Huge Opening Weekend… Rankings… Injury Report

This is going to be a very exciting weekend here at UPEI! As you all know, we tip off regular season play here at home this Friday and Saturday, both games at 8:00pm, against a much improved X team. What you may not know is… there is going to be a party! During Friday's game, our school, in conjunction with some of our great friends at Courtside Sneakers and Capital Honda, are pitching in for a number of great events! For example, the first 500 paid fans will receive a free Game Day T-shirt… also, someone in attendance is going to have a chance to win a three year lease on a brand new Honda Civic! Immediately following Friday's tilt, there will be a "Meet & Greet" with Panther players from multiple teams, and the huge conclusion to the evening… a brief concert in the Molson Corral with the Island's own Paper Lions band! Also Friday, prior to the girls game, there is a reception for some of our Athletic Department donors and athletes! Not to be outdone, our Saturday line up includes the 10 FOR 10 draw at halftime of our game for a cool $10,000! As you can see, a huge weekend for the Panther Faithful here at UPEI!

I have been asked a lot of questions over the past day or so about some unflattering rankings that have come out from our own AUS and CAN.hoops. Both of these sites have us slotted into sixth place in our conference for the 2016-17 season. I think these types of thing are fun and great for our league, and generate a lot of excitement around our sport! If I remember correctly, preseason rankings last year had us fourth or fifth in our league, and we ended up losing by two in the Championship game, after finishing second in league play. We have finished no lower than third in the AUS in regular season play over the past five years, with an overall record of 64-36 over that period… good for first overall during that time. I am sure hoping that we get back to that Championship game in March, and achieve a much better result for the Panthers!

Aside from Lorenzo Parker and Jake Kendrick being out until second semester, it certainly looks like we will be without the services of Vishal Banipal (recovering from illness) and Logan MacDonald (lower back injury) as well for this weekend.

GO PANTHERS GO!