VIU Mariners player Kye Kotapski-Tinga drives toward the basket during a game against the Langara Falcons on Sunday, Nov. 2, at the Vancouver Island University gym. (Greg Sakaki/News Bulletin)
Every season, the Vancouver Island University Mariners are looking to put together a national-championship calibre team. This season, they don't have much choice in the matter - VIU will be hosting men's basketball nationals.
The Mariners have set a course toward that tournament, starting by winning their first six games of the season in Pacific Western Athletic Association league play. This past weekend, Nov. 1-2, they held their home openers at the VIU gym and swept past the Langara Falcons by scores of 100-88 and 88-61.
It's a small group, with just 10 men on the roster, meaning if someone is sick or injured the team can't even scrimmage unless a coach suits up. But the group was put together with a lot of intention, said Matt Kuzminski, the team's coach.
"When we looked at our roster at the start of the year, it wasn't really so much about looking at guys for down the road, we're looking at who can help us win this year, who can help us have good practice environments, good game environments," he said. "And we thought these 10 guys were the guys that can do that for us."
The game plan isn't designed around any one star player; rather, the Mariners feel they'll be best-positioned to win with movement and balance.
"We have to do it together. It has to be a community effort where we're attacking and playing with pace together. We're not an isolation-type team..." Kuzminski said. "When we're at our best, we play really well together, moving the ball, cutting, creating easy shots, and then on the defensive end, we're really tied in, communicating. It's just about trying to stretch that out and have it for the full game."
Kye Kotapski-Tinga, the PacWest's leading scorer through three weeks at 22.7 points per game, said it seems that the Mariners's ball movement is improving week-to-week.
"Giving it up, I know it's going to come back. Everyone knows it's going to come back them," he said. "We're really starting to play unselfish. Everyone's getting touches, everyone's scoring the ball."
There's still plenty to work on, Kuzminski said. There are still stretches of games in which players start to try to do too much individually and end up turning the ball over. The M's will sometimes find themselves at a size disadvantage under the basket and will have to continue to work on keeping the ball out of their paint and being crisp with their defensive rotations. But the coach said it's a fun group to work with and be at practice with as they work together toward a national championship tournament that's coming to their gym no matter what.
"Definitely a little added pressure," Kotapski-Tinga said. "We know we need to have a good team put together. But overall, we're taking it week by week, day by day. As long as we buy in and keep doing what we're doing, by the time that comes around we'll be ready."
In the home opener Saturday, Nov. 1, Kotapski-Tinga scored 38 points and had six assists and four steals, and Ryan Bastian added 18 points. The next day's rematch saw Kotapski-Tinga lead the way with 18 points and five assists, and Winston Cole added 17 points and eight rebounds.
In women's action, the Mariners also swept the Falcons on home-opening weekend. The first game was 68-44, but wasn't as close as the score suggests as VIU was ahead 31-6 after one quarter and coasted from there. Kaia Simpson scored 12 points, Mackenzie Cox had 11 points and Kiayra Hohlweg had 10 points and 10 rebounds. In the rematch, VIU won 62-50 with Trista Thorn scoring 27 points.