March madness: Kodiak basketball teams off to ACAC championships this weekend

By Lethbridge Herald on March 5, 2026.

Nathan Reiter

Lethbridge Herald

It’s the most wonderful time of year for collegiate basketball.

While the NCAA’s March Madness tournament doesn’t start until the end of the month, the ACAC versions will be in full swing this weekend.

Both Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiak basketball teams qualified for the ACAC basketball championships, which begin tonight. The men will be hosted in Lloydminster by the Lakeland College Rustlers while the women are in Caronport, Sask. with the tournament being hosted by Briercrest. 

The Kodiak men finished second in the ACAC south division with a 15-6 regular season record. Lethbridge will draw the NAIT Ooks in the quarterfinal on Thursday night. NAIT finished third in the north division with a 13-7 record.

Kodiak head coach Ryan Heggie says the matchup is extremely similar on paper.

“Looking at both rosters, we actually play a fairly similar style. Both play fast, both defend well, and both move the ball well along with depth on both sides. NAIT can go nine, 10, 11 deep and I feel we can as well. It’s almost like a mirror matchup.”

The Kodiaks were built off of their defence this season. Lethbridge allowed the second least amount of points in the south division, only behind the undefeated SAIT Trojans who are ranked first in the country. Lethbridge allowed 1579 points across 21 games, an average of about 75 points per game. 

Heggie says the Kodiaks will need to take care of business on their own end of the floor if they are to have success this weekend.

“We’re going to have to continue with what we feel is our calling card. Our aggressive defensive play, whether we’re pressing in the full court, the half court or picking up at a half and just playing aggressive man to man or zone defense. On the flip side, get our best guys the ball and share it as well.”

Lethbridge had a practice in Lloydminster Wednesday afternoon ahead of the tournament getting underway. Heggie says the Kodiaks are chomping at the bit to get the tournament started.

“The guys are energized, the guys are excited and it’s so hard to get here. I’m proud of them because it’s grinding through the league to get 12, 13 or 14 wins to get here. Fortunately, we got 15 this year. It’s not easy so I think once you get here anybody’s got a shot. There’s SAIT, the number one ranked team in the country and then after that there’s a lot of balance there.”

On the women’s side, Lethbridge finished with an 11-10 record, good enough for fourth place in the ACAC south division.

Lethbridge will matchup with The King’s University Eagles in the quarterfinal. TKU finished with a 17-3 record at the top of the ACAC north division.

Despite the matchup seeming like David vs Goliath, Kodiak head coach Ken McMurray says he’s confident in his team going into the tournament. 

“I think if there’s any time for an upset that it would be this one. We played them the very first (weekend) of the year and we were tied at the half with them. I just feel like we’re a way different team than we were back then. We’ve really improved and hopefully they take us a little bit for granted or just hang with them and see what we can do in the end.”

During the month of February, the Kodiaks put together a 4-2 record with a sweep of Olds College along with splits with both Medicine Hat and Red Deer. Lethbridge pulled off a pair of narrow wins in that stretch including a six point win against Medicine Hat and defeating Red Deer by four.

“I think we are playing our best basketball at the right time of the year.” McMurray said about the Kodiaks’ play down the stretch. “Our chemistry is really good. They are genuinely happy for their teammates when they do well. They really don’t care who gets the praise or who scores or whatever. They’re playing really good team basketball right now. They like each other and they like playing with each other and so that’s a good chemistry thing.”

All season long, the Kodiaks have built an identity on a high tempo style of play to keep their opponents off guard. McMurray says Lethbridge will need to manage the ball well to have success.

“The main thing is we have to rebound the basketball and try to keep our turnovers under 20. When we do that, when we out rebound our opponents and keep our turnovers down. We’ve come out on top. In most cases when we get outrebounded and we turn it over a lot, we end up losing because turnovers are possessions for the other team.”