NCAA basketball fever coming to Lethbridge with 2024 Western Slam Event

The 2023 Atlantic Slam takes place from November 16 to 19 in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Jeff Dunlap is the Director of Competition and Tournament Director for Slam events. He hopes the 2024 event in southern Alberta can be a setup for similar events in the region for years to come.

Dunlap said, “We have been talking since 2021 about the first one being in Atlantic Canada. As soon as it started to take hold there and we were a year out, we started saying, ‘okay, we gotta do the west side’.”

It has yet to be announced what NCAA teams will be competing at the Lethbridge competition, however, Dunlap explained why organizers decided on having four teams participate.

He said, “They chose four teams rather than eight because the NCAA limits the number of games each team plays at a multi-team event. So, they had to chose between doing a round-robin with four teams, or a bracket with eight teams.”

Dunlap added, “They wanted to give everyone a chance to play each other. They are open to changing the format under certain circumstances, for instance, if the coaches say they would rather participate in a bracket-formatted tournament.”

The Western Slam Event will see two games played per day over the course of three days, with the contests taking place at the ENMAX Centre. It will showcase the skills of NCAA Division 1 players, while providing a family-friendly entertainment experience.

Dunlap said, “We’ll do various things at halftime, give them a chance to go out on the court and play around. We’re just going to give back to the love of the game. It’s really all for the love of the game.”

He hopes having an event like this in southern Alberta will inspire more Canadians to become involved in the sport of basketball.

“When you are sitting there on the sidelines and you get to watch how fast the athletes are, how skilled they are, hopefully [that] will motivate more and more Canadians to hone their skills.”

Dunlap continued, “I think we are seeing a lot of that now anyway. Grassroots Canada, certainly indicated by the number of Canadians playing in the NBA today, you’re seeing more and more that are starting to dribble that ball earlier [in their life].”

Lethbridge mayor Blaine Hyggen, meanwhile, said having an event like this in the city will provide a big boost for the entire community.

He cited the success of sporting events like the Montana’s Brier (then Tim Hortons) Canadian men’s curling championship in 2022 as an example of what sports can do to bring people together.

On the November 2024 basketball event, Hyggen stated, “Without a doubt, it’ll be sold out.”

The mayor said, “Get tickets as soon as they come out because you will not have the opportunity to get them if you wait.”

The Western Slam Event will be in Lethbridge November 28 to 30, 2024.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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by Justin Goulet

NCAA basketball fever coming to Lethbridge with 2024 Western Slam Event

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