Dinos fans have just under two weeks to get their chants, signs, face paint and jerseys ready as they host a national audience for the first time this millennium.

University of Calgary athletic and management prep is firing on all cylinders as the school gets ready to host the USports Men’s Final 8 Tournament for the first time in 46 years.

Between March 6-8, the Jack Simpson Gymnasium will be the hub of Canadian college basketball, as eight top teams compete for the 2026 National Championship in a win-or-go-home style. As the host team, the Dinos are the only team who have qualified for the tournament as of Feb. 21.

Ben Matchett, UCalgary’s Athletic Director, anticipates a strong home-court advantage for the Scarlet and Gold.

“Familiarity is really important for athletes, the opportunity for them to be in a place where they’re comfortable, where they know every inch of the floor and how the ball bounces off the rim and all that kind of stuff is part of it,” he said.

“But also the crowd and the atmosphere, and having so many people there in your corner, cheering for you, is a good sign for our athletes. Having home-court advantage is a key piece of why we look at hosting these types of events and we hope that the campus and the community of Calgary are excited to come out and cheer hard for our Dinos.”

Not only will March mark the first time the school has hosted the Final 8 since 1980, it also falls at the midway point of the school’s 60th anniversary. Matchett said, though not specifically planned, hosting the tournament during an anniversary year definitely worked out well.

“We have bid for this event a few times over the years, and it wasn’t like we were waiting for the 60th anniversary to show up. But when this was the cycle, it certainly was a part of our bid, knowing that we’d have this additional opportunity to celebrate 60 years of autonomy for the University of Calgary,” he said.

“As well, it is the 60-year anniversary of hosting that event (in 1966) and our team winning a national silver medal, which was the best performance (the formerly named) University of Alberta at Calgary team had put up to that point.”

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It’s an exciting time for Dinos staff and players, Matchett told LWC, to be able to showcase their work on a national stage and to finally get to tip-off.

“For our athletes, all season long they’ve had this Friday night in March circled on their calendar because they know that they’re going to be playing in that game at six o’clock Friday night,” he said.

“At the end of the day, it’s fun, sport is fun, and it’s something that we all get into because we love sport. We love what sport means as part of an educational journey, and we’re seeing that with the (Milano-Cortina) Olympics right now, the ability for sport to bring people together in a way that very few other things in the world can do, and we hope we can capture a little bit of that on our campus.”

Between the tournament or hosting the Toronto Raptors 2025 training camp earlier this school year, the future of basketball in Calgary is bright, Matchett said. Arash Madani, a national broadcaster who is scheduled to work the upcoming event, couldn’t agree more with Matchett’s sentiment.

“Landing a final eight, having a national championship in southern Alberta is a big deal; having the Raptors come to the University of Calgary is a massive deal. This is also a sign of what and where Canada is and that basketball has just exploded across the country,” Madani told LWC.

“You look at the NBA right now, the country with the most representation, after the United States, is Canada. It is amazing to see how quickly it has all happened, but it’s not by accident.”

Calgary has always been a hotbed of basketball, Madani said, but as it continues to grow, it’s only a matter of time before the city plays host to a Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) World Cup or Olympic qualifier game.

“Right now, all of Canada is taking notice. Now, let’s let the world realize what’s happening in the city. This is just continuing momentum for the sport and where it can go from here, the sky’s the limit.”

Expect a high-quality broadcast experience 

For students who may be swamped in school work, tuning into Dinos games online may not be so bad. After a call with the main producing company for this year’s Final 8, Madani walked away elated. Between precise camera angles and top-tier broadcasters and sideline reporters, fans can expect the best, he said.

Whether in person or online, viewers are in for consistent oohs and ahhs.  

“You will be blown away at the level of basketball, absolutely. I’ve often said that USports, football, basketball, hockey, is one of Canada’s best kept secrets when it comes to the level of competition and just how good these people are,” Madani, who has covered some-10 USports Final 8 tournaments, said.

“One of the neat things I remember as a young kid is going to games. There’s a there’s a larger than life aspect to this, especially if you’re an aspiring hooper yourself, if you’re 10-13-years-old, and you’re seeing a 21-year-old absolutely bawling out those can be your heroes, that can be what you aspire to be, that’s really cool, too.”

After the tournament wraps up, Dinos faithful won’t have to wait long before hosting again, if all goes to plan.

“I certainly hope it’s not 46 years between hosting now and the next time. That’d be 2072, that’s a long way away, and I probably won’t be doing this then,” Matchett joked.

“But getting it here was an important thing for us to do, we want to showcase Calgary as a basketball city and we definitely want to be back in the rotation where this event comes back to Calgary every five to 10 years. I hope that the legacy of this is that this is the first of several, not just a blip or a one off.”

Just before the tournament’s March 6 tip-off, UCalgary students are invited to the Dinos’ 60th anniversary fan fest, Matchett said.