By Canadian Press

Maffia, Vikes ready to take next step at U Sports men’s basketball Final 8

Mar 7, 2024 | 9:29 AM

The time has arrived for Diego Maffia and the Victoria Vikes.

Victoria enters the U Sports men’s basketball Final 8 as the top seed for the second year in a row and is coming off its third consecutive Canada West title. The Vikes finished sixth at the national tournament in 2022 and fourth last season, losing to Ottawa in the bronze-medal game.

“We’re ready to go all the way this year,” Maffia said. “I think being there the last couple of years and not getting it done at the national level, it was our goal and didn’t get it done, so I think guys are even more excited. 

“We talked about it all year, that’s our ultimate goal, winning a national championship. Now it’s time to get it done and we have three games to prove that. I think there’s no pressure.”

Victoria opens the tournament against host and eighth-seeded Laval. In the other games Friday, No. 2 Queen’s faces No. 7 Winnipeg, No. 3 UQAM takes on No. 6 Ottawa, and No. 4 Dalhousie meets No. 5 Brock. 

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Consolation and semifinal games will be played Saturday, while the fifth-place, bronze-medal and championship games are on Sunday in Quebec City.

The Vikes haven’t won a national title since 1997 despite being second in U Sports history with eight, only behind Carleton’s 17. Victoria last made it to a title game in 2006, falling to the Ravens.

For Maffia, it isn’t just about what it would mean to win for the team, but also for his hometown of Victoria. The Vikes won the first seven of their eight national titles from 1980-1986.

“I think it would mean a lot for our city being kind of a dynasty (like) we’ve been in the past in the ’80s,” Maffia said. “I think we’ve done a good job of bringing the community together and just seeing people behind us, supporting us and the amount of messages I’ve got wishing us good luck and coming to our practices and stuff like that.”

Led by the back-to-back Canada West player of the year and the country’s leading scorer in Maffia (26.7 points per game average), the Vikes paced U Sports in scoring averaging 92 points per game. Victoria won nine in a row to finish the regular season at 17-3 before earning a 96-91 comeback win over Winnipeg in the Canada West title game.

The star fourth-year guard — who missed three games, two of which were losses — attributes some of his growth to time spent last summer playing for the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Vancouver Bandits.

“I think I grew a lot from last year. My goal was to put on some size and become a little bit more physical year by year,” Maffia said. “Playing in the CEBL last season helped me with that playing against bigger, stronger, faster opponents.

“Record-wise (it’s) the same as last year (for the team). But I think there was improvement there and you could see the guys bonding a little bit more.  I think I improved (as a leader) as well.”

Experience is an area that’s changed for the Vikes from past years.

“The group’s just a little older because there is a core group that’s been together here now for two or three seasons,” said head coach Craig Beaucamp, who was named Canada West coach of the year on Feb. 21.

“So just being a bit older and a bit more mature, I think makes you a little bit better. Physically more mature and probably mentally more mature, just having been in these situations.” 

The capability for handling changing parts may also help.

“I think we’ve had to be resilient. I mean, there was a period of time that Diego Maffia was injured and we played a couple weekends without him and I think that we’ve had to face a little bit of adversity,” Beaucamp said.

“We had a really busy second half because we had some games cancelled in the first half against Thompson Rivers due to the tragedy that they had up there. So we had 14 league games in the second half, plus a couple of non-conference games. We didn’t have a bye after the league like most of the teams in our conference did, we had to make up some games. 

“You face different challenges, you have to overcome injuries and what not. The season kind of preps you hopefully for this time of the year.” 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2024.

Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press