Queen's Gaels head coach Stephan Barrie says his team feels it has been overlooked and has received too low a seeding for the U Sports men's basketball Final 8.
The Ontario University Athletics (OUA) finalists enter the tournament as the No. 7 seed after losing to top-seeded Ottawa 95-87 in the conference title game on Saturday. Queen's was 16-6 during the regular season before defeating Carleton and Ontario Tech en route to the title game.
"We feel like we got ranked too low in that capacity," Barrie said. "We feel like we're better than that. We feel like ... we've been overlooked for most of the year in some capacity because again, with so many new faces and people didn't really expect much from us.
"But we had an expectation and we had a belief and that belief has only grown. ... We definitely feel like we have something to prove here."
The Gaels open the tournament against the No. 2 Calgary Dinos on Thursday in Vancouver.
The No. 1 Ottawa Gee-Gees will face the No. 8 Concordia Stingers, the No. 3 and host UBC Thunderbirds take on the No. 6 UPEI Panthers and the No. 4 Victoria Vikes go head up against the No. 5 Bishop's Gaiters.
Queen's made the national title game last season but lost to Laval, with the Rouge Et Or pulling off a Cinderella story as the eighth seed that only made it into the Final 8 due to their status as hosts.
However, the Gaels lost a handful of top players, including Cole Syllas, Connor Kelly, Fofo Adetogun and Michael Kelvin II and have had to rely on newer faces and returnees who didn't get as many minutes last season.
Barrie said adjustments were necessary with new players stepping into bigger roles, including "talented freshmen," but he remains confident in his team's talent and play, which gives him belief in their chances of winning it all.
"We have some tremendously talented individuals who are just really wonderful players, but also like really competitive guys," Barrie said. "I mean, Luka Syllas as sort of the returning fifth-year guy, being an all-Canadian in the past, having just a fearlessness about him really helps our team get into a place where we can go out and compete and believe because his belief is so strong.
"And then Ollie Engen as a freshman has played well beyond his years and he's playing out there like a fourth-year player. So those two have really given the group confidence and then the rest of the guys have all chipped in."
Engen finished fifth in the OUA with 18.8 points per game and had a team-high 28 points in the OUA title game. Not only was he named OUA rookie of the year, he was also honoured as a first-team all-star. Syllas, meanwhile, made the second team averaging 17.4 points per contest.
"I've always had very high expectations of myself and the way I've played this season is the way that I know I'm capable of," Engen said. "In terms of expectations, I knew that there was, you know, big roles to fill in terms of guys leaving.
"I definitely had the confidence in myself to be able to come in and I think the coaches did too, for me to be able to come in and really contribute to winning from the start."
As a Kingston, Ont., native, Engen relishes the opportunity to bring Queen's its first-ever national title.
"That's the goal that you set out at the start of the season. That's the goal that every hour that has been put into this game is for," Engen said.
"To be able to have that goal pan out after all that work, and to be able to bring a championship back home to Kingston, be able to give Steph and (lead assistant coach) John (Curcio) a national championship, you know, that would mean everything."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2025.
Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press
