TEAM OVERVIEWS
REGINA – The Cougars went into last weekend knowing that they'd head into the postseason as the conference's No. 5 seed, and finished off the regular season with a weekend split against provincial rival Saskatchewan. Regina features five players averaging in double figures, led by Brian Ofori who finished the Canada West schedule as the team's leader in both scoring (13.7 points per game) and rebounding (7.0 per game). Brandon Tull, Shawn Lathan, Alex Igual, and Shaquille Harris also average at least 10 points per game for the Cougars, while Samuel Hillis checks in with 9.1 points per game. The starting lineup almost always comprises Ofori, Tull, Lathan, Igual, and Benjamin Hillis with Harris, Samuel Hillis, and Brayden Kuski playing major roles off the bench for fifth-year head coach Steve Burrows.
 
THOMPSON RIVERS – The WolfPack head into Thursday's game looking to punch their ticket to what's awfully familiar territory for them. Thompson Rivers has advanced to the Canada West quarterfinals in each of the previous four seasons, including 2016 when they matched up against the Cougars in Kamloops and took a hard-fought three-game series over the U of R. Despite losing Canada West first-team all-star Volodymyr Iegorov to graduation, Thompson Rivers returned every other major contributor from last year while adding Anton Bilous (Western Texas College), rookie Tyus De Vries (Sardis Secondary), and Nolan Willett (Allan Hancock College) to the mix. Joe Davis finished as the team's leading scorer at 15.3 points per game, while Luke Morris averaged 14.4 points and a team-leading 8.4 rebounds per game.

PROJECTED STARTERS

Thompson Rivers	Regina
#3 Mike Rouault (G • 6-5, 220 • 3rd) #8 Luke Morris (F • 6-4, 210 • 5th) #9 Derek Rhodes (G • 6-5, 195 • 4th) #10 Joe Davis (F • 6-5, 210 • 3rd) #22 Anton Bilous (G • 6-4, 205 • 3rd)	#1 Shawn Lathan (F • 6-4, 205 • 4th) #4 Alex Igual (G • 6-4, 215 • 5th) #5 Brandon Tull (G • 6-4, 190 • 5th) #8 Benjamin Hillis (G • 6-3, 155 • 2nd) #11 Brian Ofori (F • 6-6, 215 • 5th)

ALL-TIME SERIES
These two teams have gotten to know each other fairly well over the last three seasons. They met in Kamloops for a best-of-three conference quarterfinal series in 2016, finished off the regular season against each other in Regina last year, and now will meet again in Regina in a winner-takes-all play-in game. Regina holds an 8-5 advantage in the 13 Canada West games played between the two programs, while Thompson Rivers is 2-1 against the Cougars in the postseason after winning that best-of-three series two years ago to advance to the Canada West Final Four under the old playoff format.

THIS YEAR
While Thompson Rivers was one of the six Canada West teams that the Cougars didn't play during the regular season, the two teams did meet in a non-conference game in Kamloops earlier this season. Regina won that contest by an 84-76 score thanks in large part to a monster game by Samuel Hillis, who drilled five three-pointers and led all players with 25 points.

TULL FINISHES FOURTH
Fifth-year guard Brandon Tull – a starter from almost the minute he stepped onto campus back in 2013 – finishes with 1391 points scored in 101 career Canada West games. That's the fourth-highest total in school history, eclipsed only by all-time leading scorer Jeff Lukomski (1504) along with Glen Nelson (1422) and Tyler Wright (1406). Barring some massive upsets elsewhere in the conference and an extended playoff run by the Cougars, Thursday's game against TRU will be the last at the CKHS for not only Tull, but fellow fifth-year players Igual and Ofori.

CONNECTIONS
Thompson Rivers just announced a new athletics and recreation director after the retirement of longtime AD Ken Olynyk – and the new head of the WolfPack is no stranger to Regina. Curtis Atkinson took over the helm of the TRU program last month after most recently taking on a position with Canada West, but before that worked for the University of Regina in various capacities from 2009 to 2016. Atkinson's duties at the U of R included a year and a half as the interim director of athletics following the retirement of Dick White.

OUT-OF-TOWN SCOREBOARD
Besides the 5/12 game here in Regina, the play-in game featuring #11 UNBC at #6 Winnipeg will also be played on Thursday. The other two games – #10 Brandon at #7 Manitoba and #9 Victoria at #8 Saskatchewan – will both be played on Friday night. The four play-in winners will be reseeded and will advance to face the four bye recipients in the quarterfinals including #1 Alberta, #2 Calgary, #3 UBC, and #4 Lethbridge. If the Cougars win, they'll travel to Lethbridge next weekend regardless of what happens in the other three play-in games. Thompson Rivers is in a similar situation, knowing that they'll be the lowest remaining seed if they defeat Regina on Thursday and will play top-seeded Alberta in the quarterfinals.