BC college hoop rivals SFU, UBC keeps it civilized in the family

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They haven’t met since 2015, but Saturday’s exhibition matchup between the Simon Fraser University men’s basketball teams and the BC University Thunderbirds already has a long history and connections.

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Kevin and Theresa Hanson are early in between that. Wife is the athletic director for SFU Burnaby. The husband is the head coach of the Point Gray T-Birds.

“I was debating trying to take the Fifth if any questions came up about this,” Kevin said jokingly, “but we’ve talked about it and I told Theresa I couldn’t talk to her in the gym before the game or in the gym after the game. game. I told her I would see her at home that morning and I would see her at home that night. “

The couple, who met when they were assistant coaches with the men’s and women’s teams at SFU in the late 1980s and later worked together at Langara and UBC before Theresa took the AD job at SFU in October 2015, have lots of company when it comes to the sidebar stories related to UBC’s trip to SFU’s West Gym on Saturday (7:30 pm).

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UBC assistant coach Novell Thomas was a star SFU shooting guard. Fellow UBC assistants Dany Charlery and Sean Shook worked with current SFU coach Steve Hanson (no relation to UBC or SFU AD coach) before signing with UBC.

UBC features sophomore guard Jack Cruz-Dumont. SFU responds with his younger brother Hunter Cruz-Dumont, a first-year guard. Both were High School Highlights at Vancouver College.

“No one is telling you anything about it. He will have the opportunity to face his brother. You don’t have to overdo it for something like that, ”SFU senior forward Jasdeep Singh said of the young Cruz-Dumont.

Steve Hanson added: “We have recruiting battles every year. We know each other’s players. Many of the boys have played club basketball together over the years. There are many links between the two teams ”.

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An SFU press release earlier this week stated that nearly 900 tickets for the UBC game had been pre-sold.

SFU and UBC teams in a variety of sports used to play regularly when both athletic programs were members of the Canadian Western Conference, but it has become more difficult to schedule matchups after SFU jumped into the NCAA Division. II in 2010. SFU was a member of NAIA before coming to Canada West, and then they would also play at UBC.

Men’s basketball programs used to play annually for the Buchanan Cup. The rivalry between the schools dates back to 1965 when they first met.

UBC (8-1 overall, 6-0 Canada West) has a conference break this weekend. They are playing only against BC teams in Canada West this season as part of a return to action after last season’s COVID-19 pandemic closed the conference. This open weekend helped set up the showdown with SFU (1-2 overall, 0-0 Great Northwest Athletic Conference).

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Steve Hanson admits that this is a “unique year.” He also sounds interested in the idea of ​​resurrecting an annual showdown.

“Look what Carleton and Ottawa have done,” he said, pointing to the annual Capital Hoops Classic between Ottawa-area rivals that has been going on since 2007. “Carleton has the best record, but they’ve grown those games to where they attract. regularly 8,000 to 10,000 people.Good for basketball in your province.

“As a player growing up here, you knew that watching SFU and UBC play was a great rivalry. SFU and UBC are the two largest schools in this province. We both have a lot of pride and a lot of tradition in our sports programs. Saturday will be a great basketball game in our province. Hopefully we can put on a good show for people. “

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Singh added: “UBC has good greats. They have guards that have shown they can score. It’s a good match for us. I don’t know if we’ve played against a team that shoots the ball as well as UBC does. “

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UBC beat SFU 101-71 on October 27, 2015 at War Memorial Gym the last time the teams met. Kevin Hanson had the score memorized, which says something about the rivalry itself.

“It’s one that I didn’t have to look up,” he said.

Prior to that meeting, the last game between SFU and UBC was on March 6, 2010, when UBC claimed a 78-68 victory at War Memorial in the West Canada playoffs.

SFU was supposed to play Central Washington at home on Friday, but that game was canceled Wednesday due to what SFU called “a host of precautions for the health and safety of student-athletes and staff” in a statement from press. Downtown Washington also canceled games with Capilano and Langara this weekend.

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