Make room on the all-time pantheon. Several Canadian basketball legends have worn the Vikes colours at the University of Victoria, from Olympians Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski, Greg Wiltjer and Eric Hinrichsen to Kelly Dukeshire, nicknamed Skywalker.
Fifth-year sensation Diego Maffia is set eventually to join that heady list as he enters his final season at UVic. Maffia and the Vikes play their ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ West home opener Saturday night on Ken and Kathy Shields Court in CARSA Gym against the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades after beginning the conference season with a 99-69 victory Thursday night over the Trinity West Spartans in Langley. In that game, Maffia scored 15 points with five assists and four steals as Renoldo Robinson had 22 points.
“It’s not really hit me yet that this is my last season,” said Maffia, who came to the Vikes after a storied high school career at Oak Bay.
“When it does, that might be tough. I love this team and this game. It just seems like yesterday I was starting out here.”
Maffia is the defending U Sports national MVP and the two-time U Sports scoring champion but the big prize of the national championship — which Pasquale, Kazanowski, Dukeshire, Wiltjer and Hinrichsen all won in their time at UVic — has so far eluded Maffia.
The current Vikes have won three consecutive ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ West championships and went into the U Sports national tournament highly ranked but faltered each time.
“We’ve had a little taste at nationals but not got it done, yet,” said Maffia, an icy, shoot-first point-guard with a sniper’s range.
“That would be a team accomplishment.”
These Vikes are loaded with returnees Maffia, Robinson, Aaron Tesfagiorgis, Griffin Arnatt and Shadynn Smid, and notable newcomers Sam Maillet, Geoffrey James and Dylan Gage, so everybody knows what the ultimate goal is for this squad. But you don’t get to March from November.
“We have to be taking it one day at a time, every day and every practice, and not looking ahead and skipping steps,” said Maffia.
Maffia is coming off his second season of pro basketball in the Canadian Elite Basketball League under a similar system to that in soccer with the CPL that allows top U Sports athletes to play professionally in the summer months without losing their university eligibility.
He will be listening intently this season to new UVic head coach Murphy Burnatowski, the former Canadian national-teamer, who has played pro basketball around the world in Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Cyprus, Vietnam and Thailand.
“Murphy has been all over the place and knows what it takes to become a pro,” said Maffia.
Maffia is can’t-miss, said Burnatowski: “Diego is a great talent and absolutely has a long and bright pro future ahead of him.”
The only question seems to be whether he will take a university national championship into that future.
The UVic Vikes women’s team, which began the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ West season with a 69-65 win over Trinity Western this week in Langley with Abigail Becker and Makena Anderson scoring 18 points each, plays Fraser Valley Saturday at 5 p.m at CARSA Gym before the Vikes and Cascades men’s squads meet at 7 p.m.
UVIC SPORTS NOTES:
• The Vikes women’s rugby team, with 2024 Paris Olympics silver-medallist Carissa Norsten, defeated the Queen’s Gaels 17-14 in the U Sports national semifinals in Charlottetown. The UBC Thunderbirds beat the Ottawa Gee Gees 47-17 in the other semifinal to set up the all-ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ West final on Sunday. It is the Vikes’ second-consecutive berth in the national championship game.
• The Vikes women’s soccer team, with ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ West MVP Ruby Nicholas, beat the host Calgary Dinos 1-0 on a goal by Taiya Scorey in the conference semifinals Friday to advance to the championship game Saturday against the UBC Thunderbirds, who beat Trinity Western 1-0 in the other semifinal. UVic head coach Tracy David recorded her 200th career win in her 23rd season on the Vikes bench as both the Vikes and T-Birds booked their places in the U Sports national championship tournament.
• Defending-champion UVic is 2-0 at the U Sports national women’s field-hockey championship tournament in Toronto after 2-0 and 5-0 wins over Waterloo and PEI.
• UVic hosts the Canadian university rowing championships Saturday and Sunday on Elk Lake.