Despite finishing second in the Canada West conference, the Winnipeg Wesmen will go into nationals as an underdog in the eyes of the seeding committee.
The Wesmen men's basketball team garnered the No. 7 seed for the eight-team national tournament field that was announced Sunday by U Sports. The Wesmen will take on the OUA champion Queen's Gaels in a quarter-final Friday, March 8 at 2 p.m. CT.
The Wesmen, who are making their second straight trip to the Final 8, earned an automatic bid by qualifying for the Canada West conference championship. Ranked third in the final national coaches poll, the Wesmen were nevertheless dropped to the bottom half of the bracket behind OUA runners-up Brock and Ottawa, which received the lone at-large berth.
The seeding committee must slot conference champions in the top six while avoiding in-conference match-ups in the first round.
The Gaels have been ranked in the top five of the U Sports poll the entire season and were ranked No. 2 in the most recent coaches poll. They survived a scare from Brock in the OUA Wilson Cup Saturday afternoon with a banked-in three, beating the buzzer to give them a 79-76 win in Kingston, Ont.
Queen's finished the conference season 19-3 and will come to Laval on a 14-game winning streak, including three nail-biting wins in the post-season. The Gaels outlasted Toronto in double overtime of the OUA semifinal and beat McMaster 85-79 in the conference quarter-final.
All games will be streamed live on CBC Gem.
FULL SCHEDULE
All times CT
- Noon: No. 6 Ottawa vs. No. 3 UQAM
- 2 p.m.: No. 7 Winnipeg vs. No. 2 Queen's
- 5 p.m.: No. 1 Victoria at No. 8 Laval
- 7 p.m.: No. 5 Brock vs. No. 4 Dalhousie