U of R men’s, women’s basketball teams in Canada West Final Four

For the first time in more than a decade and a half, the University of Regina Cougars men’s and women’s basketball teams are both among the last teams standing.

Both teams are in the Canada West Final Four for the first time since the 2004-05 season. While the women’s program has been perennial contenders for years, it’s the first time the men’s team has reached this point in the playoffs since the 2005-06 season.

“It’s a credit to the guys that are here right now,” said Cougars head coach Steve Burrows, who took over the role eight years ago. “They work extremely hard and for everyone, the last couple of years have been an extremely difficult time.

“Credit to these guys, they’ve continued to work and continued to do the things that will give them an opportunity to be successful so I’m happy for them. We thought we were pretty close a couple of years ago and we didn’t think we were far away there.

“The difference is razor thin. The difference between last weekend where we are still playing to not be playing is not much. We’re happy to be at this point.”

Canada West changed its playoff format for the 2021-22 season, creating a 17-team single-knockout tournament. The men’s Final Four features the Cougars, Saskatchewan Huskies, Victoria Vikes and Alberta Golden Bears with the games taking place in Edmonton starting Friday. The Cougars come into the tournament as the third seed.

The Final Four on the women’s side will start Friday in Saskatoon and has the Huskies, Cougars, Lethbridge Pronghorns and Winnipeg Wesmen.

“It’s great to have two teams from Regina in the Final Four and four teams from Saskatchewan in the eight that are there,” Burrows said. “The biggest difference is you have to prepare for all three teams.

“Our focus is on Victoria and they are a very good team and they are very well-coached and we know the challenge that is going to present. Whatever direction that takes us, then we have to be ready for either Alberta or Saskatchewan.”

While the Cougars men’s team is entering territory it hasn’t been in in a while, the women’s team is used to being in this position.

“It’s amazing and it’s really special because we have a young team,” said guard Faith Reid. “I think the last time we played in playoffs, only a handful of us were on the team at the time. But making the Final Four is an expectation for this program. As happy as we are for it, that’s what our coach expects (and) that’s what the people who support our program expect.

“It’s so wild. Taking a year off (due to COVID-19) didn’t throw everything off, but it makes this year feel a little easier with the change in schedule and the change in formatting at least. We went from not doing anything to now at least getting this.”

The Cougars entered the playoffs as the seventh seed, making them underdogs.

“It’s a different position than we are used to being in,” Reid said. “As a young team, we assumed we would be slotted there, especially with how hard our division was. But that being said, the underdog role, we’ve embraced it in the right ways.

“We never see ourselves as a team who can’t beat any team. We do have that mentality that we might be seventh seed but we can take down the top seed on the right night in the right situation.”

Reid’s career with the Cougars has been a successful one and she became the Cougars’ single-season three-point record holder with 62.

“That was really big for me,” Reid said. “I didn’t know about the record until right as I was going to break it. To break that in my last home game in Regina in my fifth year, that was just such a storybook ending to me.”

But after missing a season due to COVID, Reid isn’t quite ready for the season to come to an end.

“It’s comforting that all those individual training sessions we had to do, all that hard work we had to grind through to get better during COVID when stuff was shut down, it was a bit of a payoff right now that we did put in the work and we are getting rewarded for it,” Reid said.

“We are not done. We are going as hard as we can. Making it back to nationals in my final year would be such a good memory to end off on.”

And Burrows hopes this trip to the Final Four can lead to some more in the near future.

“We don’t want this to be a one-off. We don’t want you to talk about how this is the first time in how long; we want it to be a more regular occurrence. It won’t hurt and we’re hoping there are people around that want to be a part of this and be a part of what we are building. We take pride in what we’ve done,” Burrows said.