukin (six-foot-seven), fourth-year Josh Gillespie (six-foot-five) and Will, sophomore. Keyes (six-foot-11) to generate the lion’s share of the points from close range.

Baukin, a Russian native and Duchess Park graduate, was second in team scoring last season, averaging 13.2 points. He’s a tenacious defender who continues to get stronger on his feet and Josh Gillespie, a versatile shooter and efficient rebounder from Idaho, have both shown the ability to destroy Canada West defenses with their movement. fastball and their finishing touches.

Point guard Justin Sunga became a true star in his second season from Burnaby. He averaged 5.3 assists, third in all of Canada West, and the TWolves’ fortunes will depend on his ability to get the ball to his teammates.

“Last year, a lot of our success depended on good ball movement and contributions from multiple guys, which made it difficult for us to defend when we were at our best,” Jordan said. “We will look to follow the same formula this season, and the ability of our new players to contribute meaningfully to this system will have a big impact on our ability to make the playoffs and be dangerous at the end of the year.

“Evgeny was our best player in pre-season and these three guys are going to have to carry the load. Losing Spencer is a big blow and we’re going to have to find other ways to score and our younger kids are going to have to step up. Will Keyes is going to play a big role for us this year and it will be important to find one or two young guys as the year goes on to play a bigger role.

Chris Ainsley knows the ropes as a returning guard looking for starting guard minutes. Spaniard Danilo Gonzales could be one of the new players capable of stepping up his game. Ben White, a young recruit from McMath Secondary in Richmond, showed promise in the preseason, as did Marcus Wilson, a native of New Brunswick.

Sunga is nursing a shoulder injury and missed the first six preseason games in Toronto and Edmonton. He was in the lineup but still wasn’t fully healthy last weekend in Winnipeg to face the Wesmen and Manitoba Bisons.

UNBC went 0-8 in the preseason. Not much different from their 1-7 preseason record in 2023.

Jordan will have help from Illya Zhukovskyy, a 10-year Ukrainian basketball professional, who joins UNBC alongside his former Ukrainian teammate, TWolves assistant coach Vova Pluzhnikov.

The T-wolves will take the field in Kamloops Friday night to open the season against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack, then return to their home field at the Northern Sport Center Sunday afternoon (4 p.m. start) to face the ‘UBC. Okanagan heat.

The tailgate party starts at 1 p.m., just before the women’s game at 2 p.m.